October was a busy month for grocery executive movement, with top changes including the sudden departures of Grocery Outlet’s president and CEO as well as Amazon’s top grocery executive.
Meanwhile, Albertsons updated its board of directors and Publix saw a string of vice president changes.
Here’s more information on October’s top-level changes.
1. Hy-Vee announces its president is retiring
After nearly 20 years at the supermarket chain and two years serving as its president, Donna Tweeten will retire on Jan. 24. Hy-Vee, which noted that it doubled in size during Tweeten’s tenure,has not yet named her successor.
Tweeten — the first woman to serve as president at the Iowa grocer — will leave just a few months after Randy Edeker, the company’s former CEO and chairman, retired after more than 40 years with the company.
2. Save A Lot welcomes a new chief operating officer
Several months after joining as the discounter’s chief development officer in March, Bill Mayo became Save A Lot’s chief operating officer on Oct. 19. Mayo’s appointment followed the retirement of Trey Johnson, the discounter’s chief merchandising and marketing officer, on Oct. 18.
In this expanded role, Mayo now oversees merchandising and marketing while also leading business development, sales and retail operations. Prior to coming to Save A Lot, Mayo served in various executive roles for Wakefern Food Corp. for nearly 30 years.
3. C&S’s chief procurement officer retires
C&S Wholesale Grocers Executive Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer Michael Papaleo retired on Oct. 4 after nearly 30 years with the grocery distributor and supermarket operator.
The company divided Papaleo’s duties among two executives: Mark McGowan, executive vice president of retail and chief merchandising officer, is heading up merchandising operations for C&S, while Senior Vice President of Procurement Andrew Connell is managing procurement, demand planning and inbound planning.
4. Amazon’s top grocery executive exits
Tony Hoggett, Amazon’s senior vice president of worldwide grocery stores, announced on LinkedIn last month that he is leaving after nearly three years leading up Amazon’s grocery business. Amazon has not yet named a successor.
Hoggett has joined delivery-focused restaurant chain Wonder as its chief operating officer, where he will oversee technology, supply chain and logistics, and culinary engineering divisions as well as run the company’s real estate and store operations teams, Fortune reported last week.
5. Publix sees shakeup among its VPs
The Florida-based grocer announced three retirements and four promotions last month, all effective Jan. 1, 2025.
SVP of Product Business Development Dave Bornmann, VP of Industrial Maintenance and Industrial Operations Purchasing Randy Barber, and VP of Facilities Bob McGarrity are retiring at the end of the year. Bornmann and Barber had worked for Publix for more than 40 years, while McGarrity had worked at the grocer for over a decade.
Upon Bornmann’s retirement, Brad Oliver, currently VP of produce business development for fresh products, will take over Bornmann’s role and Lee Revis, product business development director for meat, will step into Oliver’s former role.
Publix said it will promote Director of Industrial Maintenance and Industrial Operations Purchasing John Fisher to Barber’s role and Architect Program Manager Dave Taulbee to McGarrity’s role, following the retirements.
6. Grocery Outlet’s president and CEO abruptly departs
Grocery Outlet announced on Oct. 30 that President and CEO RJ Sheedy left the company and resigned from its board of directors. The discount grocer did not say why Sheedy, who served as its president since 2019 and as CEO since the start of 2023, exited.
Eric Lindberg, the board’s chairman and a former CEO of the company, is filling in as its interim president and CEO.
Sheedy’s departure marks the latest C-suite change for Grocery Outlet this year. In January, the company named Ramesh Chikkala, a former Walmart executive, as its first chief operations officer. Following Charles Bracher’s departure in March, Grocery Outlet appointed Lindsay Gray, previously the discounter’s senior vice president of accounting, as its interim CFO. During the August earnings call, Sheedy told investors that Grocery Outlet recently hired Sandeep Chawla as its new senior vice president and chief information officer.
7. Albertsons makes changes to its board
Albertsons’ board of directors elected Jim Donald as its sole independent chair, which took effect Oct. 24, the grocer announced last week.
The board also appointed Stephen Feinberg, co-CEO of CCM and co-founder of Albertsons’ private equity owner Cerebus, to its board for a term that expires at the company’s 2025 annual meeting. Feinberg’s appointment follows the departure of Chan Galbato, CEO of Cerberus Operations, from the board on Oct. 22.
