our team
Who We Are
The Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation is a private family foundation funded by David and Wendy Novak. It was established in 1999 as a charitable trust to provide charitable grants and scholarships to people in need. In 2011, the Lift a Life Foundation was officially rebranded to reflect our purpose, to help those in need reach their full potential. In 2019, the name changed to the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation to include the family name.
The Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation recognizes that without strong leaders and the resources to execute a large-scale vision, high impact in the nonprofit space is limited. We commit to partnering with organizations that have the leadership capability, the know-how and the personal passion to help their populations reach their full potential.
Executive Director
Ashley NOVAK Butler
Ashley Novak Butler serves as the Executive Director of the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation. Her work includes developing and managing grant investments with the Foundation’s strategic nonprofit partners, overseeing board communication and staff development, marketing, financial investments and grant evaluation. She joined the Novak Family Foundation in 2010 and has since created and implemented the Foundation’s investment strategy in the key areas of hunger relief, student leadership development, juvenile diabetes, early childhood education and military family support.
Ashley serves on the boards of various nonprofits including Dare to Care Food Bank, Norton Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Guiding Team for the Metro United Way’s Ready for K Alliance. Prior to joining the Novak Family Foundation, she worked for Southwest Airlines as a Marketing and Corporate Relations Manager. Ashley earned a B.A. in Political Science and Human Organizational Development from Vanderbilt University and is from Louisville, Kentucky. She is married to Jonathan Butler and has three amazing children, Audrey, Claire, and Luke.
Our Board of Directors
David and Wendy Novak
David Novak is the Founder and CEO of David Novak Leadership, a digital leadership development platform he created to help people become better leaders through content, curriculum and his podcast How Leaders Lead.
He is Co-Founder, retired Chairman, and CEO of Yum! Brands, Inc. (NYSE: YUM), one of the world’s largest restaurant companies with over 45,000 restaurants in more than 135 countries and territories. He retired in 2016.
A renowned expert on leadership and recognition culture, Novak is also a bestselling leadership book author. His highly respected and critically acclaimed books include The New York Times bestseller "Taking People With You: The Only Way to Make Big Things Happen", "The Education of an Accidental CEO: Lessons Learned from the Trailer Park to the Corner Office" and his latest parable, "O GREAT ONE! A Little Story About the Awesome Power of Recognition".
Yum! Brands include KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, the global leaders of the chicken, pizza, and Mexican-style food categories. Yum! Brands employ 1.5 million company employees and franchise associates across its worldwide system. Outside the United States, the Yum! Brands system opened over six new restaurants per day on average, making it a leader in global retail development.
During his tenure as CEO, Yum! Brands doubled in size to 41,000 restaurants and established itself as a global powerhouse going from approximately 20 percent of its profits coming from outside the United States in 1997 to nearly 70 percent in 2016 while remaining an industry leader in return on invested capital. In so doing, Yum! Brands’ compound annual shareholder return has been 16 percent and its market capitalization has grown to nearly $32 billion from just over $4 billion. Novak was also the architect of spinning off Yum! China is an independent public company as its largest licensee. In so doing, Yum Brands is now almost wholly owned and operated by franchisees.
Prior to leading Yum! Brands, Novak was President at both KFC and Pizza Hut, and held senior management positions at Pepsi-Cola Company, including Chief Operating Officer, and Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales.
Novak has been recognized as “2012 CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE, and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review. He received the prestigious 2015 Horatio Alger Award for his commitment to philanthropy and higher education and became a lifetime member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. He is the recipient of the 2012 UN World Food Program Leadership Award for Yum! Brands World Hunger Relief effort that raised awareness, volunteerism, and funds to address the global problem. He also received the national 2008 Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. Novak serves on the board of directors of Comcast and is a special contributor to leadership for CNBC.
Novak and his wife, Wendy, established the Lift a Life Foundation in 1999 to help individuals in need reach their full potential through innovative grants in the areas of youth leadership development, hunger relief, early childhood education, juvenile diabetes, and military family support.
Wendy Novak serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Wendy Novak Diabetes Care Center. She also serves as the Chair for the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation Community Impact Grant Committee and is currently serving on the board of Camp Hendon. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Missouri and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Columbia University.
David and Wendy credit their success to their strong family ties and the people who believed and inspired them to reach their potential. David and Wendy are excited about the Lift a Life Novak Family Foundation and its mission. Through the Foundation, they hope to make a greater impact on the lives of individuals and families in need and to develop leaders who can make a difference locally, nationally and globally.
Jonathan Butler
Jonathan Butler is owner of his counseling practice, JB Counseling, LLC. He received his Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from Campbellsville University. Prior to becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist, Jonathan spent ten years working in ticket sales and services for several collegiate athletic departments around the country. He and his wife Ashley have three children, Audrey, Claire, and Luke.