Advertisement

Papa John’s chairman resigns after admitting to using a racial slur during conference call

It's the second time this year he has resigned from the company he founded because of his racist remarks.

The face of a man forced to resign from his own company for the second time this year. Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
The face of a man forced to resign from his own company for the second time this year. Credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images

For the second time this year, racist remarks by John Schnatter have forced him to resign from the company he founded.

According to Bloomberg, the “pizza” company’s board of directors accepted Schnatter’s resignation on Wednesday night, less than a day after he admitted to using a racial slur during a conference call earlier this year. Initial news reports of the call attracted widespread media attention and sent the company’s stock price plummeting.

In January, Schnatter stepped down as the company’s CEO and de facto spokesman after he made disparaging remarks about NFL players who were protesting institutionalized racism, blaming them and the league for the company’s lagging sales.

He remained with the company however, and maintained his position as the company’s chairman and largest shareholder. In the six months since, he reportedly sought to make inroads with company executives and stage a corporate comeback. Part of his master plan involved hiring a high-powered marketing agency to help him learn how to better present himself in public, but instead, details of a disastrous May conference call — in which he invoked the n-word and shared offensive anecdotes about lynchings — leaked on Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday night, Schnatter had admitted and apologized for using the racial slur, and resigned as chairman of Papa John’s.

Advertisement

Earlier in the day, he also tendered his resignation from the board of trustees at the University of Louisville. He has been a longtime booster of the school and its beleaguered athletics program, though that relationship has been fraught ever since he was photographed drunk and partying with students on campus.