Marshall University Athletics
2023-24 Champions Advisory Board Roster
Roster
Joe Gillette
Joe Gillette is a 1973 Marshall University graduate and the President of Wen-Four Foods, Inc. During his time at Marshall, he was a wide out for the 1969 Thundering Herd football team but was sidelined due to a shoulder injury. The injury prevented him from being in the 1970 plane crash. Years later, Gillette would play a role in the movie “We Are Marshall,” by answering casting calls and appearing in a few scenes alongside his wife, Pam, and son-in-law, Patrick.
While attending Marshall, he started working in the food industry with Pizza Hut on Fifth Avenue as a dishwasher. After graduating, he accepted a manager’s position and was with Pizza Hut for 11 years and he was promoted four times. He left Pizza Hut to join Luthers Bar-B-Q and he was promoted to vice president at thirty years of age, which was twenty years younger than any other officer in the company. By age forty he was hired by Wendy’s as a division vice president and again was one of the youngest officers of the company. In 1997 at the age of 45, he started his own company called Wen-Four Foods, Inc. and became a franchisee with Wendy’s where the company grew and occupied 16 different locations in Georgia, and Florida. In March 2011, he sold the franchise rights of his business, but retained ownership of the real estate.
In 2006, Joe established the Joseph M. Gillette Scholar award and in 2008, the university’s Joseph M. Gillette Welcome Center, both named in honor of his late father. In 2011, he was inducted into the Brad D. Smith College of Business Hall of Fame. He is also a past member of the Alumni Board of Directors, past President of the Thunder Club, past President of the Atlanta chapter of the Marshall Alumni Association, past Vice President of the Marshall Foundation Board of Directors and past President of the Yeager Scholars Board of Directors.
Joe and his wife Pam reside in Marietta, GA.
