Papa John’s Hires Andrew Varga as Chief Marketing Officer

Papa John’s International, Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) today announced the hiring of Andrew Varga as Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Varga, a marketing veteran who joins Papa John’s after 21 years with Brown-Forman Corporation (NYSE: BFB), will report to Papa John’s President and Chief Operating Officer, Jude Thompson.

"We are excited to welcome Andrew Varga to Papa John’s,” commented Thompson. "Andrew is a savvy marketing veteran who understands the power of branding and has done an outstanding job during his career at Brown-Forman. He has significant retail and branding experience in a highly competitive environment, and I am confident in his ability to move Papa John’s forward by keeping our brand on message and on strategy.”

Since 2007, Varga has held the position of Senior Vice President/Director of Marketing for Brown-Forman, responsible for the company’s Wines and Spirits portfolio in the North American Region, representing 30 brands with annual sales well in excess of $1 billion. From 2004 to 2007, Varga was Senior Vice President/Managing Director, Wines Marketing, with global responsibility for the wine portfolio.

From 2002 to 2004, Varga was Vice President/Director of Corporate Strategy, leading Brown-Forman’s strategic planning process and reporting to the company’s Chairman and CEO. From 1988 to 2002, Varga held various positions of increasing responsibility for Brown-Forman, including Brand Director for Korbel Champagne.

Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Papa John's is the world's third largest pizza company. For nine of the last 10 years, consumers have rated Papa John's No. 1 in customer satisfaction among all national pizza chains in the highly regarded American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Papa John's was honored by Restaurants & Institutions Magazine (R&I) with the 2009 Gold Award for Consumers’ Choice in Chains in the pizza segment, ranked first among pizza companies in the 2008 Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index and was named 2007 Pizza Today Chain of the Year. For more information about the company or to order pizza online, visit Papa John's at www.papajohns.com.