Julia Stewart

#75/100 in #100extraordinarywomen 

Julia A. Stewart is an American businesswoman and was the chairman and CEO of the restaurant company formerly known as IHOP. DineEquity, America's largest casual dining company, had acquired and integrated Applebee’s International in 2008 and has since transitioned to a franchise model. 

Julia Stewart knows chain restaurants inside-out: She started as a food server (waitress) at an IHOP in San Diego. She loved the feedback every day and the family atmosphere. She worked her way through college in food service and continued there. After 18 years in marketing, she went into operations at Taco Bell and worked her way up and became head of all operations and licensing for Taco Bell. Applebee’s made her an offer she couldn’t refuse so she became president of Applebee’s. The promise was, turn it around and Applebee’s would make her the CEO. After about three and a-half years, she walked into the CEO’s office and he said, ‘No.’ So she became CEO of IHOP. Julia then proceeded to engineer a takeover of Applebee’s in 2007 (taking on $2.3 billion in debt to do so) and said goodbye to that man noting that there wasn’t a need for two CEOs. The company, later re-christened and publicly traded as DineEquity, had more than 3,600 Applebee’s and IHOP restaurants, almost all of them run by franchisees, with revenue of $669 million in 2015-16. She is often asked whether revenge tasted sweet, but she explains, “look, you don’t borrow $2.3 billion for revenge. You do it because you think you can add value.” 

Julia was born on August 4, 1955 in Visalia, a small city in an agricultural part of California, a very down-to-earth community. Her dad taught high school civics and U.S. history, and throughout her life she learned from his example—from how he approached his students. He wanted Julia to grow up and become a teacher too. He was convinced that teaching was the noblest profession and was livid and mortified when she decided to go into the restaurant business instead. But Julia insists that although she is known in business circles as a great mentor to her employees, she has actually inherited or rather learned that trait from her father. 

She applied her learning in all her areas, even in building up a workforce that treats both it’s customers as well as employees with respect. She followed a simple strategy and she wouldn’t hire a candidate for a senior position until she had gone out to dinner together with the person and had watched him or her interact with the food server. She believed that the ones who act friendly and seem genuinely interested in others have the capacity to become great teachers and coaches. The rude ones don’t—and they didn’t get hired. 

On the morning of Friday, February 17, 2017, Julia Stewart resigned from her position as Chief Executive Officer with DineEquity. During Julia’s 16+ years as CEO, she had a major impact on the company’s success, creating significant shareholder and franchisee value. Julia believes it is a privilege to lead and an imperative to give back. She is a founding member of the Women’s Foodservice Forum (WFF), a vital hospitality industry organization dedicated to the development and advancement of women; recipient of numerous awards including one of Forbes magazine 50 Most Powerful Women; serves on the Board of Directors for Avery Dennison since 2003 and is a Board Member for the Children’s Bureau of Southern California. 

Source: Google and Wikipedia.