He said he saw those traits in Cushing, as well as a strong competitive spirit and generous nature. So he put Cushing in touch with Roger Peters at Terratron Inc., a company that owned fast-food restaurants and small shopping centers.

"At that time, I was the head of a retirement bureau, and we made a lot of investments with Terratron," Taylor said. "So what I would do every year was handpick people who could go to work for Terratron who had special expertise or qualities about them or were gifted in one way or the other."

Cushing took the opportunity and ran with it, learning all he could while working various areas of the business. But when the early 1980s brought a downturn in the national economy, he decided to go back to school for his MBA.

He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1982, and while his classmates accepted offers from big corporations, Cushing decided to go back to Terratron. It was an unusual move, he said, but he wanted the breadth of experience that a smaller business could provide.

"It was a great blessing for me," Cushing said. "Our owner . . . was a great visionary and businessman."

A few years later, Cushing said, Terratron officials learned of some Utah restaurants that had been converted to the Hardee's brand. The owners were struggling, so Terratron came in, restructured deals with lenders and started running the restaurants.

Terratron's entry into the Utah market meant Cushing and his young family had to move here, too. They arrived in 1984.

"When you grew up in the Midwest like I did, Salt Lake City seems a long way away," he said.

But he and his family soon became active in the community, supporting causes like Special Olympics, and Utah became home.

"For me and Jill and our kids, it was probably the most positive experience our family had," Cushing said.

As his family enjoyed life in Utah, Cushing was helping Terratron grow from a small company with seven restaurants to one that ran 80.

In 1994, Cushing decided he was ready for a new challenge in a different industry. His attention was drawn by AlphaGraphics, a printing and communications company that focuses on small and mid-size businesses.

AlphaGraphics had a good reputation as a vendor for Terratron, Cushing said, and he knew a franchise owner in Salt Lake City. That owner put Cushing in touch with other owners and members of the corporate staff at the company's headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.

"I was very impressed by the backgrounds these people had," Cushing said. "They could have done anything with the next stage of their careers," and they chose AlphaGraphics.