Julia Stewart Was Denied CEO Job; 7 Years Later, She Bought The Company For $2.3B

Julia Stewart Was Denied CEO Job; 7 Years Later, She Bought The Company For $2.3B

In corporate boardrooms, rejection often signals the end of a career chapter. For Julia Stewart, it marked the beginning of her most defining move. In the late 1990s, Stewart was president of the restaurant chain Applebee’s domestic division. Her leadership helped double the company’s stock price and drive sales growth, making her a leading candidate for the CEO position. Confident that she had earned the role, she asked the board to consider he…

IHOP CEO spent $2.3B to buy Applebee's to fire her old boss

Years before she became one of the most respected figures in American casual dining, Julia Stewart was told she’d never be CEO. At the time, she was serving as president of Applebee’s, having led the company through a period of impressive growth. According to Stewart, the sitting CEO promised her the top role if she could make the company profitable. She did exactly that: got the stock prices to double, improved the revenue, and got the new team…