Supervalu Names Kathy Persian SVP, CIO

Kathy Persian has been appointed senior vice president and chief information officer at Supervalu Inc. to succeed Wayne Shurts, who has accepted a position with another company.

Persian, 45, joined the company in February 2010 as group VP of retail and merchandising systems, and later moved to group VP of corporate planning, analysis and business process.

Prior to joining Supervalu, Persian spent more than 20 years at Accenture and Best Buy, working in business areas of IT, general retail, retail operations, merchandising, supply chain and finance. At Accenture, Persian began as a staff consultant and worked her way up to a partner in their retail practice. She most recently worked for Best Buy as senior VP of international business process and operations.

“Kathy has held roles within Supervalu that have allowed her to become familiar with both the business and information technology sides of the company,” said Wayne Sales, Supervalu’s president, CEO and chairman. “This experience will serve her well in providing the technological and business support the company needs as we continue to focus on profitable growth while reducing expenses. She is a proven leader and a great addition to our leadership team.”

Reporting directly to Sales, Persian will lead all of the company’s information technology activities.

Of Shurts’ departure, Sales remarked: “It’s been a true pleasure to work with Wayne. We thank him for his leadership these past two-and-a-half years and wish him well in the future.”

Minneapolis-based Supervalu Inc. operates a network of 4,400 stores composed of 1,101 traditional retail stores, including 798 in-store pharmacies; 1,336 hard discount stores, of which 939 are operated by licensee owners; and 1,950 independent stores serviced primarily by the company’s food distribution business.