Plans for the new Papa Johns Atlanta global headquarters are two years old but have finally become a reality. Wednesday, feb. 9 is National Pizza Day and the global pizza giant and Louisville-based company will open the new building in March. With that new address there will also be a fresh start, of sorts in one of the company’s most successful and diverse markets.
“What Atlanta brings is people from so many backgrounds and industries,” said Marvin Boakye, Papa Johns Chief People and Diversity Officer of the company’s strategic priority of building exclusivity and diversity following a public relations nightmare a few years back. Boakye told The Atlanta Voice part of the transformation from that period “was differentiating the company in a very competitive market.”
With the new headquarters has come hundreds of jobs for what the company calls ‘team members’ with the majority of them for new hires, according to Boakye. “We are incredibly excited about the opening of our Atlanta hub,” he said. “We are bringing about 200 team members to the new hub.”
Boakye, sitting in his Atlanta office added, “Atlanta is one of our most important markets. It’s significant.”
There will be team members moving to Atlanta from Louisville to go along with the local hires. They had been working remotely the past year as the move was ongoing. Papa Johns already had offices in Atlanta-smaller spaces and staffs but still metro Atlanta-based nonetheless. “We have a fairly decent sized presence here,” said Boakye about Georgia.
Papa Johns plans to embrace Atlanta’s culture of Historically Black Colleges and Universities through its Papa Johns Foundation for Building Community, which has plans to partner within the Atlanta University Center.