33-year old Nigeria makes history as first black CEO of P.F Chang’s

Meet Damola Adamolekun, the CEO of P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, a popular Asian casual-dining restaurant chain based in the U.S. Since 2020, he has been leading the company to ensure its continued growth and success.

Damola, who is now 33-years old, has been essential in the evolution of P.F. Chang’s, one of the largest and most famous restaurant chains across the globe. Even though the brand is still strong, he believed that it is necessary to embrace change to adapt to the uncertain future.

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As P.F. Chang’s CEO, Damola worked on revamping the dining rooms and revising the menu items. He also initiated the inclusion of delivery and to-go orders which was viewed as unfitting to the brand before. Now the chain operates a number of small fast-casual-type of locations around the country.

True enough, the business survived even when the pandemic hit. What’s more, he led the company to a 31.7% increase in sales in 2021 compared to the year before, according to Top 500 chain data from Restaurant Business sister firm, Technomic.

Moreover, Damola is a partner at Paulson & Co., which became one of the principal owners of P.F. Chang’s which was bought for $700 million in 2019.

He was also on the board of directors at the International Tower Hill Mines LLC. Adamolekun earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brown University and his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.