Steve Ritchie has become a sort of rockstar in the pizza industry after being a part of the team at Papa John’s for decades and working his way up through the popular pizza company until he eventually was able to land the position of Chief Executive Officer in the early part of January 2018. In addition to being the CEO of the pizza brand, Steve Ritchie is also serving as the company’s President and has been doing so since 2015 when he was promoted to the position of Senior Vice President. Before be obtained the role of CEO, Steve Ritchie had been in the role of Chief Operating Officer.
While Steve Ritchie may be known for the executive positions that he has held with the company, many people don’t realize that he has been with the company since he began in 1996 as an hourly customer service representative. Through hard work and a talent for leading the pizza industry, he has come a long way from the $6 an hour that he had started making with Papa John’s when he first began. When Steve Ritchie was named President of Papa John’s in 2015, his name was put into the succession plans for the position of Chief Executive Officer.
Pizza is important to the businessman who has stated that it is his life. There are around 120,000 employees of Papa John’s and as their CEO, Steve Ritchie knows that he is responsible for their success as well as the success of the company. As someone who has worked customer service, delivery, and more, he knows what it’s like at almost every level of the company which has influenced him to consider the best interest and opinions of team members at every level of the company. He knows that without the people, the brand would never have achieved what it has over the years.
The most important ingredient of the pizza from Papa John’s are the members of its team and Steve Ritchie and the rest of the executive team at the pizza company have been spotlighting them and their achievements. Each location has become part of their local communities and this is a responsibility that he finds to be exceptionally important. Recently, he and other executives made important trips around the United States to see different locations in person and find out what their team and customers had to say about the company. While listening to some of the negatives may not have been very easy for him to do, he knew that it was an essential part of helping the company grow.
In the position that Steve Ritchie took, he will be working to facilitate the marketing of the brand along with developing the brand on a global level. He is wanting to revolutionize the customer experience digitally as well as in-person to help encourage brand loyalty towards Papa John’s. While the role that Steve Ritchie took may include a lot of responsibility, he feels as if he is ready and willing to take it on and put the needed work into it. Steve Ritchie has dedicated himself to the company and their success and wants the company to be able to give their many customers the experience and the food that they deserve. There are around 5,000 stores throughout the world and he knows that the future leaders of the company may be on the road delivering fresh pizzas or putting them into the oven right now. He truly believes in the potential for growth that members of the team at Papa John’s have and he encourages them to reach for success. Find out more about Steve Ritchie Papa John’s: https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/papa-johns-ceo-just-apologized-to-customers-twice-his-second-letter-shows-smart-leadership.html