Papa John’s Appoints New Global Chief Marketing Officer

Papa John’s International, Inc. has announced the appointment of Karlin Linhardt as global chief marketing officer.

Linhardt is a veteran marketing leader with deep Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) category experience and C-suite executive roles at global Fortune-500 restaurant companies, consumer brands and top professional services firms, including Anheuser-Busch, McDonald’s, Accenture and Subway.

In his most recent role, Linhardt served as senior vice president of marketing for North America for Subway Restaurants, where he led brand management and guest experience for 30,000 restaurants and designed the company’s global brand transformation plan.

“Karlin is a seasoned marketing executive who I am confident will contribute to our ‘BETTER INGREDIENTS. BETTER PIZZA.’ brand value proposition. The addition of Karlin as Global Chief Marketing Officer is one of the many significant steps we’ve taken to improve our brand differentiation, which includes enhancing our quality positioning in the category. Karlin’s combined restaurant, franchise and consumer brand experience make him an excellent addition to the Papa John’s leadership team,” said Papa John’s president and CEO Steve Ritchie.

Linhardt’s QSR experience includes 10 years at McDonald’s, where he led initiatives that were critical to the brand’s turnaround, including kids & family (Happy Meals), value (Dollar Menu) and premium burger products (Big Mac, Quarter Pounder).