Big Y Hires Project Management Office Director
The board of directors of Big Y Foods has appointed Tenneille McFarlane-Smart to the role of director of the newly created project management office (PMO). In this position, McFarlane-Smart will be responsible for all project activity across all Big Y divisions, serving as a liaison between information resources technology and all business units to track strategic projects centrally for visibility, prioritization and resource allocation. Additionally, she will guide and support these initiatives to ensure timely and successful strategic project delivery.
McFarlane-Smart’s work experience spans various industries. In 2005, she was associate project manager supporting new business development for New York-based international ad agency J. Walter Thompson. Two years later, she joined Voya Financial, in Connecticut, where she held several roles, including project manager for retirement services IT. In 2019, she came to Fairfield, Conn.-based Envision Pharma Group as a senior IT project manager, becoming chief of staff in the office of the CEO from 2021 until the present.
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“On behalf of all of us, we are thrilled to welcome Tenneille to our Big Y family,” said COO Michael P. D’Amour, to whom McFarlane-Smart will report. “Tenneille’s leadership will be essential to strengthening the governance surrounding our overall project management process and execution. We are confident in her abilities to launch and develop the project management office as a strategic initiative to better serve our customers, our employees and our communities.”
McFarlane-Smart holds a BBA from Pace University, an MBA from Bay Path University and a JD from Western New England University School of Law. Licensed to practice law in the state of Connecticut, she is also a Certified Project Management Professional.
“I am honored to be joining Big Y and working with an exceptional team to develop the PMO function and support the timely and successful delivery of Big Y’s portfolio of projects,” said McFarlane-Smart, who lives in Windsor, Conn., with her two children.
Springfield, Mass.-based Big Y is one of the largest independently owned supermarket chains in New England. Big Y operates locations throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut, including supermarkets, Table & Vine Fine Wines and Liquors, and Big Y Express gas and convenience locations, with more than 10,000 employees. The company is No. 75 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
