Papa John's taps Kurt Milburn as chief supply chain officer

Milburn joined the company in 2022 as VP of supply chain operations.

courtesy of Papa John's

Papa John's International, Inc. has announced the promotion of Kurt Milburn to chief supply chain officer, succeeding Shane Hutchins, who will retire after 26 years at Papa Johns, where he served as chief supply chain officer since October 2018. Hutchins will continue to work with Papa Johns as a consultant on special projects and to ensure a smooth transition.

Milburn joined Papa Johns in 2022 as vice president of supply chain operations, and since that time has taken on additional responsibility to include engineering and operations support functions as well as the International Supply Chain organization. Prior to Papa Johns, he served as senior vice president of supply chain operations at Scotts Miracle-Gro Company. He also held engineering and supply chain management positions at General Electric and General Motors.

“I’m thrilled for Kurt to become our next chief supply chain officer, as he brings deep expertise in supply chain and engineering from large, complex organizations and strong knowledge of our organization having led Papa Johns Food Service operations over the last two years. I look forward to his leadership as we continue to evolve our supply chain to meet the demands of our growing business,” says interim CEO Ravi Thanawala. “On behalf of the entire Papa Johns team, I would like to thank Shane for leading us through some of our biggest supply chain transformations and look forward to continuing to leverage his experience in other capacities.”

In the role of chief supply chain officer, Milburn will lead Papa Johns Food Service (PJFS), which oversees the company’s Quality Control Center Operations, Supplier Management, and Quality Assurance.

He will report to interim CEO Ravi Thanawala and will serve on the Papa Johns executive leadership team.

Liz Parker is the senior editor of Candy Industry and Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, and has worked at BNP Media since 2012. She has written for CBS Detroit as well as for her own blogs. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. Liz can be contacted at (248) 839-7156 or at parkere@bnpmedia.com.