Leah Evans: cooking up success personally and professionally with a saucy balance of love and science

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 27, 2003 by Bonnie Brewer Cavanaugh

If there ever could be a perfect marriage, culinarian Leah Evans embodies it, twice over.

Professionally, she has married her love for science and her passion for food into one incredibly prolific career.

Personally, she is a role model and mentor for women in foodservice and also a high-ranking female executive whose support system includes a devoted, stay-at-home husband.

As chief food officer and senior vice president of research and development for Pizza Hut, Evans has had a hand in creating some of the industry's best-known products: innovative pizzas with snappy, catchy names that sell like hotcakes... or rather, hot pizzas.

The last couple of years "were huge" for Pizza Hut in product innovation, Evans notes.

"People think you've invented them all, you must be dried up," she says. "Just think if they stopped building new cars after the Model T because they couldn't envision how to do a different car. There's always a new way to do a pizza."

Her innovations span her long career, starting with her work on frozen dough products, which she says "changed the face" of how foodservice chains do their business. Subway, for instance, made major changes when it switched to using fresh-baked bread for its sandwiches, she says. She also is proud of her work on developing Toaster Strudel for Pillsbury.

But perhaps her greatest success is creating a development process that helps Pizza Hut be respected as one of the leading innovators in the industry, she says.

"That resulted in the Chicago Dish and the P'Zone, the Insider and the Twisted Crust, the Ultimate Cheese and the Edge, and that long list of products over the last few years," Evans explains.

To come forward with that kind of innovation, she says, requires combining wishes and dreams into an organized process with people who are focused on it.

"That's what I'm most proud of, to have created an atmosphere that can make it all happen," she adds.

"Leah has a very high level of intellectual curiosity, which really means that she actively, constantly seeks out new ideas. So I think that's one key reason that makes her a great culinarian," notes colleague Sheila Stauziale, vice president of beverage development for Pepsi-Cola.

"I would say that in a very active, friendly way, Leah really brings out the best in her team and actively engages people," Stanziale adds.

Pizza Hutpresident Mike Rawlings, who retired recently, says Evans' unique traits and talents and passion for the industry are among her attributes.

"First of all, she's got a love for food. I think that's the place it's got to start," Rawlings says. "She's fascinated by spices, by tastes, by textures, by ingredients, by shapes, by forms. She enjoys the foodiness of the business; you've got to start there with a love for it."

"Second, I think she's got excellent process discipline to bring real leadership to the process of creating food. You can't do it for a company Pizza Hut's size just by having an idea," he says.

"And I think the third thing is that she is a real people person. She likes her team, and her team likes her," Rawlings says. "She partners well.

"So when I think of Leah, those are the three towering strengths that I see in her," Rawlings adds. "She's a great lady and someone that we're really lucky to have at Pizza Hut."

The chain now has some 7,000 restaurants in the United States and another 4,000 in 104 countries worldwide--and Evans oversees the creation of pizza products for all of them.

"I just took on the responsibility for the international piece this month," in January, she says. "So now I have the global responsibility for 11,000 restaurants."

Besides putting her into a new learning curve, the experience also will most likely generate "a few more frequent flier miles," she laughs. It also means she'll head not one but two R&D labs, which are each part of two separate business groups.

"The thing that comes to mind with Leah, she starts with the customer," notes Steven Davis, president and chief operating officer of Long John Silver's. He is a former senior vice president of concept development for Pizza Hut. "A lot of people talk that, but she lives it.

"Secondly, she's a great team player, more so than anyone I've ever seen, and I've worked at Pizza Hut, Pepsi, Kraft Foods. Her people always seem so positive; she's just a person who generates great positive energy," Davis says. "Another thing is, she's a great business partner. I was in concept development when I was working with her. She's got great processes--it's a total quality mindset."

Evans says the most challenging part of her job is keeping the organization focused on the critical priorities that will drive business success: building a new-products pipeline, constantly improving quality and increasing productivity.

Although the best part is the people, she says.

"I think the people in Yum! Brands are by far the best I've worked with in the foodservice industry, and I have 20 years under my belt with other companies before I came here," she says.