Early Career
A lifetime entrepreneur, Earl founded President Entertainment in 1977, a company specializing in theme restaurants that grew from a modest start-up to a company valued at more than $100 million when he agreed to sell the company to Pleasurama in 1998. Earl was invited by Pleasurama to join its executive team and orchestrated the acquisition of Hard Rock Café. During his five-year tenure as the CEO of Hard Rock Café, Earl oversaw the expansion of the brand from its initial seven units to 22 units, and dramatically increased the Company’s profitability. This growth was a direct result of aggressive marketing and non-stop positive press capitalizing on Earl’s vision to use the allure of Celebrity and creative events to earn Hard Rock Café a mystique that separated it from its competition.
During this same time period Earl was also a Director of Pelican Group PLC, and oversaw tremendous growth of brands such as Café Rouge, Dôme, and Mamma Amalfi all while increasing the profitability of each of the concepts, until its ultimate profitable sale to Whitbread PLC.
Read more about this topic: Robert Earl
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“We have been told over and over about the importance of bonding to our children. Rarely do we hear about the skill of letting go, or, as one parent said, “that we raise our children to leave us.” Early childhood, as our kids gain skills and eagerly want some distance from us, is a time to build a kind of adult-child balance which permits both of us room.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion (20th century)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)