[ad_1]
Once friends, now enemies, while Steve Ritchie and John Schnatter fight over Papa John's control
Louisville Courier Journal
X(Photo: x)
Papa John's development director, Tim O 'Hern, one of the oldest executives in the troubled international pizza chain, will retire immediately.
The revelation on Thursday morning follows a catastrophic period at the Louisville-based pizza maker and at a time when Papa John's founder John Schnatter ripped up the leaders for stirring trouble in the chain.
Reached home, O & Hern refused to say why he was gone and if he had been treated fairly. "I'm not going to say anything about it," said O. Hern.
The company's Papa John officials have notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that O & # 39; Hern had said on Wednesday to the board of directors that he intended to retire immediately . Joseph Smith, Chief Financial Officer, will oversee the development of global sales. Another leader, Jack Swaysland, the chief operating officer of international operations, will oversee these operations. The two men will report directly to General Manager Steve Ritchie.
The last: With Papa John's on the bench, Pizza Hut hopes to score in the NFL sponsorship
Read it: Schnatter sues Papa John's "to stop irreparable damage" to the company
Mr. O. Hern, who has worked for Papa John's since 1995, was part of a small circle that led the company to become the third largest pizza chain in the world and valued $ 1 billion in valuation. .
But a crisis ravaged the company in early July, after Forbes magazine reported that Schnatter had used the word N in a media training session, causing rapid and massive fallout.
Once with funds that propelled him to the billionaire club, Schnatter was forced to resign as president of the company and several organizations, including the University of Louisville, where he was a director, gave up sponsorship agreements and quickly moved away from the company.
Same store sales, the best measure of sector performance, fell. Papa John's shares fell to half their price by more than $ 80 a share in August, after executives reduced their forecast spending and planned between $ 30 and $ 50 million to rethink the company, fund a massive cultural audit and repair the company's badly damaged image with franchisees, employees and customers.
Related: Rick Pitino describes John Schnatter in his memoirs
See also: The board of directors of Papa John says that Schnatter "hurts the company, does not help it"
The role played by O. Hern in the turnaround is unclear, but he was identified as a trusted friend of Schnatter and somebody who was part of a toxic "bro" culture where the women were subject to sexually explicit remarks, according to a follow-up article published by Forbes in late July.
Ritchie is currently conducting a listening tour in at least nine cities to meet with franchisees, business leaders and employees as part of its planned transformation. But the controversy continued to turn as Schnatter launched a website and issued statements insisting that the board was ready to restore it as CEO and tell employees that it was the solution to rebuild l & # 39; company.
O & Hern is co-owner of nine franchises in Wisconsin. This role will remain unchanged, the company told the SEC.
This story will be updated.
Buy a photo
Buy a photo
Buy a photo
Buy a photo
Buy a photo
Buy a photo
Automatic reading
Thumbnails poster
Show captions
Last slide next
Grace Schneider: 502-582-4082; [email protected]; Twitter: @gesinfk. Journalist Andrew Wolfson contributed. Support a strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/graces
Read or share this story: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/money/companies/2018/09/06/papa-johns-top-executive-tim-ohern-heading-exits/1210183002/
Source link
