Aramark names new CFO, who has a long track record at key competitor

Aramark announced on Monday that Thomas G. Ondrof will join the Philadelphia food- and uniform-services giant as chief financial officer, effective Tuesday.

Ondrof, who has a business connection to Aramark’s new chief executive, John J. Zillmer, replaces Steve Bramlage, who will remain as an adviser until April 3. It is common for a new CEO to bring in a new CFO.

Ondrof spent a large chunk of his career at Aramark rival Compass Group North America, where his jobs included chief development officer, chief strategy officer, and CFO. More recently, starting in October 2016, Ondrof was CFO at Performance Food Group, a distributor. He left Performance last month, Aramark said.

Zillmer was on Performance’s board from 2015 until October, when he started as CEO of Aramark.

Bramlage oversaw Aramark’s finances during last year’s employee-bonus fiasco, which contributed to the abrupt retirement of former CEO Eric Foss in August. Under Foss’ leadership, Aramark decided not to pay 2018 bonuses to thousands of front-line managers, saying company-wide profits were too low, but the managers weren’t told that was a factor in their individual bonus plans until after the year in question was over.

Bramlage and other top executives, including Foss, still got their annual incentive payouts despite the profit shortfall because the company met precisely the “minimum threshold” for executive bonus payouts.

In November, Aramark reached a $21 million preliminary agreement to settle two proposed employee class-action lawsuits over the bonuses.

At $44.08, Aramark shares were up nearly 2% on Monday.