Photos by Wes Kroninger
White Castle – the renowned, Columbus-based purveyor of fast-food sliders – has stayed in the local Ingram family for nearly a century.
It celebrated a new first in 2015 when Lisa Ingram – great-granddaughter of Billy Ingram, one of the chain’s founders – stepped up as White Castle’s fourth CEO. She’s the first woman to hold the job.
Ingram’s great-grandfather helped kick off White Castle in Kansas in 1921, starting a family legacy. But Ingram never thought she’d ascend to the top job.
While always proud of her family’s name, the Upper Arlington resident wanted to choose her own path. It was a path that ultimately led her back to the family business.
“I wanted to go out and explore the world,” says Ingram, who also grew up in Upper Arlington. “I wanted to see a different city, and I wasn’t sure if I would ever come back and work in the family business.”
Ingram ended up living in Dallas for about a decade, and enjoyed spreading her wings in a place where no one knew of her family. During her time in Dallas, she kept in touch with White Castle’s marketing director, who one day told Ingram she was looking for a marketing manager. She wanted to know if Ingram would be interested in the position.
She went back home to Columbus and accepted the job. While working in her new role, she also earned a master’s degree in business at The Ohio State University. She initially thought she might go into consulting, but her father presented her with “an offer I didn’t think I could refuse,” she says.
Though she says her father, Bill Ingram, left her very big shoes to fill, she was more than up for the challenge. He retired at the end of 2015 after 35 years with the company.
“We had three successful generations of progress and prosperity,” Ingram says. “I think the expectation to not be the generation to screw it up weighs heavily on my mind. They set the bar very high, so I’m always making sure that I’m doing what I can to honor the past but make sure we are relevant to the future. Mixing that together is hard to do sometimes, but if we keep doing it, we’ll see great things.”
The best part of her job, Ingram says, is getting to talk about White Castle, its 95-year-old history and her family’s legacy. The business, which originated in Kansas, officially moved to Columbus in 1934.
“We’re very proud to be a Columbus-based company,” Ingram says.
Ingram also serves on the OhioHealth, United Way of Central Ohio, Columbus Partnership and National Restaurant Association boards.
Hannah Bealer is an editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.
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