Franchisee Focus: Peter Terracina (Chicago)
Peter Terracina has always been more of a hands-on, in-person learner. While he graduated from TCU with a degree in Mass Communication and Public Relations, he’ll tell you some of the most important education of his early 20s was spent right after graduation, when he and a friend embarked on an 8-month trip outside the United States, paid for with money he had earned from rental income in college.
The trip began in Vietnam, then continued into Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia before a further flight south to Australia. From Melbourne he picked up an auto transportation gig and was free to drive a van from Victoria all the way up to Cairns, in Queensland. From there he went on to Sicily, and then Northern Italy where he joined his family for the final leg of his trip before returning stateside.
Upon his return, Peter worked for one of his brothers, Vince, who has a promotional products company, for about a year before the desire to learn through travel caught ahold of him again and he left – this time for Rwanda.
His first six months were spent working for an organization called Bridge2Rwanda, which takes the top 30-40 high school graduates in the entire country, and puts them into an intense program to get them ready to apply to top American universities and win scholarships. Peter gained a deep appreciation for the culture, terrain, and history of East Africa. Whether you’re interested in the history of the genocide that was popularized in the film Hotel Rwanda, or active volcanoes of this wild country, Peter can educate you.
The entrepreneurial bug runs in the family (his brother Paul is opening a Gents Place in Austin soon) and being in Africa didn’t slow him down. Peter managed a pig farm that was very successful (which he ended up selling) and also did a lot of trading, as the part of Rwanda he lived in was close to both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As time wore on, however, Peter felt a pull to return back home, and he wound down his business and personal life in Rwanda and returned to the United States in July 2016.
He learned about The Gents Place opportunity via his family, and relished the chance not only to be on the ground level of a truly industry-defining business, but to also take some time to put down roots in a special city for him. Chicago has both family and personal connections and he is really looking forward to sharing that elevating experience of The Gents Place with the men in the Chicago area.
The first Gents Place in Chicago is set to open in January 2018.