Darden Restaurants, Incorporated was founded by Bill Darden in 1938 when he opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in Waycross, Georgia that featured “Service with a Hop.” Thirty years later he opened the first Red Lobster in Lakeland, Florida. General Mills acquired Red Lobster in 1970 before spinning off Darden Restaurants Incorporated, so it could focus on consumer food products (Wikipedia). By 1975, Darden was promoted to the position of Vice President at General Mills. Darden Restaurants became a public company on May 9, 1995 as a result of the spin-off from General Mills, and then became a fully separate entity on May 31, 1995, when its shares went on sale on the New York Stock Exchange (Wikipedia). On July 28, 2014, Darden
