Red Lobster’s New CEO Isn’t Honest About Work-Life Balance

Damola Adamolekun is the brand new CEO of Red Lobster. His goal: to get the restaurant chain out of debt.

After a headline-grabbing bankruptcy, the seafood restaurant is now owned by Fortress Investment Group and co-investors TCW Private Credit and Blue Torch. Fortress nominated Adamolekun35, after his success as former CEO of Asian fusion restaurant chain PF Chang’s, reports.

But while many professionals in Adamolekun’s age group advocate for work-life balance, the manager believes that “my life is my job. My job is my life.”

Adamolekun starts his day with a 11-14km run at 4:30am and ends his day around 6:30pm with a post-meeting cigar. He is at all times in motion mode.

“I’ve never been one to separate work from life,” he said. “It gets mixed up.”

Adamolekun has spent the previous few years transitioning from executive positions to finance. After making history as certainly one of the few black CEOs to guide a serious U.S. firm and the primary to guide PF Chang, Adamolekun returned to investment firm Paulson & Co. after three years at PF Chang. That followed stints at Goldman Sachs and TPG Capital.

Adamolekun admitted that he was “working all the time” but that he enjoys the constant rush.

“I thought it was funny. So I didn’t have to go there on Saturday,” Adamolekun said. “It was like, ‘I have something to do and I want to do it, or I want to look at something.’”

He acknowledged that the mindset isn’t the identical for everybody and really helpful breaks for individuals who need them. But Adamolekun told restaurant staff to “build buffers” and take days off on Tuesday or Wednesday, when restaurants are less crowded.

“Work doesn’t stress me out,” he said.

Red Lobster’s latest owner, Fortress Investment Group, will learn whether its plan might be approved during a bankruptcy court hearing later this month.