Dollar General’s chief strategy officer exits

Dive Brief:

Dollar General Senior Vice President of Finance and Chief Strategy Officer Donny Lau has left the company.
Lau was named the chief financial officer of chicken chain Zaxby’s, effective on Tuesday, according to a press release.
Lau was with Dollar General since 2017 and became the company’s chief strategy officer last August. Dollar General did not immediately respond to questions from sister site Retail Dive regarding Lau’s exit.

Dive Insight:

After less than a year, Dollar General’s chief strategy officer has left that position and the company. Prior to the role, Lau served as the retailer’s vice president of investor relations and corporate strategy.

Lau’s exit has been among a large number of leadership changes and executive shuffling at Dollar General in a little over a year. At the time that Lau was named to the role of chief strategy officer, Dollar General also named three other leadership appointments within its store operations division.

Donny Lau left Dollar General to become the CFO of Zaxby’s.

Image courtesy of Zaxby’s

Additionally, in June of last year the retailer named 11 new executives, including the appointment of new senior vice presidents to oversee the company’s real estate, private label and distribution departments. At that time, the company also named eight new vice presidents, who took on roles in distribution, store operations, merchandising, human resources and information technology.

The company appointed a new CEO, Jeff Owen, last fall following the retirement of Chief Executive Todd Vasos. By April of this year, Dollar General promoted its senior vice president of finance to the role of CFO. A month later, the retailer created a new role of executive vice president of growth and emerging markets.

Then, this June, the company promoted multiple executives including elevating Chad Fox to the role of chief marketing officer and hired Lowe’s Smriti Maheshwari as vice president of inventory and demand management.

At Zaxby’s, Lau will lead financial strategy, planning and analytics, accounting and treasury for the company. Lau previously worked in leadership positions at Yum! Brands.