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In 2019, John Matter needed something different after many years of broadly supporting Papa Johns’ global operations, employment matters, and managing litigation. He wasn’t sure what at first, but the legal leader decided to step away for a year to serve as a vice president and senior counsel at longtime Kentucky Derby host Churchill Downs.
But Papa Johns’ chief administrative officer, Caroline Oyler, stayed in Matter’s ear and offered him the opportunity to come back in a completely different role. Matter returned in 2020; five years and a few promotions later, he’s currently senior vice president of legal and general counsel, international.
The SVP supervises the Papa Johns legal team; supports board-level corporate governance, executive compensation, and SEC matters; and leads legal support for the company’s international business. In addition to his normal legal duties, he also managed the pizza chain’s international development team in 2024, and, more recently, was asked to oversee the compensation and benefits team on an interim basis.
“Coming back here was such a great decision, because what I’m doing today fits so well with the kind of evolution I was looking for,” Matter explains. “It’s been a great journey at Papa Johns, having supported almost every aspect of the business over the years. Since returning, I’ve also gotten to be part of many transformational projects, including helping create the platform by which we support our global business via our Restaurant Support Centers and regional hubs throughout the world.”
Matter says Papa Johns now has general managers in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America to support over fifty countries where Papa Johns has a presence. While Matter has recently supported significant projects in China, Korea, and Chile, he has also spent a significant amount of time supporting the UK market—the company’s largest international market—helping lead a turnaround project with a cross-border team.
Papa Johns acquired over a hundred struggling stores back from franchisees in the UK, and Matter led the project team to help refranchise those stores, close locations that were underperforming, and bring the market back to health, all within the span of a year. Matter credits the success of that project to working with an extraordinarily talented team to execute the plan, a very successful group effort.
“It was a long couple of years, but the results have significantly helped turn around our business there to contribute positively to the overall health of our international business,” Matter says. “It was a really great accomplishment.”
In addition to that lift, Matter began leading the Papa Johns international development team on an interim basis, all the while keeping his other responsibilities in corporate governance and broader legal support. Matter credits Caroline Oyler and the rest of the legal team for the opportunity to explore this dual role while keeping his normal legal responsibilities.
“The legal team has worked together for so long and they’re such a high-performing team,” Matter says. “I was able to lean on them while I was also managing the international development team. I’m so proud of both teams because they have all stepped up in a big way over the last few years.”
Matter didn’t take his widening purview lightly, stepping into separate business roles. The SVP earned his dual JD/MBA at the University of Arizona, but later returned to the Thunderbird School of Global Management, earning a master’s in global management in 2008. The SVP says he learned so much during that time that is directly applicable to his job today, especially when it comes to being a business-minded attorney who also understands the unique aspects of international law and working with global teams.
“There are so many nuances to international law that you’re never truly going to be an expert in every area, so you have to develop a legal framework to work through issues and a trusted network of outside counsel that you can rely on,” Matter explains. “Helping them understand your business is important, because the more they understand, the easier it is for them to give you the best advice.”
Matter is a proponent of business education for lawyers, especially those looking to go in-house. He says his business school experience was more team-oriented and cross-functional, whereas law school prioritized individual performance in many instances. In Matter’s view, however, individual performance is never going to outweigh a highly functioning team approach. Learning how to thrive in a team environment is vital for long-term in-house success.
“Coming back here was such a great decision, because what I’m doing today fits so well with the kind of evolution I was looking for.”
John Matter
While supporting the international business has been Matter’s most broad change over the last few years, so much of his work is still built around board governance, SEC compliance, and assisting his boss and mentor—the same Oyler who brought Matter back to the company—in accomplishing her broader legal goals as the company’s newly appointed chief administrative officer.
“We are preparing for our next board of directors meetings, and before that, it was proxy season,” Matter shares. “So much of that work is quarterly driven, so it’s just a matter of balancing that schedule with the rest of what’s on my plate, whether that’s supporting our major company initiatives, financial reporting, international work, or corporate governance matters.”
Matter’s also focused on helping develop the next generation of legal leaders at Papa Johns. Given his tenure and wide range of experience, he has a lot to give back, and the SVP sees it as a personal duty to help the legal team with their career development goals.
While that may seem an incredible caseload, Matter says one of the things he cherishes most about the legal team culture at Papa Johns, from Oyler on down, is the priority of maintaining a healthy balance between work and family life. Matter loves spending time with his wife and two children, and also finds time for tennis, golf, and playing ice hockey with a team he’s been part of for fifteen years.
“I have worked with John Matter for over nine years in the defense of numerous bet-the-company class actions. John harbors high-level knowledge and leadership that expertly guide his company through adverse waters.”
–Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., Partner
