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Millennial Managerial Magic

Writer's picture: Evan WhitfieldEvan Whitfield

When most people think of a CEO the image that comes to mind is most likely someone older with more experience than half of the company. Most of the time this would be a reasonable choice since running a company typically you would like someone with a vast range of knowledge. But what if hiring a 35-year-old to run some of the largest restaurant chains in the country was the right idea?


For P.F. Changs and Red Lobster that might just be the case. Damola Adamolekun was born in Nigeria and moved to the U.S. when he was nine. Damola had always been special. When he was 16 he won $10,000 from a speech competition and used those funds to start his stock portfolio. He then went on to attend Brown University where he also played football, after which he graduated from Harvard Business School.


Already with an impressive background, Adamolekun kept his ambitions alive, and in February 2019 at 30 years old he became the CEO of P.F. Chang’s. While this is a very impressive feat Damola still had a lot of work to do. After Adamolekun eventually left P.F. Chang’s after five years, but as a result of his leadership the restaurant chain brings in an estimated 1 billion dollars a year.


Damola had successfully brought back P.F. Chang’s from the brink, and now it was time for a new challenge. The CEO left P.F. Chang’s in December of 2023 and made a relatively similar change of scenery. Just last month in September Adamolekun became the new CEO of Red Lobster, another restaurant chain. However, this challenge does not prove to be any easier than the last. The new CEO walked in the door with 1 billion dollars in debt and only less than 30 million in cash on hand. Damola has wasted no time on overhauling the business. He has already identified that the 20-dollar endless shrimp is a huge problem saying that it will not be returning. The 35-year-old CEO has a very simple take on correcting the course of the business. Keep it simple. Damola Adamolekun is nothing short of special, from high school speeches to running national restaurant chains he is proving that it does not matter where you are from or how old you are, but one thing does matter: results. 


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