Darden Restaurants on Wednesday announced the appointment of Salli Setta as president of Red Lobster.
In addition, Darden has named Dave Pickens chief restaurant operations officer for Darden. He will lead the operations leadership team and ensure the successful implementation of various strategic operations initiatives.
The appointments are effective on 15 July.
Setta joined Red Lobster in 2005 as executive VP of marketing. Under her leadership, Red Lobster has made extensive culinary changes and created and launched the “Sea Food Differently” ad campaign. She joined Darden in 1990 as a sales promotion assistant at Olive Garden and held various positions during her 150year tenure with the brand.
Pickens has spent more than 40 years with Darden. He began as a Red Lobster crew member in 1973, became a management trainee and progressed through various operations roles with increasing responsibility culminating in his role as a division senior VP. He joined Olive Garden in 1995 as senior VP of operations for the Orlando division. He was promoted to Olive Garden's executive VP of operations in 1999 and then to president in 2004, a position he held until rejoining Red Lobster in 2011 as president.
“These appointments round out a series of moves we've made since January that place new leaders in our most senior roles. There are important new consumer and competitive dynamics in our industry, and these leaders have the right skills and experience to address these dynamics,” said Clarence Otis, Darden CEO and chairman. “We will continue to look for unique opportunities to deploy our deep talent bench to develop our people and meet the ever changing needs of our business.”
