Women for All Seasons

With all of the talk in recent years of employees who are struggling to achieve an optimal work-life balance, the 2014 class of Progressive Grocer?s Top Women in Grocery provides a master class in how do to just that. These women continually juggle major responsibilities in the workplace and demanding community and professional commitments, and they make it look easy.

Just a small sampling of the accomplishments of this year?s standout honorees will serve as ample illustration. Senior-Level Executive Lisa Henriksen, SVP of marketing and own brands at Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, handled the implementation of two comprehensive price reduction campaigns, enabled the grocer to save on its loyalty program, and, in her capacity as the head of the company?s corporate responsibility efforts, promoted initiatives with such worthy partners as regional food banks, all the while supporting her daughters? school and Girl Scout activities.

Rising Star Lucia Brower, director of store innovation at Quincy, Mass.? based Ahold USA, not only had oversight of nearly 800 stores, but also imparted insights at Harvard Business School relating to her previous experience as co-founder of an innovative small-format grocery chain, raised funds toward scholarships for low-income students, and still found time to mother two young sons, one of them a newborn at the time under review.

Store Manager Jimmie ?Lynn? Hackler, who leads City Market #406 in Durango, Colo., combined an engaging, outgoing personality that makes meetings fun and never fails to celebrate her associates for their work with the unrelenting drive to pursue hard results ?with a vengeance,? as her nominator admiringly puts it.

These three women, and the other 308 who appear in the following pages ? a record number of Top Women for PG ? truly exemplify the idea that lives lived in full, with dedicated service to one?s company, colleagues, fellow men and women, and loved ones all finding a place, are the most rewarding.