Clarence otis jr. biography
Clarence Otis Jr.
American businessman
Clarence Otis Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born | () 11 April (age&#;68) |
| Occupation(s) | CEO, Darden Restaurants |
Clarence Otis Jr. (born April 11, , in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States) is an American businessman and former CEO and chairman of Darden Restaurants.
Otis was named the 11th most powerful person in Central Florida by the Orlando Sentinel in [1]
Early life
Otis was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on April 11, , to Clarence Otis, a janitor and Calanthus Hall Otis, a homemaker.
He moved with his family to Los Angeles where he grew up in Watts, at the height of the civil unrest of the s.[2]
Education
He gained a scholarship into Williams College in Massachusetts, where he majored in Economics and Political Science.
He graduated magna cum laude in , receiving the school's Political Science writing prize and Phi Beta Kappa recognition in his senior year.
In the s African Americans remained rare as chief executives of "Fortune " companies—the largest companies in the United States. When Clarence Otis Jr. He reached his high-level post not only through skills and hard work but also through versatility: his career led him through law, investment banking, corporate finance, and operations leadership, and he excelled in each new area he challenged himself with. At the helm of a company with more thanemployees serving over million meals a year, Otis kept a obvious focus on corporate essentials.Otis then moved on to Stanford Law School in California, earning his J.D. degree in
Career
He worked in the field of corporate law, specializing in the fields of securities law and mergers and acquisitions. He started out with the firm Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine and moved on to Gordon, Hurwitz, Butowsky, Weitzen, Shalov & Wein.
From the start he ran with a high-flying crowd; one of his clients was famed financier Carl Icahn. He later on remarked, "I thought the finance side was more invigorating than the law, so I moved to an investment banking firm"—Kidder, Peabody & Co.
The barely year-old Otis became a vice president at First Boston Corporation in In this career he got his first exposure to Florida's booming economy as he worked on real estate deals there.
Otis, Clarence Jr. In the s African Americans remained rare as chief executives of "Fortune " companies—the largest companies in the United States. When Clarence Otis Jr. He reached his high-level post not only through skills and difficult work but also through versatility: his career led him through law, investment banking, corporate finance, and operations management, and he excelled in each new area he challenged himself with.He became interested in public and government finance, serving as managing director of Giebert Municipal Capital in and , and as a vice president and later managing director in Chemical Bank's securities arm between and He played a key part in turning around the bank's struggling public finance division, shepherding funding of $ billion for tax-exempt pollution-control projects and participating a $ million New York Metropolis bond issue that was named deal of the year by Institutional Investor magazine.
In , Otis was recruited by Darden Restaurants in Orlando for the post of treasurer, overseeing finance activities for the 1,restaurant chain. He correctly assessed Darden as a company on the soar as its "casual dining" market niche—high-volume sit-down restaurants a step above fast food in terms of quality—was growing rapidly.
Otis came to the company in the final stages of its spin-off from food giant General Mills.
While Otis supervised a staff of six, his decisions had company wide ramifications as Darden acquired new sites and financed new buildings all over the country; the chain owns its restaurants rather than franchising them to independent entrepreneurs.
He ascended the corporate ladder at Darden, becoming senior vice president of finance in and principal financial officer in As the chain shuttered its struggling China Coast restaurants and opened recent ventures such as the casual sports-bar barbecue Smokey Bones and the Caribbean-themed Bahama Breeze,
As longtime Darden CEO Joe L.
Lee, who opened the first Red Lobster restaurant in Florida in , approached retirement, Otis was widely regarded as a protégé of Lee, and after one of his top rivals left for a top position with Burger King, his way was clear.
Otis was named Lee's successor as CEO in [3] He stepped down in [4]
Compensation
While CEO of Darden Restaurants in , Otis earned a total compensation of $7,,, which included a base salary of $,, a cash bonus of $1,,, stocks granted of $1,,, options granted of $2,,, and other compensation totaling $,[5]
Politics
According to Matthew Yglesias, Otis "seems to be a Democrat" and has donated to Democratic Congressman Ron Klein of Florida.[6]
Personal life
Otis and his wife Jacqueline Bradley (b.
Clarence Otis' parents were living in Vicksburg, Mississippi, when he was born in While financial circumstances caused both parents to quit school by the eighth grade, they had been great students. Otis' father worked in a cotton mill but knew he needed to find a more secure job when mill positions started moving offshore. The family moved to California insettling in the Watts section of Los Angeles in) were married in and have raised three children.[7]
References
- ^"Central Florida's most powerful". Orlando Sentinel. December 30,
- ^Bruce Horovitz (November 26, ).
"From mean streets of Watts to the king of casual dining". USA Today.
- ^Meyersohn, Nathaniel (June 8, ). "The forgotten racial history of Red Lobster". CNN Business. Retrieved June 9,
- ^Nair, Smita (August 13, ).Clarence Otis, Darden Restaurants Inc: Profile and Biography: Clarence Otis Jr. (born April 11, , in Vicksburg, Mississippi, United States) is an American businessman and former CEO and chairman of Darden Restaurants. Otis was named the 11th most powerful person in Main Florida by the Orlando Sentinel in
"Why did Darden CEO Clarence Otis step down?". Yahoo Finance. Retrieved June 9,
- ^ CEO Compensation for Clarence Otis ed at the Wayback Machine, Equilar
- ^Yglesias, Matthew () Disappearing Policy to the Policymakers and Business to the Businessmen, Think Progress
- ^"Calvin Otis - Football".
Columbia University Athletics. Retrieved May 19,