Mike Bailey, the British catering executive who played a major role building Compass Group's U.S. division, has returned here to form a new holding company he aims to grow to $500 million in the next five years.

Who says you can't go home again?

It's been nearly two years since Michael Bailey, the former CEO of UK-based Compass Group plc, resigned from that company after stock analysts and investors pummeled its stock when profit performance did not meet expectations for several quarters in a row. In the management shuffle that followed, Bailey disappeared from view.

Lost sight of by many was that he had been a chief architect of Compass' expansion into the U.S. marketplace. In a half dozen years and more than a dozen U.S. acquisitions, he helped turn what was once a regional player in the U.K. into the third largest foodservice management company worldwide by 1993. By 2005 Compass had vaulted into the number one position.

Bailey has a long history as a business builder who began his career on the bottom rung. At 16, he started as a “commis” (apprentice) chef attending culinary school, eventually landing a position with Peter Merchant, Ltd. at its Ford account. Peter Merchant merged with John Gardner to become a division of Trusthouse Forte plc. Meanwhile, Bailey moved up the ladder, transferring to New York in 1984 to manage Trusthouse Forte Foodservices, Inc., growing the business from $40 million to about $250 million before returning to the U.K. to run the parent company in 1990. Eventually, Gardner Merchant was acquired by Sodexo.

In retrospect, Bailey recalls that the years in the U.S. left him “Americanized,” and he returned to this country, joining Compass Group, then looking to expand, in a business development position. In 1994 he was instrumental in helping the U.K. firm acquire the U.S.-based Canteen Corp., the basis on which Compass built its U.S. managed service empire over the next decade.

Bailey remained under the radar until last month, when he announced the formation, with San Francisco-based Gryphon Investors, of a new foodservice holding company — TrustHouse Services Group — and the acquisition of three regional U.S. management companies. At the same time, he has relocated from his home in Switzerland to new offices in Charlotte, NC.

FM conducted this exclusive interview with Bailey to learn more about his new business venture and its longer-term objectives.

What brings you back to the U.S., and what is the goal you have in starting the new company?

BAILEY: “After I retired, I took a year off and lived in Switzerland. I purposefully did nothing for a time, but got bored. The question was: if you want to do something, where do you go to do it? The answer was clearly here, in the U.S..