Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/James Bodenstedt


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. There's no consensus to delete, and no matter how many times it's relisted at this point, there's no realistic chance of consensus emerging. Nick (talk) 14:20, 4 July 2020 (UTC)

James Bodenstedt

 * – ( View AfD View log  Stats )

He's been recently covered for a single event. I don't think he quite meets the requirement, possibly MUY! does though. Jerod Lycett (talk) 22:05, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Businesspeople-related deletion discussions. Jerod Lycett (talk) 22:05, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Texas-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 22:17, 4 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Food and drink-related deletion discussions.  CAPTAIN RAJU (T) 22:17, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

 Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Delete he is a local level owner of a few franchised restuarants with news level coverage, nothing at all of note.John Pack Lambert (talk) 15:20, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Keep, as you might expect from the article creator. It's hard to find too much coverage in privately owned companies, but revenue of $600+million and the largest Wendys franchisee reflect the size of the company. The guy has been invited to the White House and has been profiled in a few places. Yes, it's a borderline case. tedder (talk) 16:47, 7 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Weak keep - a week ago this would have been a delete, but he's notable for his Trump campaign donations and the negative effect it is having on the Wendy's Corporation as a whole. This would be a regular keep if I could find any decent profiles of him that aren't about the donations or owning Muy. TimTempleton (talk)  (cont)  20:32, 9 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I am in agreement there on that. If there was coverage of more than just the one event I wouldn't have AfD'd it. As is though I think it fails. Jerod Lycett (talk) 08:33, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, North America1000 04:31, 11 June 2020 (UTC)  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Weak delete: Seems to have gotten some coverage for one event but little more. A businessperson is generally considered notable if they are the head of large corporations, something that a ~600 million franchise isn't. Agree that it's borderline, but the coverage seems to be more about MUY! then Bodenstedt himself. Just owning a corporation and donating money to Trump doesn't make a person notable without in-depth and lasting coverage to back it up. Eddie891 Talk Work 15:09, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  Sandstein   10:28, 18 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Delete: Not enough biographical coverage out there to meet WP:BLP. I'd have said merge with MUY! except, for whatever reason, that article does not exist. &mdash; Cheers, Steelpillow (Talk) 11:09, 19 June 2020 (UTC)

Keep per the significant coverage in multiple independent reliable sources.  </li> <li></li> <li><li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> <li></li> </ol>

<ol> <li> The article notes: "Though Jim Bodenstedt runs several Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Long John Silver’s restaurants today, he can still quote from the McDonald’s training manual he learned as a teenager. From an early age, he knew he wanted to own a restaurant company. At 15, he was accepted into McDonald’s management training program. By 17, he was a general manager. He read every manual he could find about running a restaurant and becoming a franchisee — and the self-teaching contributed to some of the material still stuck in his head. He further demonstrated his quick learning skills and innovation at the University of Texas at San Antonio. After he tested out of as many courses as he could to complete his master’s in accountancy degree in record time, the College of Business instituted the “Bodenstedt rule” to limit future students from testing out of graduate courses."</li> <li> The article notes: "After completing a deal with his former boss to buy his 31 Pizza Huts, plus purchasing an additional 77 units in Houston from the franchisor - bringing his total number of YUM! units to 226 with eight more under construction - Jim Bodenstedt and his team did what any executives would do with a quickly expanding company: They moved their restaurant support center to smaller quarters. ... Bodenstedt is on efficiencies like a dog on a bone. Saving money, time, effort and headaches is Jim Bodenstedt’s calling in life. ... Bodenstedt has always been an enterprising go-getter, and has attracted like-minded people to him.  He was born in southern Michigan, but moved to Texas when he was 4. “I tell everyone, I got here as soon as I could,” he says. He borrowed money to go to college, worked and graduated in 23 months. “I was planning to go to law school, so I needed to do it (college and law school) in five years,” he says of his financial timeline. It didn’t make sense at the time to go further into debt, when what he wanted was to make money and help other people get ahead in life. One of his first jobs was at McDonald’s and he was the youngest person at that time to attend Hamburger U. ... Bodenstedt and his wife, Cathy, believe education is important. Cathy just finished her college degree - and bought the Cap-Rock Winery near Lubbock. The couple donated $1 million in scholarships to their alma mater, University of Texas at San Antonio, to help fund the start of a football team. It’s not because he’s a football fan, Bodenstedt admits, but because a strong athletic program ultimately beefs up the arts, business and engineering programs. The gift was the largest in the school’s history."</li> <li> The article notes: "The Bodenstedts both graduated from UTSA. Today, the couple owns 117 Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wing Street, A&W and Long John Silver’s franchise restaurants. As a result of the donation, UTSA will name the Student Athletic Academic Center the James and Catherine Bodenstedt Athletic Learning Center later this year. The facility is a dedicated study and tutoring center for UTSA’s more than 250 athletes."</li> <li> The article notes: "University of Texas at San Antonio officials announced Jan. 19 that Jim Bodenstedt, a graduate of UTSA’s College of Business (1996) and a local restaurant franchise owner, and his wife, Cathy Bodenstedt, a current undergraduate, are the first to award a million-dollar donation to support the upcoming UTSA football program. ... The Bodenstedt’s, who met in high school in the 1980’s, own a 117-unit franchise restaurant company known as MUY Brands LLC. It has acquired popular chains such as Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Wing Street, Long John Silver’s and A&W restaurants. The company owns and operates locations in Texas and New Mexico."</li> <li> The article notes: "The winery most recently filed for bankruptcy last July, and her husband Jim came across the auction listing when he was looking up contact information for someone with the CapRock investment group that he had previously met. ... Bodenstedt and her husband have lived in San Antonio since 1988 and founded Muy Brands in 2003. The company has acquired more than 200 A&W, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell franchises throughout Texas. Her husband bid on the winery and bowed out at $4.5 million. The winning bid of $6.5 million came from Laurent Gruet, of Gruet Winery that produces sparkling wine in New Mexico. ... The couple had to separate some assets to comply with the Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission's licensing, so Cathy owns the winery and Jim owns Muy Brands."</li> <li> The article notes: "James Bodenstedt, CEO of Muy Cos., which operates Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and Taco Bell is under fire for donating funds to the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump. The recorded donations have been made over a two-year period starting in 2019. As of March 2020, large donations that accumulated would equal to approximately $200,000 from the Muy Cos. to President Trump’s re-election campaign (Trump Victory). ... [discussion of Trump's holding of a roundtable meeting at The White House with restaurant executives on May 18, 2020] Mr. Bodenstedt attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of the employees that work at his 765 restaurants across the U.S. He indicated that each restaurant has approximately 27 employees. Bodenstedt spoke of the needs of his employees and their families and the importance of how people treat one another; treating everyone that enters into the restaurants like family."</li> <li> The article notes: "James Bodenstedt is the CEO of MUY! Companies, which owns Wendy's, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut franchises across the country. ... According to Federal Election Commission records, Bodenstedt has donated more than $400,000 to the Trump re-election campaign since January 2019, $200,000 of which was given on March 12, days before restaurants began to shut down in response to COVID-19 in the U.S."</li> <li> The article notes: "When he was 16, Bodenstedt carried a briefcase to school instead of a backpack. Between classes, he’d rush to a payphone to call his stockbroker about the newest stock to buy or sell with $2,000 he had inherited from his great-grandparents.“I was the biggest geek in the world,” he laughs, recalling his teen years. ... He already knew he wanted to someday own or run a large restaurant. So he got a job at McDonald’s, and by 18 was managing a Houston store. ... Over the next decade he worked at McDonald’s and Taco Bell. He helped develop some of the 15 Alfonso’s/ChaCho’s restaurants in San Antonio at the time. Then he decided he wanted a law degree. He walked away from a $60,000 salary and for 23 months approached his undergraduate education at UTSA like he did business, working 80 hours a week. He also tested out of classes through the College Level Examination Program."</li> <li> The article notes: "James Bodenstedt Alumnus Backs Business and Athletics When NCAA football began at UTSA, James Bodenstedt ’96 made the first million-dollar commitment to support athletic scholarships. Owner of MUY Brands LLC, a franchise restaurant company, Bodenstedt, a UTSA alumnus with a degree in accounting, is also the donor behind the $1 million Bodenstedt Chair for the Dean of Business. “I wanted to give back to the business school where I graduated, and I wanted to help Dean Gerry Sanders to grow programs and to better develop the College of Business,” he told UTSA Giving."</li> </ol>

There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources to allow James Bodenstedt to pass Notability, which requires "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". Cunard (talk) 10:04, 25 June 2020 (UTC)</li></ul>
 * Notability (people) says: "If the depth of coverage in any given source is not substantial, then multiple independent sources may be combined to demonstrate notability; trivial coverage of a subject by secondary sources may not be sufficient to establish notability." There is sufficient coverage in reliable sources after combining all these sources. In 2010, James Bodenstedt donated $1 million to the University of Texas at San Antonio to create the Bodenstedt Chair for the Dean of Business. He also received significant coverage in 2010 and 2011 in the Smart Business Network and Franchise Times, respectively. This predates the coverage of his 2020 Trump campaign donations and White House visit, so WP:BLP1E does not apply. Cunard (talk) 10:04, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * While I appreciate your effort to find sourcing, I'd argue that the feature in Smart Business Network isn't indicative of notability, given that they say they focus on "helping the owners and managers of smaller [and later mid-sized] companies survive and prosper" and they focus on "deepen[ing] our value proposition for clients (about page). If you then read the article, it's clearly not neutral, ending with contact information for the company and has phrases like "From an early age, he knew he wanted to own a restaurant company" and "recognized the entrepreneurial spirit it took". It's basically a puff piece. Franchise Times is overall decent.


 * Sourcing about him donating $1 million to the college he graduated from doesn't indicate notability, particularly given that it only got covered in a local business journal (and business journals are known for publishing very promotional pieces) and a school newspaper and magazine.


 * Not only is the San Antonio Express News relatively local, the article is about his wife, not him. The rest of coverage is about him donating money to Trump, which makes him exactly a BLP1E. If there was coverage of his donations suggesting they were in any way special, it would be different. NPERSON says " multiple independent sources may be combined to demonstrate notability; trivial coverage of a subject by secondary sources may not be sufficient to establish notability." Here we have multiple non-independent sources (the University of Texas at San Antonio publications and likely Smart Business Network), a semi-decent feature in Franchise Times, passing mentions in relatively local publications and then the one event where he gave money to Trump. That's not enough to push him over the line of notability. This is a case where trivial mentions are not sufficient to establish notability. Best, Eddie891 Talk Work 13:02, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * The Franchise Times article is a detailed profile of the subject. The Canyon News article discusses his political activities. These two sources meet the Notability requirement for "significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject". WP:BLP1E does not apply because the Franchise Times article published in 2011 is about his business career and is not about his donating money to Trump in 2020. The other sources are of lesser detail but contribute to notability per Notability (people) saying that sources can be combined to establish notability. Cunard (talk) 08:49, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

<div class="xfd_relist" style="border-top: 1px solid #AAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAA; padding: 0px 25px;"> Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus. Relisting comment: Given the late inclusion of potential sources relisting for a third time in the hopes that consensus can form around whether he's notable or BLP1E.

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Barkeep49 (talk) 03:20, 27 June 2020 (UTC) <div class="xfd_relist" style="border-top: 1px solid #AAA; border-bottom: 1px solid #AAA; padding: 0px 25px;"> Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus. Relisting comment: No further discussion has taken place on the sources despite yet another relisting so time to move on, I reckoned, but then somebody complained so here you have it, another relist...

Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, RandomCanadian (talk / contribs) 13:51, 4 July 2020 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. <b style="color:red">Please do not modify it.</b> Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.