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bd’s mongolian barbeque
Ferndale, MI National Cornerstone Humanitarian Winner:
Billy “bd” Downs
This year’s Cornerstone Humanitarian winner, Billy “bd” Downs, could have been content with expanding his popular bd’s mongolian barbeque franchise into nearly 50 destinations across the United States. But Downs had a bigger vision—one that would bring American hospitality to Mongolia and help create change for a country in dire need of help.
When Mongolia opened up to visitors afterthefall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, it became clear to Downs that his company needed a stronger connection to Mongolia, where more than a third of citizens live in poverty. So Downs set out to bring his successful American-franchised restaurant, bd’s, right to Mongolia.
The undertaking was monumental. Downs took five trips to Mongolia prior to opening bd’s, learning about the country’s economy and culture and trying to make sense of the new democratic government’s struggle to regain power from a long-established communist regime. After meeting a young entrepreneur in Mongolia who convinced him that traditional Mongolian-style cooking would be welcomed in the country, Downs was inspired to do whatever it took to open the first bd’s outside the United States—and the first American-franchised restaurant—in Mongolia.
Under Downs’s leadership, bd’s raised and then donated $250,000 to assist in the purchase of a building for the restaurant in Ulaanbaatar. Downs worked with his staff and new employees in Mongolia to design the restaurant’s layout, develop its menu and train students on the importance of food safety and preparation. bd’s also collected cooking utensils, glasses and other items needed to run the restaurant and shipped them overseas to the Mongolian location.
bd’s in Ulaanbaatar opened on May 12, 2005, serving real Mongolian barbeque based on the ancient Mongolian warriors’ way of cooking. The new restaurant has helped provide the community in this impoverished nation with hope, jobs, funds for Mongolian youth programs and the delicious food made famous by their ancestors. bd’s didn’t stop at opening a restaurant in Mongolia. The company also established a management-exchange program to train Mongolians in the United States, with seven managers successfully completing training so far and eight bd’s managers from the U.S. working in Mongolia over the past year. In addition to reinvestment and growth in the bd’s brand in Mongolia, profits from the venture are shared with the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation to help provide social, educational, cultural and physical activities to Mongolia’s impoverished youth. bd’s anticipates that $25,000 annually will be given to the Mongolian Youth Development Foundation. Planning for new bd’s locations in Mongolia and in Russia are already under way.
“bd’s has made a great connection in Mongolia, helped in a very unique way and truly made a huge difference,” says Downs. “We are all humbled and proud to have been given this opportunity.”
“Billy Downs’s humanitarian spirit knows no boundaries. He not only works tirelessly to make his own community stronger, but his reach extends all the way around the world to help those who need a lift up. The people of Michigan are better for it, as are the people of Mongolia.” - — Rob Gifford, president & CEO, Michigan Restaurant Association

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