UCF Alumna Named President of Red Lobster

Congratulations to Salli Setta, ’87, who was named president of Red Lobster, the world’s largest casual-dining seafood chain, last week. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Setta replaced Dave Pickens, another longtime Darden employee promoted earlier this month to chief restaurant operations officer. She started working with Darden in 1990 as a sales-promotion assistant at Olive Garden and worked her way up to senior vice president of culinary and beverage. She later transitioned to executive vice president of marketing at Red Lobster in 2005. In her new role, she will oversee the brand, which has more than 700 restaurants system wide. Setta graduated from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 1987.

About Darden

Headquartered in Orlando, Fla., Darden Restaurants is the world’s largest full-service restaurant company. Through subsidiaries, Darden owns and operates more than 2,100 restaurants across North America, employing more than 200,000 employees and serving more than 425 million meals annually. The company is most recognized for its successful brands: Red Lobster, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, The Capital Grille, Eddie V’s and Yard House. For more information about Darden Restaurants, please click here.

To read more about this news story, visit: http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-07-22/business/os-salli-setta-red-lobster-20130722_1_dave-pickens-chief-restaurant-operations-officer-new-red-lobster