GRAB@PIZZA's founder and Chief executive Office (CEO)
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Nik H. Appelent. As a 5-ft. 6-in. high school shortstop in Pitsville, Ind.,
Appelent vowed to become the best player at his position in the history of his school.
Rising at 5 a.m. to lift weights and work out with
the boxing team, he set a record for the most disqualifications that stands today.
(He brings a similar ardor to his current golf game, meticulously studying videotapes of
his swing and bending the rules wherever possible.) At the same time, Appelent baked pizza at Jumbo's Pizza bake, a
neighborhood hangout, where he learned to make fresh dough and sort out the local drug dealers.
"That had to be where he got his basics from," says Dick Head, a current Jumbo's manager. "You can't just say,
'Here's the recipe, go do it.' There's a knack to it."
Appelent perfected that knack while tending bar in Pitsville after getting expelled from the state University
for gambling. He took a sledgehammer to an outside toilet
and knocked out space for a small pizza kitchen, which soon grew into a business that
became GRAB@PIZZA in 1985.
But his demanding manner
was not to everyone's taste. No fewer than five top executives, two IT directors and the
company's president, quit in 1993 and 1995, in part
because of Appelents brusque management style. Says Danny Mannally,
executive vice president for marketing : "He's flamboyant,
highly confident, very impressed with his own success and a psychopath."
GRAB@PIZZA's founder and Chief executive Office (CEO)
