WIth the bearing of a former college football player and the polish of a private equity dealmaker, Damola Adamolekun commands the attention of a room before he says a word.
The Red Lobster CEO—at 36, the youngest chief executive in the fast casual chain’s nearly six-decade history—has the swagger of a man who has already won a battle, which in one sense he has. During his three-year tenure as CEO of P.F. Chang’s, he guided the company through the chaos of COVID shutdowns and returned the chain to profitability. But an even bigger war lies ahead: fixing Red Lobster, a beloved but troubled dining franchise emerging from a painful bankruptcy.
The job might seem like a poisoned chalice: high risk, thin margin for error, and enormous public scrutiny. But for Adamolekun, the sheer scale of the task is what drew him to the role he started a year ago, he tells Fortune. “This can be the greatest comeback in the history of the restaurant industry,” he says. “To lead that would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The problems that led to Red Lobster’s bankruptcy last year are not simple ones to solve. The chain posted a $76 million net loss in fiscal year 2023 (with $2 billion in revenue) as guest traffic plunged by double digits. Years of strategic stumbles and extractive private equity tactics had hollowed out the company and left it burdened with above-market leases on the 687 restaurants it owned at the time. The brand’s reputation had been further damaged by cost cutting that eroded food quality, and a notoriously ill-conceived “endless shrimp” promotion.
Meanwhile, consumer tastes shifted toward sleeker chains like Chipotle, Panera, and Sweetgreen that promise fresh food at lower prices and faster speeds—and toward app-based delivery platforms. Red Lobster’s cavernous coastal-themed dining rooms, designed for a different era of sit-down family meals, sat half empty.
By the time Adamolekun was named CEO, skeptics openly questioned whether the chain had any future at all. In the weeks leading up to his appointment, Adamolekun secretly toured restaurants, noting shabby interiors, understaffed kitchens, and outdated technology.
Adamolekun’s résumé helps explain why he was eager to lead a company in such doldrums. He cut his teeth in investment banking and private equity, with roles at Goldman Sachs and TPG, where he learned to see distressed companies as opportunities for analytics-led turnarounds. And at 31, he jumped from dealmaker to operator, pulling off just such a turnaround at P.F. Chang’s. “It was a battle,” he recalls. “You jumped into the middle of a war.” That trial by fire gave him practice making hard calls under pressure, an experience he believes will be useful as Red Lobster navigates the far more complex task of stabilizing hundreds of restaurants and winning back disillusioned diners.
His first year at the helm of the seafood chain has been, in Adamolekun’s words, “a whirlwind.”
But before stepping into the trenches at Red Lobster, Adamolekun spent time diagnosing its problems with Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm that was a key investor in the consortium that acquired it out of Chapter 11 in 2024. That diligence gave him a running start, but it also showed him just how dispirited the workforce had become. “Morale was very low,” he says. “People [were] beat down.” In his first address to staff, he pledged that Red Lobster would pull off a revival unlike anything the restaurant business had witnessed in years. It was a rallying cry, but also a calculated bet that the brand still carried equity worth salvaging.
Culturally, Red Lobster boasts a rich and layered history. Founded in 1968 as a “harbor for seafood lovers,” the Florida-born concept positioned itself as an intentionally inclusive establishment, at a time when many Southern restaurants remained segregated—which earned it an enduring place in Black American food culture.
“They want to be good at their jobs, and it’s easier to be good if you know what’s expected of you.”
For all his finance-world swagger, Adamolekun is careful not to treat the business like an abstract asset on a spreadsheet. He spends time in restaurants, listening to guests, absorbing feedback, and weighing the tension between reinvention and tradition. As CEO, Adamolekun has developed some unshakable convictions: Cheddar Bay Biscuits are untouchable. Lobster and crab remain nonnegotiable. Newer offerings must thread the needle of drawing in next-gen patrons without alienating loyalists. “It’s part art, part science,” Adamolekun says.
The son of Nigerian immigrants, both doctors, who grew up in Europe and Maryland, Adamolekun points to his roots in high school debate and college football as critical training grounds for his business career. “Communication is the most important skill you can learn that will help you across everything,” he says.
That belief underpins his approach to winning trust among a weary workforce. Capability and authenticity, he argues, matter most. “People tend to trust people who are good at things,” Adamolekun explains. “And honest, authentic communication is helpful for building trust. Standing up in front of people, taking questions, laying out a plan—that helps.”
At P.F. Chang’s, Adamolekun championed a “people first culture.” At Red Lobster, the mantra is “red carpet hospitality.” The principle is the same: Invest in employees, so they want to invest in the guest experience. Competitive pay is one obvious piece, but Adamolekun says the real differentiator is providing clarity and growth.
“It’s about trying to make the proposition of working at Red Lobster better than the proposition of working anywhere else,” he says. “Fundamentally, people want certainty. They want to be good at their jobs, and it’s easier to be good if you know what’s expected of you.”
Speed is another hallmark of Adamolekun’s turnaround strategy: “When you’re in a distressed situation,” he says, “you can’t waste months trying to figure out what to do.” His decisiveness was on display following the June launch of Red Lobster’s seafood boils. The Southern-inspired feasts of shellfish, corn, potatoes, and sausage drew online content creators and reviewers—who came with high expectations. Their verdict: The product was pretty good, but needed more flavor options and heat.
Adamolekun knew he couldn’t wait to respond. Otherwise, he explains, “you’re going to lose that guest and never have the chance to get them back.” Within a week, his team scrambled to adjust recipes and seasoning options, a breakneck timeline for a 544-restaurant chain. The boils turned out to be wildly popular. “So many people showed up that we ran out of product,” he says. “We had to send refrigerated trucks to cities with crab, sausage, and corn.”
These are “good problems,” Adamolekun says, but such early victories are the easy part. The big challenges ahead—remodeling hundreds of dated restaurants, smoothing out the supply chain, and strengthening the balance sheet—will matter far more than any viral menu item. And the ultimate crucible is cultural: persuading diners to fall back in love with Red Lobster.
Another successful revival this early in Adamolekun’s career could open almost any door. For now, though, he says his focus is singular: “Save Red Lobster. That’s enough.”
A version of this story appears in the October/November 2025 issue of Fortune with the headline “How Red Lobster’s 36-year-old CEO plans to deliver the boldest restaurant comeback in history.”