A former Hooters waitress worked her way up to become president of Cinnabon—all before the age of 35.

Kat Cole worked at Hooters for 15 years, starting as a waitress and eventually getting promoted to vice president, reports Duane Stanford at Bloomberg Businessweek.

Today, Cole is credited with taking Cinnabon's indulgent creations to grocery store shelves and fast food chains like Taco Bell.

Global sales at the company will reach $1 billion this year, Stanford reported.

Cole started working at Hooters when she was 16 to help her divorced mother with bills, according to Businessweek. Eventually, she obtained an engineering degree and became an executive, training employees.

Despite her status as leader of a famous company, Cole has stayed humble, according to Stanford.

"By executive standards, she and her longtime boyfriend live in a modest 3,000-square-foot home built in 1968 in Atlanta, which she gutted and filled with her own paintings," Stanford writes. "One room holds her boyfriend’s hunting bows and rifles. Cole drives a nine-year-old Mercedes. Her iPhone screen is cracked."

Cole appeared on "Undercover Boss" last year and told Business Insider about the experience.

At 34, she was the youngest executive ever featured on the show.



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