Vol. 38, No. 18

3-4-2008
By:

Bob Evans Farms CEO to give address at Winter Commencement

Steven Davis, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Bob Evans Farms Inc., has been selected to speak at Ohio State’s winter quarter commencement.

About 1,800 degrees will be awarded at the ceremony, which begins at 2 p.m. March 16 at the Schottenstein Center.

Before joining Bob Evans in 2006, Davis worked at Yum! Brands Inc., where he had been president of Long John Silver’s and A&W All-American Food Restaurants since 2002. 

He joined Yum! Brands’ Pizza Hut division in 1993 after nine years with Kraft General Foods.

Earlier in his career, he held a series of brand management positions in Kraft’s cheese business where he launched several successful new products and marketing campaigns. 


Davis serves as a board member of the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute Foundation. He is a member of the Columbus Partnership and Compete Columbus, two organizations focused on economic development for the region. 

He served as the 2007 chair for Operation Feed, which provides food for needy families in Central Ohio. Davis also is a board member of the National Restaurant Association and EMBARQ Corp., a $6.5 billion telecommunications company.

He served as chairman of the board of Summerbridge Louisville educational assistance program from 2003-06 and was a board member of Turner 12, an organization that provides assistance to lower-income children to attend college, in Dallas from 2000-03. Black Enterprise magazine named Davis as one of the 75 Most Powerful Black Men in American Business in 2005.

Davis earned an MBA in marketing and finance from the University of Chicago and a BS in business administration from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. 

Davis and his wife of 25 years, Lynnda, have three daughters and reside in Columbus.

In addition, during the commencement ceremony, Ohio State will award honorary degrees to Roy Glauber, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics at Harvard University and winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physics; and John  Thompson, professor of mathematics at the University of Florida.

The university will also present the Distinguished Service Award to Patricia Duke Robinson and Thomas Robinson of Troy, who have committed time and resources to many university projects.

onCampus Home