John Schnatter

John Hampton "Papa John" Schnatter (born November 22 or 23, 1961) is an American entrepreneur who founded the Papa John's pizza restaurant chain in 1984.

Schnatter started the business in the back of his father's tavern after selling his car and using the proceeds to purchase used restaurant equipment.

Schnatter was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana, in 1961, to Mary and Robert Schnatter.

His mother was a real estate agent and his father was a judge in Jeffersonville.

He has German ancestry.

Schnatter sold his 1971 Z28 Camaro to purchase $1,600 worth of used pizza equipment and began selling pizzas to the tavern's customers.

His pizzas proved sufficiently popular that a year later he moved into an adjoining space.

He graduated from Jeffersonville High School in 1980 and received a business degree from Ball State University in 1983.

In the 1980s, Robert Schnatter co-owned Mick's Lounge, a Jeffersonville tavern.

Schnatter founded Papa John's Pizza in 1984, when he converted a broom closet in the back of his father's tavern.

Schnatter moved his company to Louisville, Kentucky, in the late 1990s.

The company went public in 1993.

A year later it had 500 stores, and by 1997 it had opened 1,500 stores.

In early 2005, Schnatter stepped down as president and CEO of Papa John's, but remained chairman of the board.

He returned as CEO in 2008 and briefly had a co-CEO in 2010.

In 2009, Schnatter reacquired the Camaro after offering a reward of $250,000 for it.

As of 2017, his net worth was more than $1 billion.

In October 2017, in a conference call with investors, Schnatter blamed the National Football League for poor financial performance, saying, "The NFL has hurt us ... We are disappointed the NFL and its leadership did not resolve this", referring to the U.S. national anthem protests by football players.

Papa John's Pizza had a marketing agreement to be the NFL's "official pizza company" and also had marketing deals with 23 of its 32 teams, and Schnatter said the protests were hurting the company's sales.

Later that day, Papa John's announced that the NFL shield or "official sponsor" designation on Papa John's commercials and advertising would be removed.

On December 21, 2017, Schnatter announced that he would step down as CEO of Papa John's amid controversy over his comments.

Schnatter stepped down as CEO on January 1, 2018, after controversy around his comments that the National Football League (NFL), who had a business affiliation with Papa John's, had not done enough to stop national anthem protests by NFL players, and that the protests had hurt his business.

Before he stepped down, his comments had resulted in the NFL cancelling its association with Papa John's.

After stepping down as CEO, Schnatter remained chairman of the board of directors until July 2018, when it was revealed that, during an internal sensitivity-training May 2018 conference call, he claimed without evidence that Colonel Sanders had used the word "nigger" without backlash.

Schnatter resigned when the comment became public, but has since maintained that the board conspired against him and unfairly forced him out of his position.

He was replaced as Chief Executive Officer by Chief Operating Officer Steve Richie, effective January 1, 2018.

The company said Schnatter would still appear in the chain's commercials and on its pizza boxes, and was the company's biggest shareholder with approximately 9.5 million shares.

He remained chairman of the company's board of directors at the time.

In July 2018, Schnatter participated in an internal training conference call with marketing consultants in which there was a role-playing exercise to help Schnatter avoid making remarks that could cause public controversy and damage the company's reputation.

During the conference call, Schnatter said, "Colonel Sanders called blacks niggers and Sanders never faced public outcry".

After the call, the marketing agency's owner moved to end its contract with Papa John's. Schnatter resigned as chairman of the board the same day the incident was reported.

Later that day, he also stepped down from the University of Louisville board of trustees.

On July 26, 2018, Schnatter filed a lawsuit in Delaware against Papa John's Pizza to give him access to the company's books and records; the company did not allow him to access its business records after he resigned in the wake of the teleconference call scandal.

He described the company's procedures as an "unexplained and heavy-handed way" to cut ties between him and the company.

In addition to preventing him from accessing information, the corporation also implemented a "poison pill" strategy to limit Schnatter's chances of buying back a majority stake in the company.

Schnatter also filed a lawsuit against the company in Kentucky in a dispute over property ownership.

In January 2019, a judge ordered the company to give Schnatter access to its records relating to his ouster.

A settlement of the lawsuits was announced on March 5, 2019.

Under the agreement, the company agreed to share all of its records with Schnatter and to remove a part of its "poison pill" plan that restricted his communication with other shareholders, and Schnatter agreed that he would not seek to stay on the company's board of directors after his term expired on April 30, 2019, and that if a mutually agreeable independent director was chosen to replace him, he would step down before the end of his term.

Schnatter retained the right to sue if the records show wrongdoing by the company.