The inside story of Papa John's toxic culture:
Then Schnatter began to do exactly that. The world already knows of his two biggest flare-ups. Last November, he criticized the NFL’s handling of national anthem protests, calling the whole affair a “debacle.” Papa John’s shares crashed 11% in hours and kept falling, SchnatterForbesand made other controversial remarks on a conference call two months prior. On July 11, the day that news broke, he resigned as chairman.
Reached through a representative, Schnatter disputed most of this story. Papa John’s did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Ritchie, for his part, did not respond to a request for comment. And O’Hern contested portions of this story, though he confirmed his close ties to Schnatter.
Money changed things. Schnatter moved the firm into a luxurious new headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, in the late 1990s. When he commissioned a fresco for one of its ceilings, he had his face painted into the plaster. His own office was outfitted with black marble and a fireplace. Schnatter sometimes conducted meetings from his exercise bike and was prone to outbursts. In one case, he moved a scorned executive’s parking spot to the very back of the garage.
A female employee says that Schnatter asked about her bra size and whether she’d slept with her previous boss, and that he never let her pass in a hall without giving her a hug. A male executive recalls going out to dinner with his wife and bumping into Schnatter at the bar. Schnatter allegedly told the executive that he “had a cute wife, if she’d lose some weight.” Schnatter didn’t remember the incident when confronted by the executive later, and Schnatter now says it didn’t happen.
But it manifested even back in Louisville. Multiple sources say meetings were filled with profanity and inappropriate comments. Ritchie allegedly never intervened. “These things would happen in meetings and conference rooms and whatever. Steve would just laugh. He would just laugh,” says an individual present during such incidents.
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