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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Dine Brands in CEO Search Mode

Dine Brands Global Inc. is in the market for a new chief executive. The Glendale franchisor of restaurant chains Applebee’s and IHOP has retained executive search firm Spencer Stuart, based in Chicago, to help it find a successor for Chief Executive Steve Joyce, whose employment contract expires in February 2021. The company’s board announced the commencement of the search process and said it would evaluate both an internal and external pool of candidates. “We appreciate Steve’s considerable contributions to Dine Brands during a critical period for the company accentuated by this current crisis,” said Chairman Richard Dahl in a statement. Joyce was chosen as chief executive in August 2017 – the company then was known as DineEquity. He has been a board member since 2012. Previously, Joyce was chief executive of Choice Hotels International Inc., a publicly traded 6,500-unit hotel franchise based in Rockville, Md. He is credited with navigating the firm successfully through the Great Recession. Joyce said in a statement he’s proud of the growth Dine Brands enjoyed during his tenure “Since 2017, we have established and executed on strategic plans, strengthened the franchisee base, completed a $1.3 billion securitization transaction and returned significant capital to stockholders,” he said. It was also under Joyce’s leadership that Dine Brands ran its successful “International House of Burgers” marketing campaign, which boosted burger sales at IHOP fourfold. With Joyce at the helm, Dine Brands’ stock price more than doubled, hitting a high of $103.38 in July. But in the last few months, COVID-19 and the resulting economic freeze have wreaked havoc on the company’s progress. During the worst stretch of the stock market’s seizure, shares (DIN) fell from $96.36 on Feb. 24 to just $17.41 on March 20 – a slide of 82 percent in less than a month. Since then the stock has rebounded considerably. Shares closed June 3 at $52.74 on the New York Stock Exchange. “With the occurrence of the crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic, it is not only essential that we all focus on our current situation, but also our emergence with a strong leadership team for the future,” Joyce added.

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