Tom Leverton Named CEO of Anytime Fitness Parent Company

The former CEO of Chuck E. Cheese’s parent company is taking the helm of a global fitness brand with Minnesota roots.

On Thursday, Purpose Brands LLC – the newly renamed merger of Orangetheory Fitness and Self Esteem Brands – announced that Tom Leverton has been named CEO. Woodbury-based Self Esteem Brands is the parent of Anytime Fitness, Basecamp Fitness, and other brands. Orangetheory, meanwhile, is based in Boca Raton, Florida. The two companies unveiled plans to merge back in March.

An engineer by training, Leverton comes to the combined company after holding executive roles at a seemingly disparate range of businesses: Prior to his time at Chuck E. Cheese, he served as chief executive at TopGolf, as well as at emergency medical services helicopter firm Omniflight. Leverton also worked as chief development officer at FedEx office.

If there’s a throughline in Leverton’s career, it’s been a focus on “multi-site, consumer-facing businesses,” he said in an interview with TCB this week. “That’s the commonality.”

Most recently, Leverton worked as operating partner at Chicago-based investment firm Pritzker Private Capital. The businesses he oversaw there were also largely consumer-facing companies, he noted. Pritzker is not an investor in either Self Esteem Brands or Orangetheory, though Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital has invested in both fitness brands.

Leverton, who’s currently in Texas, plans to relocate to South Florida for the new job. When the opportunity came to lead the company, Leverton said he jumped at it.

“We have fantastic brands,” he said of the range of fitness companies now under the Purpose Brands umbrella. “I had known certainly about Anytime Fitness and Orangetheory – and I’m learning about our other brands – but those two are powerful brands. They’re part of Americana.”

Leverton takes over a company that has more than 7,000 locations across 50 countries and territories.

Chuck Runyon, who co-founded Anytime Fitness with Dave Mortensen over two decades ago, said the merged company will have dual headquarters in Minnesota and Florida. “Our employees could not be more excited to have a winter campus and a summer campus,” he said.

The merger between Self Esteem Brands and Orangetheory officially closed on April 2, but Runyon said that post-merger integration plans are still in progress, and will continue through 2025. “We’re trying to be very thoughtful, very surgical,” he said. “We’re going about it slowly, making sure we’re doing these back-office integrations in a way that won’t disrupt the franchise or member experience.”

As for the merged entity’s new name? Runyon said it’s not intended to be a consumer-recognized name like Anytime or Orangetheory; instead, it’s more for current and prospective franchisees.

“The name will become more common in the franchising or B2B space,” Runyon said. “Over time, [franchisees] will know about Purpose Brands being the biggest global platform for fitness franchising.”

What ultimately brought the merger together, Runyon added, is a “shared purpose to provide more opportunities for fitness and franchising for people around the world. So, it’s fitting we chose the name Purpose Brands.”

Runyon, who previously served as CEO of Self Esteem Brands, is transitioning to board director of the merged company. Ditto for Mortensen and Orangetheory co-founder and CEO Dave Long. Runyon expects to spend more time advocating for both fitness and franchising.

“For what it’s worth, I think the three of us are committed to taking active roles in continuing to promote and protect the fitness and franchise industry through our trade organizations,” Runyon said. That includes the International Franchise Association and the U.S.-based Health & Fitness Association. “There’s never been a better time now to think about ways to create healthier policies for small business owners, as well as individuals, to be healthy.”

Both Runyon and Leverton are bullish on growth prospects for fitness going forward, but it’s worth noting that the industry at large has seen its share of challenges in the post-Covid environment. Chanhassen-based competitor Life Time, for instance, reported losses in both 2021 and 2022, although the company did turn a profit in 2023.

Leverton said that “most of the industry sources show tremendous growth going forward in health and wellness.”

“It’s a matter of: How can you capture the prospective members’ attention? How can you support the franchisees in the best possible way?” he said.

Adds Runyon: “I could not be anymore enthusiastic about the growth of consumer spending in the wellness market. We are poised to capture that.”