While plenty of grocery companies appointed new executives to lead various departments of their businesses, June was primarily defined by Amazon and SpartanNash’s broader executive shuffles.
However, each executive change played out very differently. While Amazon’s moves were part of an ongoing effort to meld its grocery business with Whole Foods Market, SpartanNash cut an unspecified number of positions while simultaneously reassigning and promoting workers.
Notable executive changes last month came from Ahold Delhaize, which named a new chief financial officer, as well as Thrive Market, which named its first-ever chief operating officer.
Here’s a roundup of top-level executive shifts that unfolded in June.
Ahold Delhaize USA taps Food Lion executive
Ahold Delhaize USA named Food Lion veteran Jason Wilson as CFO at the end of June. Wilson has worked for the Dutch supermarket operator since 2000 and served most recently as senior vice president of finance for Food Lion.
In his new role, Wilson will lead financial strategies and operations as well as assist in growing the grocery company’s presence as an omnichannel retailer.
Earlier in his career, Wilson served in multiple roles for Delhaize America, Ahold Delhaize USA’s predecessor, beginning as an inventory controller in accounting and moving on to positions including director of business development, vice president of strategy and vice president of finance and business planning
Amazon restructures grocery leadership
Amazon’s June announcement to restructure its operations resulted in a mixed-bag leadership team, with select executives from both companies assuming new roles.
Karen Christensen, who has worked at Whole Foods for nearly 30 years and is the grocer’s SVP of merchandising, will lead Amazon Fresh and Amazon Go in North America, Business Insider originally reported. Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, who became Whole Foods’ chief merchandising and marketing officer in 2023, will lead Worldwide Grocery marketing and private brands along with Whole Foods Market Business.
Whole Foods veterans Bill Jordan and Christina Minardi are also listed under the new Worldwide Grocery leadership team, with the former tapped to head up store operations while the latter will lead the division’s real estate growth and development. Amazon veteran Anand Varadarajan will lead technology and supply chain.
Uber looks to in-house grocery exec to lead delivery operations
In mid-June, Uber announced it promoted Susan Anderson as its new global head of delivery, where she is tasked with overseeing strategy and operations for Uber Eats in over 30 countries. Anderson is now also a part of Uber’s executive leadership team.
Anderson formerly served as head of grocery and retail for Uber. Prior to that, she was the global head of the company’s Uber for Business unit, which allows corporate clients to use Uber’s consumer-oriented services for business rides and meals.
Before joining Uber, Anderson worked for Amazon in the United Kingdom, where she launched that company’s Prime Now delivery service as well as served as a category leader for baby products.
Schnucks names new chief people officer
As of June 16, Bob Lockett took over as Schnuck Markets’ chief people officer. Overseeing the entire Human Resources team, Lockett will head up team benefits, talent acquisition and retention, labor relations, training and development, and head company culture initiatives, according to Schnucks. He also joined the grocer’s nine-member Strategy Team, which is in charge of leading the overall direction and execution of the company.
Prior to Schnucks, Lockett held the same position at CAE and, before that, was chief diversity officer and talent officer at ADP.
Thrive Market onboards Amazon veteran
The online specialty grocer in early June named veteran Amazon executive Scott Lescher as its first-ever chief operating officer. At Thrive, Lescher will implement growth strategies surrounding operational scale, capacity expansion and overall operational improvements — similar to his responsibilities at Amazon.
During his two stints that totaled more than 15 years with Amazon, Lescher said in an interview with Grocery Dive he learned “all aspects of the supply chain” as he oversaw scaling Amazon’s Prime Now ultra-fast delivery program, helmed Amazon Fresh’s national rollout and held numerous operational leadership roles supporting Amazon’s middle-mile transportation program.
Krasdale Foods names vice president of finance
Krasdale Foods announced at the start of the month that it promoted Corporate Controller Rob Gangemi to vice president of finance. Since joining the company in 2017, Gangemi has helped develop more efficient and automated reconciliation of reports and also created monthly updates for the CFO and president. Now, he will oversee the company’s finance department.
