Each week tens of
thousands of diners eat at an Olive Garden or
Red Lobster restaurant. Few of these diners know
that the CEO heading these large restaurant
chains is a black man.
Clarence Otis Jr. Is the
CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., the largest
casual dining operator in the nation. The firm
operates nearly 1,400 company-owned restaurants
coast to coast serving 300 million meals
annually. Darden employs 150,000 workers and has
annual revenues of $6 billion.
Born in Vicksburg ,
Mississippi , Otis moved to Los Angles when he
was 6 years old. His father was a high school
dropout who worked as a janitor. The family
lived in Watts at the time of the 1965 riots. In
the post-Watts period, Otis recalls being
stopped and questioned by police several times a
year because of the color of his skin.
A high school guidance counselor recommended him for a scholarship
at Williams College , The highly
selective liberal arts institution in
Massachusetts . Otis graduated Phi Beta Kappa
from Williams and went on to earn a law degree
at Stanford. Otis landed on Wall
Street as a merger and acquisitions attorney for
J. P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden
Restaurants in 1995 as corporate treasurer. He
became CEO in 2004.
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