Women at the Top: CEO Snapshots
Beyond Food and Consumables
In the larger retailer universe, women lead some of the nation’s most notable retailers, which are leaders in their various sectors. For example, there’s Corrie Barry, CEO at Best Buy; former Home Depot CFO Carol Tome, who is now CEO of UPS; and Michelle Gass, Barbara Rentler, Sonia Syngal and Lauren Hobart, CEOs of Kohl’s, Ross Stores, Gap Inc., and Dick’s Sporting Goods, respectively. There have also been some notable departures of female CEOs, including Mary Dillon and Jill Soltau, the former CEOs of Ulta Beauty and J.C. Penney, respectively, who have stepped down from their positions in the past six months.
Female CEOs may remain few and far between across the grocery industry, but there have been notable developments of late.
For example, three of the top 10 companies in The PG 100 ranking of North America’s largest retailers of food and consumables are now led by women, after a series of key executive changes during the past 18 months, with eight companies in the complete list headed by female CEOs. It’s also worth noting that future ranks of women in the food retailing C-suite could soon expand, judging from the volume of senior executives recognized in the past two years in Progressive Grocer’s Top Women in Grocery (TWIG) program. Now in its 15th year, the three-tiered program, which recognizes Store Managers, Rising Stars and Senior-Level Executives, saw 91 Senior-Level Executive women recognized as TWIG winners this year. That’s a record number, up from 88 the prior year, which was also a record number.
This suggests that there’s an ample pipeline of talent available to ascend to the C-suite when opportunities arise, and assuming that retailers follow through on what have been fairly vocal public commitments to achieving increased gender diversity. Until then, here’s a look at the women who lead some of the nation’s largest retailers of food and consumables.