Donatos CEO Kevin King on Leading With Heart.

Send us Fan MailKevin King is the CEO of Donatos, but the first thing you should probably know about him is that he really loves his wife.Leslie has challenged him, sharpened him, expanded his taste in music, and spent more than three decades helping him become the person and leader he is today. So naturally, Keri calls her in the middle of the interview.What follows is a very human conversation about marriage, parenting, family, leadership, and running one of Columbus’s most recognizable brands.Kevin explains how he taught his daughter to handle a bully, why he wants his adult children to have relationships with him that do not depend on their mother, and what he has learned about staying calm enough to solve the actual problem.That same approach shapes the way he leads Donatos through changing customer expectations, third-party delivery, automation, and AI. Kevin is not interested in using technology to remove people from hospitality. He wants to use it to eliminate the work people hate so they can spend more time taking care of customers.This is a conversation about pizza, people, marriage, consistency, and why a good leader sometimes has to make sure everyone can see his heart.