Steven Anthony Davis (born 1958/1959-
une 10, 2022
is an American business executive from

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...

, formerly the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Bob Evans Restaurants Bob Evans Restaurants is an American chain of restaurants owned by Golden Gate Capital based in New Albany, Ohio. After its founding in 1948 by Bob Evans (1918–2007), the restaurant chain evolved into a company with the corporate brand name ...

, and former president of Long John Silver's and

A&W Restaurants A&W Restaurants, Inc. (also known as Allen & Wright Restaurants) is an American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its Hamburger, "Burger Family" combos, draft root beer and root beer floats. A&W's origins date back to 1919 when Roy ...

Background

The youngest of five children of Henry and Dolores Davis,

African-Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

in Milwaukee who never had the opportunity to attend a college or

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

(Dolores had to decline a scholarship to Cardinal Stritch College in order to attend to her sickly mother), Davis graduated from Messmer High School (Milwaukee), and in 1980 received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

from the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and one of the two doctor ...

(all four of his older siblings had also graduated from UWM). He went on to earn his

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Business career

Davis worked as an executive at

Kraft Foods Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...

for nine years, and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas, by brothers Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldw ...

YUM! Brands Yum! Brands, Inc. (sometimes called simply Yum!) is an American multinational fast food corporation. It is a spin-off of PepsiCo, after they acquired KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell. PepsiCo divested the brands in 1997, and these consolidated as ...

for 14 years. In 2005, ''

Black Enterprise ''Black Enterprise'' (stylized in all caps) is an American multimedia company. A Black-owned business since the 1970s, its flagship product ''Black Enterprise'' magazine has covered African American businesses with a readership of 3.7 mil ...

'' magazine named him one of the "75 Most Powerful Black Men in American Business." He is on several

boards of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulations ...

, including those of

Marathon Petroleum Marathon Petroleum Corporation is an petroleum industry in the United States, American petroleum refining, marketing, and transportation company headquartered in Findlay, Ohio. The company was a wholly owned subsidiary of Marathon Oil until a cor ...

and

Walgreens Walgreens is an American pharmacy store chain. It is the second largest in the United States, behind CVS Pharmacy. As of March 2025, the company operated more than 8,700 stores in the U.S. Walgreens has been the subject of a number of lawsuit ...

Personal life

Davis lives in

New Albany, Ohio New Albany is a City (United States), city in the U.S. state of Ohio. It is located northeast of the state capital of Columbus, Ohio, Columbus. Most of the city is located in Franklin County, Ohio, Franklin County and a small portion extends i ...

, with his wife Lynnda. They have three daughters. In 2014, Davis was given the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award. At a November ceremony, it was announced that Davis and his family had funded a

scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...

in memory of his parents, to provide support for other first-generation minority university students.Quirk, Kathy. "Bob Evans CEO honors his Milwaukee family with UWM scholarship" ''uwm.edu'' November 20, 2014
/ref>

References

Businesspeople from Milwaukee American chief executives of food industry companies University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Businesspeople from Ohio African-American business executives American business executives People from New Albany, Ohio Living people 20th-century American businesspeople Year of birth uncertain 21st-century African-American people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century African-American businesspeople {{US-CEO-stub