Outback Steakhouse Parent Names Former Delta Exec Its New CEO

  • November 15, 2024
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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.

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