David Novak

David Novak is Co-Founder, retired Chairman and CEO of Yum! Brands, the world’s largest restaurant company with over 45,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories. After retiring in 2016, he became Founder and CEO of David Novak Leadership, a leadership development company that teaches Novak’s proprietary method of modern team leadership through online courses, books and live workshops. Novak is also the host of the top-ranked business podcast, How Leaders Lead with David Novak.

Novak’s passion is to make the world a better place by developing leaders at every stage of life through David Novak Leadership, How Leaders Lead, his family’s Lift-a-Life Foundation, Lead4Change, Global Game Changers and the Novak Leadership Institute at the University of Missouri.

A renowned expert on leadership and recognition culture, Novak is also a bestselling leadership book author. His highly referenced and critically acclaimed books include The New York Times bestseller Taking People With You, The Only Way to Achieve Big Things Happen; O GREAT ONE! A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition; and his latest book, Take Charge of You, How Self-coaching can transform your life and career.

During his tenure as CEO, Yum! Brands became a global powerhouse, growing from $4 billion in revenue to over $32 billion.

Novak has been recognized as “2012 CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review. He received the Horatio Alger Award for his commitment to philanthropy and higher education, and the 2012 United Nation’s World Food Program Leadership Award for Yum! Brands World Hunger Relief.