Jack Laughery

Who was Jack Laughery?

Jack Laughery was an American restaurant investor and consultant, the former CEO and chairman of the Hardee's restaurant chain.

In 1961 Jack Laughery left his successful insurance practice to join the Sandy's restaurant chain. In 1967 he was appointed president of Sandy's by the founder of the company, Gust E. "Brick" Lundberg. In 1971 Sandy's merged with Hardee's. Laughery was named executive vice president of operations of the new expanded Hardee's Food Systems Inc. A year later he was appointed president and chief operating officer, and in 1975 he was named CEO. Under Laughery's leadership, Hardee's introduced the "Big Twin" sandwich, Made-From-Scratch biscuits, the highly successful California Raisins promotion, and acquired the Burger Chef chain. Laughery expanded the company's presence from 750 restaurants to 3,300 restaurants in 42 states and nine countries, and when he stepped down as CEO in 1990, Hardee's sales of $4.1 billion made it the third largest QSR hamburger chain in the world.

From 1990 until his retirement in 1994, Mr. Laughery remained Chairman of Hardee's and a board member of Imasco Ltd., Hardee's parent company at the time. In 1993 he was made a Director of Papa John's International in Louisville. Mr. Laughery also served on the boards of directors of several investment corporations.