John Fadool

John Fadool is a senior executive with an extensive, 35-year career with three best-in-class companies – Darden Restaurants, Novartis Consumer Health, and Procter & Gamble. Throughout his leadership roles as an engineer, marketer, and president, he has consistently grown revenue and profit in businesses ranging from $10M to $2B in revenue.

John’s experience working at Fortune 500 companies provided him with an elite understanding of how to run world-class business operations, processes, and systems. Throughout his career, he has turned around struggling brands and achieved outstanding results by strengthening core value propositions, improving operational efficiencies, and building positive team dynamics. He believes that excellence in execution is the difference between winning and losing.

Having held leadership roles within different business functions, John is skilled at coaching CEOs on how to engage and find common ground within their executive teams. He believes CEOs should seek the perspective of everyone on the team and that the only way to drive results is by creating alignment on not only where you are and where you want to go, but how you’ll get there, together.

John excels at coaching consumer-focused businesses that are seeking to grow revenue and profit. He brings a focus on healthy business rhythms, operational excellence, and team alignment to his engagements. He has a collaborative and curious style and works with CEOs to define their strategic vision for success and then achieve it.

Business Highlights:

• Delivered the highest profit in brand history as President of Bahama Breeze. He also grew same-restaurant sales by 5 percent and improved restaurant-level EBITDA by 700 basis points, while simultaneously enhancing guest satisfaction and laying the foundation for accelerated growth.
• Led LongHorn Steakhouse to eight consecutive years of positive same-restaurant sales growth. As EVP of Marketing, he drove industry-leading guest loyalty through his compelling and differentiated brand vision, tripling profit, and outperforming the industry benchmark by an average of 350+ basis points per year.
• Repositioned the Gerber Baby Food organic line, building sales by 40 percent and more than tripling profit as the Chief Marketing Officer.
• Created new global positioning for the DAILIES brand, which grew sales by $40 million as Global Marketing Chief for Novartis’ Ciba Vision Eye Care Company.
• Launched a value feminine protection brand, Naturella, that expanded globally and grew to $400 million in revenue while a marketing leader at Procter & Gamble.
• Revived the Luvs Diaper brand through sharper positioning, targeted innovation, reduced promotional spending, and award-winning advertising, resulting in sales growth of $120 million (+30%) and a 10-percentage point increase in profitability.
• Began his career at Procter & Gamble as an engineer in manufacturing before moving to marketing in roles in the U.S. and Latin America.

John received an MBA from the Wharton School, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. He currently serves as a strategic advisor to H Venture Partners, an early-stage fund that invests in female-founded, purpose-driven consumer brands, and serves as a board member to their largest investment, Cerebelly, a science-based baby food developed by a practicing neurosurgeon to support early brain development.

John and his wife Margot are the proud parents of two adult boys and live in Winter Park, Florida.

Featured Podcast:

Listen to John Fadool’s podcast episode – 5 Simple Truths of Inspiring Leadership