Dave George was named President of Olive Garden in January 2013 and Executive Vice President of Darden Restaurants in March 2016. He leads a company with 840 restaurants, more than 95,000 employees and $3.8 billion in annual sales.

Prior to his current role, Dave served as president of LongHorn Steakhouse for nine years. Dave joined LongHorn in April 1998 as Vice President of Operations, North. Two years later, he was promoted to Vice President of Operations for The Capital Grille, a division of LongHorn’s former parent company, RARE Hospitality International. He returned to LongHorn in October 2001 as Senior Vice President of Operations and was named President in 2003. He remained in that capacity following Darden’s acquisition of RARE in October 2007.

Earlier in his career, Dave served as Vice President of Operations for Tripps Restaurants. He began his restaurant career straight out of college as an Assistant Manager with Houlihans. During his 12 years with Houlihans, he held positions of increasing responsibility including Area Director of Operations for eight restaurants.

Dave earned a bachelor’s degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management from Michigan State University.

Darden owns and operates more than 1,600 Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, Yard House, The Capital Grille, Seasons 52, Bahama Breeze and Eddie V’s restaurants in North America, employing 165,000 people and serving 380 million guests annually.