About

OnTrend Concepts is an organization that excels at sharing information and providing connections to help our customers to stay informed about the latest trends, challenges and opportunities in their industry, while simultaneously providing access to many of the leaders, influencers, and decision-makers in that industry.

Founder Peter Cook recognized the need for a dedicated information sharing forum tailored to business leader needs in these quickly changing sectors. OnTrend Concept’s mission is to address these needs by providing thoughtful events and information for industry executives, investors, and supplier partners. The format, topics, and speakers at our events are carefully selected to advance this mission. Beyond OnTrend Concept’s live gatherings, our weekly news digests are must-reads for professionals working in those sectors. 

Meet the Team

Pete Cook

Peter Cook

President & Publisher

Prior to spending 10+ years in newsletter publishing and event management, Pete spent over twenty years at Commercial Assessments, US Inspect, and their predecessor companies. As their top business development executive, Pete led Commercial Assessments from start-up to a multi-million dollar organization in just a few years, identifying and growing new service lines. Pete’s particular focus was on multi-site projects in retail, restaurant, multi-family, and hospitality.  Commercial Assessments provided national site surveys, as-built surveys, asset tagging services, property condition assessments, Phase 1 Environmental Site Assessments, photo surveys, ADA surveys, Fair Housing Act accessibility surveys, and other solutions to national retailers and their suppliers, including companies like Brinker International, McDonalds, Texas Land & Cattle, TGIF, CraftWorks, Einstein Bagel, Target, Luxottica, Rent-A-Center, TJX, Jo-Ann’s, Hobby Lobby, Kohl’s, Chase, Citibank, 7-11, Lend Lease, Publix, and many others.

Pete received the Director of the Year award in 2010 and 2012. Prior to this, Pete led U.S. Inspect’s national expansion program as Director of Acquisitions, acquiring dozens of inspection, environmental, and engineering firms in markets throughout the US.  Over the course of his career, Pete has served on various committees and been an active member of numerous professional associations (ICSC, PRSM, RFMA, NMHC, SISO, MBA, SHRM, etc.). Pete currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Midwest Highland Cattle Association.

Pete is a graduate of the University of Dallas, where he played on the men’s basketball and soccer teams and served in Student Government.  Pete is former Vice President of the University of Dallas National Alumni Board.  He lives on a farm near South Bend, Indiana with his wife and their eight children. When not planning conferences, chasing kids, reading, or renovating their 100+ year old farmhouse, Pete tries to stay in shape by coaching and playing basketball. Pete and his family raise pork and grass-fed Highland beef on their farm. He is also active in his parish and several charitable organizations.

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Matt Cook

Matt Cook

Director of Operations

Matt has been fortunate over the years to work with many great teammates in a few different industries. Matt earned both his masters from the University of Dallas, but passionately believes that wisdom comes from experience and learning from those who have valuable experience.

Working at U.S. Inspect for eleven years, Matt went from serving as an analyst and eventually transitioned into managing operations. Experiences ranged from developing operation analytics, to budgeting, to acquisition due diligence, to managing field operations. Matt then spent the next two years managing a national network of residential inspectors for NVMS and four years operating his own due diligence firm focused on residential properties and commercial operations.

Matt followed that experience by joining a beverage bottling company to analyze operations and financials. This, in time, transitioned to managing operations. Under new ownership the company started over as Southwest Spirits, a spirits bottling company. During his tenure, the company grew from small start-up to a company producing multiple multi-million-dollar brands. Matt served the spirits company first as the Business Operations Manager and later became the Director of Operations.

After ten years in the bottling industry, Matt joined OnTrend Concepts as the Director of Operations. He is enjoying learning about the ghost kitchen industry and putting together conferences to help companies in the restaurant and spirits space grow and enhance their businesses.

A native of New England, Matt and his wife currently live in Dallas where they have been very blessed with seven great kids.

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Nick Cook

Nick Cook

VP of Business Development

Prior to joining the team at OnTrend, Nick worked his way through a wide variety of roles in the spirits industry at Southwest Spirits. Known as the office jack-of-all-trades, he worked in financial analytics, ERP implementation, distilling & blending, sales analytics, compliance, supply-chain analytics, inventory, and makes-the-coffee-way-too-strong breakroom barista. His efforts led to launching and transitioning into a new ERP system, achieving record-breaking production numbers, slashing product quality costs, and integrating product portfolio into their national distributor’s systems.

Nick is a graduate of Texas A&M University where he studied supply-chain management and volunteered with different organizations mentoring and teaching middle school students. He also holds certificates from Moonshine University in Fermentation and Distillation. He lives outside Dallas, Texas with his wife and first kiddo (due March ’22). When he’s not connecting people for a living, he is living by connecting with people.

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