We have aligned on five strategic priorities, together with our cultural initiatives, which will enable us to rebuild trust with our customers and communities, and deliver on our business objectives:
Mr. Ritchie is focused on creating the right future for Papa John's. To do so, the company is undergoing an independent cultural audit and investigation, which will review our existing processes, policies and systems related to diversity and inclusion, supplier and vendor engagement, and Papa John's culture.
The Center for Talent Innovation, a leading diversity, equity and inclusion think tank, is leading the important work in conjunction with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP and will provide actionable recommendations to help move the company forward.
We have a long road ahead of us, and we know we can only rebuild trust by taking meaningful action.
We know we need to do more to put our best foot forward and ensure we are doing right by all members of the Papa John's family.
We have promoted Victoria Russell to become the first Chief of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Papa John's International. In this newly created role, Victoria has been instrumental in forming and leading our Diversity & Inclusion committee, beginning late last year, and has shown tremendous passion for the brand. Along with our leadership team, Victoria will be leading efforts that ensure our company’s commitment to diversity and inclusion remains a top strategic priority across all aspects of our business operations.
She has already implemented several important actions to move the company forward, including developing a mandatory diversity and inclusion training and launching an employee group exclusively dedicated to bringing forth diverse voices to senior leadership. Victoria also recently facilitated an unconscious bias training session for Papa John's executive leadership.
We are making this training mandatory for all corporate team members and are in the process of rolling it out across the company.
We are also kicking off the development of two key long-term initiatives:
Finally, Papa John’s leaders recently visited Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas, Detroit and Chicago as part of a listening tour to get feedback from team members and franchisees on how we can do better.
Over the last few weeks, we have spent a lot of time talking with franchisees, our customers and employees. We have heard strong support for the actions we are taking, both as they relate to our corporate culture and our brand, and in relation to improving how we operate and connect with consumers. Franchisees, partners and independent financial industry analysts have all expressed strong support for the new direction of the company:
Papa John's is a 120,000 person strong family and we are committed to helping our people succeed. We recently announced a new assistance program for our franchisees in the United States and Canada to help address the sales and operating challenges.
More information about this initiative and what we are doing for franchisees right now can be found here.