Safeway Inc. Appoints Former Dreyers CEO to Board

Safeway Inc. has appointed former chairman and CEO of Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc. T. Gary Rogers to its board of directors, which expands from nine to 10 members with this new appointment.

"Gary's vast experience as a supplier to the grocery industry, his business acumen and experience as a director will be great assets to the board," said Safeway chairman, president, and CEO, Steve Burd.

Rogers led Dreyer’s since 1977, and developed it into the nation's largest ice cream company. He retired in 2007, after the company was sold to Nestle. he is also the former chairman of Levi Strauss & Co, where he served as a director from 1998 to 2008. He also served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2005 through 2010, the last two years as its chairman.

He is also currently on the advisory boards of Shorenstein Properties and Stanislaus Food Products as well as a number of public service boards. Rogers previously served on the boards of Foster Farms, The Wine Group, GardenAmerica, Il Fornaio, and Marathon Meat.

Rogers holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar. He was named Harvard Business School Business Leader of the Year, Dairy Industry Executive of the Year, and is a member of the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc. operates 1,694 stores in the United States and Canada and had annual sales of $41.1 billion in 2010.