Key Takeaways
- Bloomin’ Brands named former Delta Air Lines COOMichael Spanos to its CEO position.
- Spanos left Delta after a year, leaving in the wake of the massive CrowdStrike outage.
- Spanos replaces David Deno, who announced his retirement from the Outback Steakhouse parent in May.
Outback Steakhouse parent Bloomin’ Brands (BLMN) named ex-Delta Air Lines (DAL) Chief Operating Officer Michael Spanos its new chief executive officer (CEO).
Delta last week said that Spanos would be leaving the airline after a year with the company. His departure comes a month after a global Microsoft (MSFT) Windows outage triggered by a botched CrowdStrike (CRWD) software update resulted in thousands of canceled flights at Delta, far more than rivals United Airlines (UAL) and American Airlines (AAL).
Spanos was looking elsewhere prior to the outage, according to Bloomberg. He will replace David Deno, who in May announced his planned retirement effective early next month. Spanos will be tasked with turning around Bloomin’s share price, which has fallen 38% in 2024 including a roughly 4% drop so far today.
Deno, the outgoing CEO, acknowledged that the casual dining sector was “softer than anticipated” when the company earlier this month posted second-quarter results and slashed its full-year guidance.
Spanos previously served as CEO of Six Flags Entertainment (FUN) and spent more than 25 years at PepsiCo (PEP) and the Pepsi Bottling Group.