Damola Adamolekun rose to popularity after becoming Red Lobster’s youngest CEO in August 2024, helping the restaurant chain recover from Chapter 11 bankruptcy and building a cult following of fans during the process.
But Red Lobster isn’t his first CEO job. Adamolekun was appointed chief executive of P.F. Chang’s in April 2020, shortly following the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Though he followed up an older, more seasoned executive — eight-time CEO John Antioco — Adamolekun says he never let that stop him from getting his job done.
“In anything you do, you need to recognize your strengths and your weaknesses,” the 36-year-old told the “How Leaders Lead with David Novak” podcast in a December 11 episode. “I have a lot of strengths but, in this situation, experience is clearly a weakness, right? There’s people who’ve done it for 20 years and I had not.”
“You can’t be a perfect candidate for anything,” Adamolekun continued. “There’s always going to be some area where you’re weaker. So, for me, it’s about recognizing that and accentuating your strengths and shoring up your weaknesses.”
In his case, Adamolekun had years of experience with the restaurant industry from a financial standpoint. He was a partner at investment firm Paulson & Co., leading the acquisition of P.F. Chang’s in 2019 in a $700 million deal, a private equity associate at TPG Capital and an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs prior to taking the restaurants’ helm. He was also Antioco’s chief strategy officer for a year, establishing P.F. Chang’s self-delivery business before the pandemic hit.
