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.
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