Papa John's Enters Into National Partnership with DoorDash

Papa John’s International, Inc. has announced the appointment of Todd Penegor as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. 

Penegor has also joined the Company’s Board of Directors. 

He succeeds Ravi Thanawala, who has served as Interim CEO since March 2024 and will continue in his role as Chief Financial Officer.

Penegor, most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of The Wendy’s Company, is a proven leader with 20 years of experience in the restaurant and consumer goods industries. During his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer of Wendy’s, the company achieved substantial growth in sales, earnings and new restaurant counts, including the expansion of Wendy’s footprint to more than 7,000 restaurants worldwide and the 12th consecutive year of same-restaurant sales growth, among other achievements. 

“Todd’s appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer successfully concludes an extensive search to identify a proven leader who has the experience, skills and vision to achieve the full potential of the Papa Johns brand and accelerate growth,” said Christopher Coleman, Chair of the Papa Johns Board of Directors. 

“I am honored to serve as Chief Executive Officer of Papa Johns and work with the Board, our dedicated team members and franchisees to usher in the Company’s next chapter,” said Penegor. 

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting, and a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Michigan State University.
 

Papa John's International Inc has promoted Kurt Milburn to Chief Supply Chain Officer, succeeding Shane Hutchins, who will retire after 26 years at Papa Johns, where he served as Chief Supply Chain Officer since October 2018. 

Hutchins will continue to work with Papa Johns as a consultant on special projects and to ensure a smooth transition.

Milburn joined Papa Johns in 2022 as Vice President of Supply Chain Operations and since that time has taken on additional responsibility to include engineering and operations support functions as well as the International Supply Chain organization. 

Prior to Papa Johns, Milburn served as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Operations at Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. He also held engineering and supply chain management positions at General Electric and General Motors.

“I’m thrilled for Kurt to become our next Chief Supply Chain Officer, as he brings deep expertise in supply chain and engineering from large, complex organizations and strong knowledge of our organization having led Papa Johns Food Service operations over the last two years. I look forward to his leadership as we continue to evolve our supply chain to meet the demands of our growing business,” said interim CEO Ravi Thanawala. “On behalf of the entire Papa Johns team, I would like to thank Shane for leading us through some of our biggest supply chain transformations and look forward to continuing to leverage his experience in other capacities.”

In the role of Chief Supply Chain Officer, Milburn will lead Papa Johns Food Service (PJFS), which oversees the Company’s Quality Control Center Operations, Supplier Management and Quality Assurance.

He will report to interim CEO Ravi Thanawala and will serve on the Papa Johns executive leadership team.

Papa Johns International Inc. has announced Amanda Clark, COO for international, will leave the company on March 1 to take a position as CEO at another company in the franchise industry.

Clark joined the brand in Feb. 2020 as its CDO. Her responsibilities expanded to include leading the Papa Johns international business in May 2022 and was appointed COO, International in September 2023. Under her leadership, the brand delivered more than 700 net new units and signed the two largest development deals in company history.

"We have created a culture at Papa Johns where we cultivate top talent and help them achieve their full potential. We wish Amanda much success in her new role," Rob Lynch, president and CEO, said in the press release. 

"We have a strong international leadership team in place and talent within that organization who will continue to deliver on our business priorities while we conduct a comprehensive search that will evaluate both internal and external candidates for the next international leader. The team is focused on executing the international transformation initiatives we recently announced as part of our Back to Better 2.0 plan, including establishing our international regional business hubs, accelerating consumer-facing technology enhancements and optimizing the UK market for long-term profitability and strength,” he added.

A search is underway for Clark's replacement.

Papa Johns operates more than 5,900 restaurants in 50 countries and territories.

According to Flurry, users spend 90% of their time on apps, rather than the mobile web. Further, as BI Intelligence pointed out in its 2015 survey, on an average, a user downloads 8 apps on his phone, every month. These trends clearly indicate that the world is moving to apps to declutter their brand interface.

There is great news for all those who hate ordering on the phone, are tired of wrongly delivered pizzas and are constantly on-the-go.

Papa Johns', one of the world's renowned pizza brands, recently launched its brand-new app. So now having pizza anytime and anywhere is just a touch on the app away.

The app launch is just a step further in the direction of serving the pizza lovers better and faster.

With the app, users can order pizza no matter where they are – commuting, during a meeting or in the midst of a fun get-together. All one needs are a phone and the Papa Johns' app, to answer those hunger pangs.

Mr. Sandeep Singh, CEO, Papa John's India, said, “Our well-designed and robust app helps users to save time and makes the ordering process simpler. We have made the app available on both, Android as well as iOS, to cater to our customers who are spread across these platforms. The diversion of traffic to the app is great news for everyone – the app users who now have a simpler process, the outlet staff that has fewer on-phone orders and for customers who do not have the time to call in or visit our outlet to place an order. We remain committed to our core values of better ingredients, better pizza. The app is amongst our many steps to ensure our customers are always delighted. The response is phenomenal and we are hoping to build on the app in the future, to provide a more seamless brand experience.”

The app is available to users in all cities across India i.e. Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. Its availability across Android and iOS is a great benefit, ensuring users across the two most popular operating systems can benefit from it.