Red Lobster struggled last year and made headlines after it filed for bankruptcy, blaming at least in part on a poorly thought-out endless shrimp deal. It happens to the best of us. Naturally, the fast-casual seafood restaurant chain was looking for a new CEO.
Damola Adamolekun, 35, has been chosen for the difficult task of turning around Red Lobster. Adamolekun, formerly CEO of Asian fusion chain PF Chang’s, has already had some time as a prodigy among executives. He certainly didn’t get to where he is now by pretending to be cool, as he said Assets in 2023. His career mentality revolves around one thing only.
“My life is my work. My work is my life,” he said. Adamolekun described his days like this: He would start at about 4:30 a.m. with a 7- to 12-kilometer run and end at about 6 p.m. with a cigar after a long day of meetings.
At the age of 33, Adamolekun was already making history as one of the few black CEOs to head a major US company and the first to head PF Chang. When he joined the company two years earlier, he admitted Assets that he had a lot to do at the beginning.
“I grew up next door to a PF Chang’s in Columbia, Maryland. I knew the company when the deck landed on my desk. It has about an 85% brand name, even though it’s a small company. What caught my interest was the company itself. It was poorly managed and there was a lot to improve,” he said.
In return, he “redesigned about 80% of the fleet and introduced more colorful decor, atmosphere and music.” Adamolekun, a member of Generation Y, also led the company into the digital age, paying particular attention to digital tools for take-out, restaurants for pickup orders and a subscription model.
His fast-casual stints are framed by the financial world, as after about three years at PF Chang’s, Adamolekun returned to investment firm Paulson & Co. Inc. in August 2023. After previous stints at Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital, Adamolekun described a past in which he “worked all the time,” even though he claimed he enjoyed it.
“I thought it was fun. So I didn’t necessarily have to go on a Saturday,” said Adamolekun, embracing the hustle culture mentality sometimes associated with young millennials. “It was like I had something to do and I wanted to get it done or I wanted to see something.”
For Adamolekun, the statement that Jack is a boring boy because he’s all work and no play isn’t really true. “I’ve never really been a person who separates work and personal life,” he says. “It all gets mixed up.” However, he acknowledges that this isn’t the case for everyone and that those who are stressed by a lack of work-life balance should take breaks. Or, in the case of his former co-workers, they should “build in buffers” and take a Tuesday or Wednesday off when the restaurants are less busy.
The fact that Adamolekun is a self-confessed doer is perhaps even better, because he has his hands full.
After the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings are completed, Red Lobster will be owned by Fortress Investment Group and co-investors TCW Private Credit and Blue Torch. Fortress, which nominated Adamolekun, will learn whether its plan is approved during Red Lobster’s bankruptcy hearing in early September.
However, Adamolekun is unlikely to feel nervous before the first day. As he once said Assets“the work doesn’t stress (him).”
