[bfsa] Black History Moment

[Arlene Floyd]

Another history moment for us and our children

The Higher Education of the Nation's Top African-American Restaurateur

Each week tens of thousands of diners eat at an Olive Garden or Red
Lobster restaurant. Few of these diners know that the CEO heading
these large restaurant chains is a black man.

Clarence Otis Jr. is the CEO of Darden Restaurants Inc., the largest
casual dining operator in the nation. The firm operates nearly 1,400
company-owned restaurants coast to coas t serving 300 million meals
annually. Darden employs 150,000 workers and has annual revenues of $6
billion.

Born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Otis moved to Los Angeles when he was
6 years old. His father was a high school dropout who worked as a
janitor. The family lived in Watts at the time of the 1965 riots. In the
post-Watts period, Otis recalls being stopped and questioned by police
several times a year because of the color of his skin.

A high school guidance counselor recommended him for a scholarship at
Williams College, the highly selective liberal arts institution in
Massachusetts. Otis graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams and went on
to earn a law degree at Stanford.

Otis landed on Wall Street as a merger and acquisitions attorney for
J.P. Morgan Securities. He joined Darden Restaurants in 1995 as
corporate treasurer. He became CEO in 2004.

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