The 2020 Top Women in Grocery: Senior-Level Executives
READ ALL ABOUT THE 2020 HONOREES
Progressive Grocer recognizes 350 extraordinary women this year who join the ranks of the Top Women in Grocery. These women strengthen the retail food industry at many levels, within both the retailer and supplier communities.
Top Women in Grocery is a community that has continued to grow since 2007, with the best and brightest women in the industry.
Honorees are recognized in one of three categories: Executive-Level, Rising Stars and Store Managers. Below you find an incredible group of 87 Executive-Level women.
Christine Bell
Chief Operations Counsel, Acosta
- Handling legal affairs for sales operations in the United States and Canada, and supporting procurement efforts, Bell recently led the implementation of Acosta’s new contract management platform, which required countless hours of coordination with the new vendor and Acosta’s internal teams.
- She also helped launch a new business model to streamline new-client onboarding and successfully renegotiated several deals that avoided liability for Acosta.
- Bell is a 2019 winner of Gold and Bronze Chairman’s Awards from Acosta, was named a Florida Rising Star by Super Lawyers, and is a member of the Deercreek Women’s Alliance.
Shauna Bowen
EVP, Central Operations, Innovation and E-commerce, Acosta
- Responsible for all e-commerce operations, Bowen drove continuous improvement across Acosta’s sales organizations
- Supporting the organization to deliver $850 million in revenue and $164 million in EBITDA, she was a standout for spearheading new ways of working across prioritized business units, implementing new resource management and planning tools, and boosting the execution of a new retailer-centric operating model by 17%.
- Active in the community, Bowen is a youth basketball, volleyball and soccer coach, and a program committee member of her local YMCA.
Christy Cates
SVP, Retail Operations, Acosta
- Influenced by positive female leaders within the organization and in the region, Cates led retail operations for the Acosta Walmart/Sam’s Club team to deliver on multiple business strategies.
- She strengthened relationships with existing supplier partners, onboarded new supplier partners, and optimized the retail model to increase in-store coverage and overdeliver on performance results, which were up 10% from the previous year.
- A five-time recipient of Acosta’s Chairman’s Award in recognition of her accomplishments exemplifying the company’s core values, Cates is a local sponsor for the Network of Executive Women’s (NEW) northwest Arkansas chapter.