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Outback leader a quiet dynamo

By SCOTT BARANCIK
Published September 25, 2005

Chief operating officer Paul Avery is the senior Outback executive you don't know.

A product of Woodbridge, N.J., Avery, 46, has been a restaurant rat since age 15, when he worked the front counter of a takeout place at the local mall and ended up managing it throughout high school and college. After graduation, he did a brief stint at Roscoe's, an ill-fated California restaurant co-owned by actor Chuck Connors, then landed at casual-dining innovator (and restaurant-executive breeding ground) Steak and Ale, where he was a regional supervisor.

He joined Outback in 1989 as managing partner of its seventh location in Palm Harbor and was named operations director in 1990.

Fifteen years later, there are 749 domestic Outback steakhouses. Avery, a consummate nuts-and-bolts guy whom the limelight skips, helped make it happen. The company's board of directors has expressed its appreciation in cash.

For years, Avery was the only senior executive at Outback to get a bonus, thanks to a quarterly incentive program created exclusively for him. He often has ended up the company's best-paid employee.

In 1997, for example, he earned salary and bonuses totaling $579,000 and an option to purchase 100,000 shares of company stock. No other top executive received a bonus or stock options that year; Outback co-founders Chris Sullivan and Bob Basham, CEO and COO at the time, each earned $400,000.

Though 2004 was "not a great year by our standards," said Sullivan, Avery's salary and bonus package totaled nearly $1.9-million, almost triple Sullivan's take-home pay.

Despite such esteem, Outback's board chose Bill Allen to succeed Sullivan, who resigned as CEO in March. Allen is seen as a visionary in the Sullivan mold. He cofounded the Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar chain (now owned by Outback), helped create the Paul Lee's Chinese Kitchen concept (a new Outback chain), and was partly responsible for the success of Roy's, another Outback brand.

Avery was chosen to be the operational yang to Allen's creative yin, much like Basham was to Sullivan.

What does Avery's staff say behind his back? Probably that he can be too detail-oriented, he said during a recent interview in his modest office, adorned with photos of his two daughters and wife of 21 years, Suzanne.

But, he added, "I work hard, am honest and candid with people, I keep my word, (and) I believe I am perceived as someone who is always trying to support others and promote them."

His attention to detail also remains one of his greatest strengths.

"I think I've always been good about seeing what's going on, identifying good practices, and bringing them back and sharing them," he said.

[Last modified September 23, 2005, 19:25:02]