About Norman Pearce
Norman Pearce was raised on a farm in Sonoma County, as one of seven children. He has traveled extensively through Latin America, South America, North America, Central Europe, and in 1972, spent a year living and working on a kibbutz in Israel.
Norman graduated from San Mateo College with a degree in broadcast engineering, worked for a number of years in television, and earned an Emmy for the PBS production Rainbow's End.
In 1981 with a partner Norman created, planned, launched and operationalized the first stand-alone, public access interactive information retrieval system in the world (a predecessor to the Internet).
It was way too early for that business so in 1984, Norman left the fun of TV production, and travel and began a career in the Food & Beverage Industry.
As the original owner, operator and designer of the Pier 40 Roastery & Café, on the Embarcadero in San Francisco, Norman was responsible for the rehabilitation and transformation of the property into a landmark destination for the public. He was also the General Manager of the Union Street Roastery and the San Francisco Shopping Center Coffee Roastery.
He was the managing partner participating in the startup of the 6th Street Grille in Carmel, CA, an upscale restaurant/café in the heart of town. As part of the original startup team for Pasqua Coffee Bars of San Francisco, Mr. Pearce was the Director of Espresso Cart Operations & Catering. Norman also consulted for Adventure Cat sailing charters, the Marin County Farmers' Market, and Landmark Coffee, where he brought to his clients a varied background, with expertise that included the development of business plans, proforma P&Ls, operating manuals, personnel guidelines and marketing plans.