Aylwin B. Lewis (born May 28, 1954) is an American businessman. He served as the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of

Potbelly Sandwich Works Potbelly Corporation is a publicly traded American fast-casual restaurant chain that focuses on submarine sandwiches and milkshakes. Potbelly was founded in 1977 in Chicago, and its name refers to the potbelly stove. Potbelly's menu features a va ...

, June 2008 - August 2017. AylwinLewis2013CEOPotbelly Casual med res for web

Career

In 1995, Aylwin Lewis became Senior VP of Marketing and Operations Development, a job he left in 1996 for a position as Senior VP of Operations at

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and desse ...

. In 1997, he was promoted to COO at Pizza Hut; in 2000, he became COO at

Yum! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (or Yum!), formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc., is an American fast food corporation listed on the Fortune 1000. Yum! operates the brands KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, except in China, where the ...

. In 2004, he became CEO of

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

, which shortly thereafter merged with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. At this time, he became CEO of

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20t ...

. At Potbelly, where he was hired as CEO in 2008, Lewis led the drive to take Potbelly public. Lewis stepped down and left Potbelly in August 2017.

Sources

Periodicals • Chain Store Age, December 2004, p. 39. • Detroit News, October 19, 2004. • Houston Chronicle, October 19, 2004, p. 11. • International Herald Tribune, November 19, 2004, p. 19. • Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, October 19, 2004; November 21, 2004. • Seattle Times, November 18, 2004, p. E1.

External links

Aylwin Lewis Corporate Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Aylwin 1954 births Living people American chief executives of food industry companies Directors of The Walt Disney Company Houston Christian University alumni University of Houston alumni Place of birth missing (living people) American chief operating officers