ORLANDO, Fla., March 26 -- Darden Restaurants
(NYSE: DRI - news), owner and operator of the Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama
Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar casual dining restaurant brands, today
announced some key promotions and a restructuring of its senior management
team.
Brad Blum, 48, President of Olive Garden, and Dick Rivera, 55, President
of Red Lobster, are being promoted to Vice Chairmen of Darden Restaurants,
reporting to CEO Joe Lee.
Also reporting to Lee is Clarence Otis, 45, Senior
Vice President/Chief Financial Officer for Darden, who is being promoted to
Executive Vice President/Chief Financial Officer.
Drew Madsen, 45, Executive
Vice President of Marketing for Olive Garden, is being promoted to President
of the leading Italian casual dining company, reporting to Blum; and Edna
Morris, 50, Executive Vice President for Red Lobster, is being promoted to
President of the casual dining seafood leader, reporting to Rivera.
These promotions, which will be effective April 1, will change the
reporting structure for Darden's senior management team:
In addition to Madsen, also reporting to Blum will be:
Bob Mock, President, Smokey Bones
Barry Moullet, Sr. VP, Purchasing, Distribution & Food Safety
In addition to Morris, also reporting to Rivera will be:
Gary Heckel, President, Bahama Breeze
Laurie Burns, Sr. VP, Development
Reporting to Otis will be:
Stoddard Crane, VP, Business Growth & Acquisition
Linda Dimopoulos, Sr. VP/Chief Information Officer
Bob Faisant, VP, Taxes
Steve Helsel, Sr. VP/Controller
Jim Ingersoll, VP, Internal Audit
Bill White, VP/Treasurer
Continuing to report to Lee will be:
Blaine Sweatt, President, New Business Development, Darden Restaurants
Dan Lyons, Sr. VP, Human Resources, Darden Restaurants
Paula Shives, Sr. VP/General Counsel, Darden Restaurants
Rick Walsh, Sr. VP, Corporate Relations, Darden Restaurants
"We are very excited about these significant organizational changes," said
Lee. "We have the very best leadership and management teams in casual dining.
The timing for this is right because Olive Garden and Red Lobster are
performing very well with positive momentum, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones
are off to a strong start and we are even more focused on additional expansion
opportunities in casual dining, both through internal development and
acquisition.
"These changes allow us to leverage the skills of our diverse team of
strong leaders and build an even stronger, broader platform that maximizes the
already dynamic teamwork we have across the organization," Lee added. "Our
objective is to build a fully integrated operating company that achieves
consistent, outstanding long-term growth."
Darden Restaurants, Inc., in Orlando, FL, is the world's largest casual
dining operator and currently owns and operates 1,194 Red Lobster, Olive
Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ Sports Bar restaurants in North
America.
Forward-looking statements in this news release, if any, are made under
the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Certain important factors could cause results to differ materially from
those anticipated by the forward-looking statements, including the impact of
changing economic or business conditions, the impact of competition, the
availability of favorable credit and trade terms, the impact of changes in the
cost or availability of food and real estate, government regulation,
construction costs, weather conditions and other factors discussed from time
to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange
Commission.