PJ Western's very first restaurant in Russia opened in 2003, when CEO Christopher Wynne acquired the majority of the franchise.
Only in his mid-twenties, Wynne brought his American entrepreneurial spirit to the Company, and began building a network from the ground up.
Wynne built the restaurant and the local quality control center in quick succession, enabling him to begin expanding the network as quickly as possible. After the 2008 recession, Wynne disengaged from his mortgage business to focus fully on Papa John's. From there, he established new locations in Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Kazan, Samara, Krasnoyarsk, and other major Russian cities.