Darden Restaurants' CEO is Rick Cardenas, appointed in Jan 2021, has a tenure of 5.58 years. total yearly compensation is $34.82M, comprised of 3.8% salary and 96.2% bonuses, including company stock and options. directly owns 0.076% of the company’s shares, worth €16.34M. The average tenure of the management team and the board of directors is 5.6 years and 11.8 years respectively.
Key information
Rick Cardenas
Chief executive officer
US$34.8m
Total compensation
CEO salary percentage
3.81%
CEO tenure
5.6yrs
CEO ownership
0.08%
Management average tenure
5.6yrs
Board average tenure
11.8yrs
Recent management updates
Recent updates
CEO Compensation Analysis
How has Rick Cardenas's remuneration changed compared to Darden Restaurants's earnings?
Date
Total Compensation
Salary
Company Earnings
May 31 2026
US$35m
US$1m
US$1b
Feb 22 2026
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Nov 23 2025
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Aug 24 2025
n/a
n/a
US$1b
May 25 2025
US$14m
US$1m
US$1b
Feb 23 2025
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Nov 24 2024
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Aug 25 2024
n/a
n/a
US$1b
May 26 2024
US$12m
US$1m
US$1b
Feb 25 2024
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Nov 26 2023
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Aug 27 2023
n/a
n/a
US$985m
May 28 2023
US$9m
US$1m
US$984m
Feb 26 2023
n/a
n/a
US$950m
Nov 27 2022
n/a
n/a
US$911m
Aug 28 2022
n/a
n/a
US$917m
May 29 2022
US$5m
US$796k
US$955m
Feb 27 2022
n/a
n/a
US$1b
Nov 28 2021
n/a
n/a
US$923m
Aug 29 2021
n/a
n/a
US$827m
May 30 2021
US$4m
US$745k
US$632m
Feb 28 2021
n/a
n/a
-US$216m
Nov 29 2020
n/a
n/a
-US$112m
Aug 30 2020
n/a
n/a
-US$184m
May 31 2020
US$3m
US$686k
-US$49m
Compensation vs Market: Rick's total compensation ($USD34.82M) is above average for companies of similar size in the Italian market ($USD6.33M).
Compensation vs Earnings: Rick's compensation has increased by more than 20% in the past year.
CEO
Rick Cardenas (58 yo)
5.6yrs
Tenure
US$34,815,978
Compensation
Mr. Ricardo Cardenas, also known as Rick, serves as Trustee at University of Central Florida. He is Director of Darden Concepts, Inc. Mr. Cardenas serves as President at Darden Restaurants, Inc. since Janu...
Leadership Team
Name
Position
Tenure
Compensation
Ownership
Ricardo Cardenas
CEO, President & Director
5.6yrs
US$34.82m
0.076% € 16.3m
Rajesh Vennam
Senior VP & CFO
5.6yrs
US$5.46m
0.0076% € 1.6m
Sarah King
Senior VP & Chief People Officer
9.4yrs
US$3.24m
0.00065% € 140.0k
Todd Burrowes
President of Business Development
2.3yrs
US$4.09m
0.045% € 9.6m
John Martin
President of Specialty Restaurant Group
22.6yrs
US$4.10m
0.021% € 4.5m
Christopher Chang
Senior VP & Chief Information Officer
10.3yrs
no data
no data
Courtney Aquilla
Vice President of Finance & Investor Relations
no data
no data
no data
Lindsay Koren
Senior VP
less than a year
no data
0.0022% € 465.3k
Susan Connelly
Senior VP and Chief Communications & Public Affairs Officer
11yrs
no data
0.0037% € 790.5k
Douglas Milanes
Senior VP & Chief Supply Chain Officer
11.3yrs
no data
0.0034% € 728.1k
Jaime Bunker
Senior Vice President of Marketing - Olive Garden
4.6yrs
no data
no data
Laura Williamson
President of LongHorn Steakhouse
3.6yrs
no data
0.015% € 3.3m
5.6yrs
Average Tenure
57yo
Average Age
Experienced Management: 1DRI's management team is seasoned and experienced (5.6 years average tenure).
Board Members
Name
Position
Tenure
Compensation
Ownership
Ricardo Cardenas
CEO, President & Director
4.3yrs
US$34.82m
0.076% € 16.3m
Margaret Atkins
Independent Director
11.8yrs
US$416.39k
0.0010% € 219.7k
James Fogarty
Independent Director
12.6yrs
US$357.35k
0.023% € 5.0m
Charles Sonsteby
Independent Director
12.6yrs
US$426.50k
0.017% € 3.7m
Cynthia Jamison
Independent Chair of the Board
12.6yrs
US$598.59k
0.0061% € 1.3m
Timothy Wilmott
Independent Director
7.9yrs
US$408.41k
0.024% € 5.1m
Juliana Chugg
Independent Director
4.4yrs
US$352.84k
0.0037% € 807.8k
William Simon
Independent Director
11.8yrs
US$321.61k
0.0055% € 1.2m
Daryl Kenningham
Independent Director
1.7yrs
US$318.53k
0.0016% € 336.0k
11.8yrs
Average Tenure
66yo
Average Age
Experienced Board: 1DRI's board of directors are seasoned and experienced ( 11.8 years average tenure).
Company Analysis and Financial Data Status
Data
Last Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis
2026/08/20 22:19
End of Day Share Price
2026/08/20 00:00
Earnings
2026/05/31
Annual Earnings
2026/05/31
Data Sources
The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.
* Example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.
Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more.
Analysis Model and Snowflake
Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.
Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.
Industry and Sector Metrics
Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on Github.
Analyst Sources
Darden Restaurants, Inc. is covered by 45 analysts. 25 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.