Herman Cain
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Herman Cain (Born December 13, 1945) is a conservative African-American businessman, politician, and radio talk-show host from Georgia. He is best known as the former chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza.
[edit] Early life and career
Herman grew up in Georgia. Cain's father worked three jobs because he wanted his family to have more opportunity. As a result of his father's encouragement, Cain earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Morehouse College in 1967. He earned a master's degree from Purdue University while working as a mathematician for the Department of the Navy. Upon graduation, he worked as a business analyst for The Coca-Cola Company. In 1968, he married Gloria Etchison. They would go on to have two children and two grandchildren.
In 1977, Cain joined The Pillsbury Company at age 31. Within three years, he rose to the position of Vice President of Corporate Systems and Services. He resigned his senior position in 1982 to begin work at Pillsbury's Burger King Division. Nine months later, he was managing 400 Burger King units in the Philadelphia region, the company's poorest performer. Within three years, his region ranked number one.
In 1986, Cain was appointed president of then financially troubled Godfather's Pizza, Inc. chain. In 14 months, the chain regained profitability and in 1988, he led his executive team in a buyout of the company from Pillsbury. Cain was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Restaurant Association (NRA) in 1988. While serving as Chairman, he developed the organization into a pro-business voice through national debates and speeches concerning healthcare reform, employment policies and taxation. Following this experience, he was appointed to serve on the Economic Growth and Tax Reform Commission. He then became a senior advisor to the 1996 Dole/Kemp presidential campaign.
While continuing as President and Chairman of Godfather's Pizza, Inc., Cain became a national keynote speaker. Using his message as the foundation, Cain created a leadership firm and he has authored three books on topics ranging from leadership to self-empowerment. In 2002, he became an Executive Lecturer for the Gallup Organization.
In 1996, Cain was elected CEO and president of the NRA. Additionally, Cain is a former Chairman and Member of The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1992 to 1996. Cain leveraged his restaurant experience with the technology market when he became CEO and president of RetailDNA, a software technology company, in 1999. Currently having left CEO and Chairman of the Board positions of Godfather's Pizza, he is still a member of the Board of Directors of various companies. Cain also serves as an associate minister of Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta.
In 2003, Cain announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for United States Senate from Georgia to replace retiring Senator Zell Miller. Cain campaigned on replacing the federal income tax code with the FairTax (a national sales tax plan), restructuring the Social Security system, reducing the influence of government and the courts in the health care system and increasing public participation in politics. Cain was a staunch social conservative (with some departure from the party line on affirmative action) and ran radio ads against gay marriage which were criticized by the Georgia branch of the Log Cabin Republicans. Cain received press attention and some major endorsements, but placed second to Johnny Isakson in the 2004 Republican primary, unable to keep Isakson low enough for a runoff. After Cain's loss in the 2004 Senate GOP primary, he vowed he would continue to serve the people of Georgia in some form of public office. Cain wrote a book, They Think You're Stupid, with a foreword by Zell Miller. He was reportedly asked to run for lieutenant governor in the 2006 elections, but declined.[citation needed]
Cain is a recurring guest on Fox News Channel's Cost of Freedom business block segment. Cain is also a frequent substitute host for The Neal Boortz Show Boortz and Bill Bennett's Morning in America. Cain also hosts his own syndicated radio program, which airs on Saturdays; the show originates from WSB-AM in Atlanta, Georgia.
[edit] Cancer Diagnosis
In April of this year a spokesperson for Herman Cain announced that he had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
