Safeway Appoints Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Kent Bradley has joined Safeway Inc. chief medical officer in a newly created position focused on further enhancing and building the Pleasanton, Calif.-based retailer’s reputation as a health care innovator. In his new capacity, Bradley will have overall responsibility for developing and guiding the company’s extensive portfolio of health care programs, including its employee and consumer wellness and prevention activities.

Reporting directly to Larree Renda, EVP and president of the company’s Safeway Health Inc, Bradley will also assist the subsidiary division on a range of related business initiatives.

"We are pleased and honored to have someone of Dr. Bradley's caliber and reputation joining the Safeway team," said Steve Burd, Safeway’s chairman, president and CEO. "His well-recognized expertise in health and wellness and his proven track record leading large groups of professionals in a range of challenging settings will bring immediate and important benefits to our company."

Bradley comes to Safeway after a distinguished career in the U.S. Army, where he earned the rank of colonel and served in a wide of range assignments, including chief medical officer (CMO) from the Infantry Division level to CMO-executive director for TRICARE-Europe, which supported more than 250,000 Department of Defense beneficiaries in over 95 countries throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Prior to that, Bradley served in Iraq as deputy commander of the 30th Medical Brigade.

Earlier in his career, Bradley led health teams supporting humanitarian and peace keeping efforts in Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Panama, Thailand and Rwanda. After retiring from the military in 2008, he joined as a partner with Martin, Blanck & Associates, a health services consulting firm for clients serving federal and state delivery systems while returning to college to earn his MBA.

Bradley is a West Point graduate and holds a Masters of Public Health from the University of Minnesota, School of Public Health and a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. He earned his MBA from the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.

As one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America based on sales, Safeway Inc. operates 1,687 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010.