Legacy Food Group Promotes President/COO Miller to CEO
Legacy Food Group has promoted President and COO John H. Miller to chief executive officer effective Jan. 1. In his new role, Miller will help lead expansion efforts while continuing his focus on operational efficiencies as LFG continues to bring together regional independent foodservice distributors. Already this last year, John has helped integrate and coordinate the efforts of new five divisions, all of which came into the organization.
Miller’s promotion marks the next step in his impactful leadership journey at LFG, where he has already made a significant imprint on the company’s operations by leveraging his deep industry expertise and strategic mindset to accelerate the company’s growth, streamline operations, and enhance profitability across divisions.
“I’m honored to take on the role of chief executive officer at Legacy Food Group,” said Miller. “I look forward to leading this exceptional team as we continue to drive growth, strengthen our partnerships, and deliver value across the organization.”
Current CEO Steve Push will transition to the role of executive chairman, also effective Jan. 1, where he will remain actively involved in shaping the company’s long-term vision and strategic direction, focused on acquisitions initiation.
“This is the logical next step in the evolution of the LFG Leadership team. When we conducted a nationwide search to fill John’s current position, we interviewed a few dozen qualified candidates. We wanted to make sure we hired someone who could quickly ascend to the CEO role. John has done that. John’s track record of driving growth, fostering innovation, collaboration and leading with integrity makes him the ideal CEO for our next chapter. His ability to navigate complex challenges with a strategic and people-focused approach has already had a tremendous impact on our organization,” said Push. “I, and the rest of the LFG Board of Directors have full confidence that under his leadership, Legacy Food Group will continue to thrive and reach new heights.”
Miller’s background over the past 25 years is rooted in executive leadership across food distribution, logistics, acquisitions, risk management, and finance. He has cemented his reputation as a strategic leader through key restaffing efforts, operational expansions, and consistent financial growth. Miller also importantly has experience running both a large family-owned independent distributor in Glazier Foods Company and multi-billion-dollar operations within Sysco Corporation, which offers him a balanced perspective as the LFG platform continues to evolve with organic growth and additional acquisitions. His results-driven approach and ability to lead diverse teams through change has been a hallmark of his career.
“I’m excited to build on our success and guide Legacy Food Group into its next phase of expansion, innovation, and growth,” said Miller.
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Circana Hires Outgoing Kroger Exec Aitken as President, CEO
Stuart Aitken
Circana, a leading advisor on the complexity of consumer behavior, has named Stuart Aitken president and CEO, effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Kirk Perry, who has decided to retire from his role as president and CEO at Circana and will continue to serve as a member of the Circana board of directors. Aitken will also join the board as a director.
Aitken joins Circana from Kroger, where he has served as chief merchant and marketing officer since 2019. Aitken helped to transform Kroger with a strong focus on people and culture, data and insights, and shopper transformation, leading to significant value creation for Kroger and its partners. Aitken also developed a more customer centric approach to merchandising and marketing at Kroger with a focus on driving high margin digital revenue streams including data/analytics and retail-media.
Tod Johnson, chair of the Circana board, said, “As part of the company’s succession planning process, Kirk and the rest of the Circana Board have been focused on identifying the ideal candidate to lead Circana well into the future, and we are confident we have found that in Stuart. His passionate leadership, strategic and innovative mindset, and extensive experience across the retail, technology, and data/analytics industries will create value for our company, our people, and the clients we serve globally.”
Aitken said, “I am grateful for the opportunity to join the Circana team and work together with colleagues across the globe to build upon Circana’s position as an industry leader. As a longtime partner to Circana, I have a deep appreciation for the power of its platform and critical role Circana plays across the consumer ecosystem. With best-in-class technology, data, and expertise, Circana will continue to drive growth and innovation across a wide breadth of global clients and industries.”
Johnson continued, “As CEO, Kirk helped spearhead the transformative merger between two world-class brands to create Circana as a leading advisor on consumer behavior across all retail and position the organization for sustained success. His focused dedication elevated both the client and employee experiences while delivering outstanding results year-over-year. On behalf of our Board, I thank Kirk for his leadership and ongoing commitment to Circana.”
Perry said, “It has been a true honor to lead this organization through a transformative period in its history. I am proud of the remarkable progress we made over the past four years, and forever grateful to our talented teams, clients, and partners that made Circana what it is today. I am confident that Stuart is the right leader for Circana’s next stage of growth, and I look forward to working closely with him alongside the rest of our distinguished Board members.”
Aitken brings extensive experience leading teams across retail, marketing, and analytics. In his most recent role as Kroger’s Chief Merchant and Marketing Officer, Aitken was responsible for the grocery retail leader’s sales, pricing, planning, promotion, execution, analytics, ecommerce, digital merchandising, and private brands strategy.
Aitken joined Kroger after serving as CEO of 84.51°, Kroger’s data analytics arm, and its predecessor, dunnhumby USA. Previously, Aitken acquired many years of marketing, academic and technical experience across a variety of industries and held various leadership roles including at Michael’s Stores and Safeway, Inc. He started his career in the tech space at ASA, Inc and Platinum Technology International.
Originally from Scotland, Aitken holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction from Queen Margaret University and a master’s degree in Information Management from the University of Strathclyde. He serves on the Boards of InvenTrust, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and Food Marketing Institute.
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Kroger CMO Aitken Stepping Down; Adcock to Succeed Him
The Kroger Co. announced that Stuart Aitken is stepping down as senior vice president, chief merchandising and marketing officer, to pursue other professional opportunities. Aitken will remain in his role at Kroger through Dec. 31.
Mary Ellen Adcock named Kroger’s chief merchandising and operating officer
Mary Ellen Adcock, Kroger’s senior vice president of operations, will succeed him as chief merchandising and marketing officer.
“Mary Ellen is a respected leader both within Kroger and our industry,” said Rodney McMullen, Kroger’s chairman and CEO. “Her deep strategic experience in her past 25 years with Kroger in roles of increasing responsibility will continue to drive value for customers and growth for our business and associates.”
Continuing in their current roles as leaders of the company’s operations are senior vice presidents of retail operations Valarie Jabbar and Kenny Kimball, who oversee Kroger operating divisions, and group vice president of retail operations Paula Kash, who leads enterprise retail operations, which includes asset protection, corporate food technology and e-commerce operations. They will now report to McMullen.
“On behalf of the Kroger Board and management team, I want to thank Stuart for his work to evolve Kroger’s brand while bringing exciting, innovating products to our shelves,” said McMullen. “He played an instrumental role in overseeing dunnhumby’s integration and establishing 84.51º. We wish Stuart and his family all the best as they embark on a new chapter.”
Adcock served as Kroger’s senior vice president of operations since 2019. In this role, she leads strategic operations for the company’s more than 2,700 stores across 35 states supporting more than 416,000 associates and serving 11 million customers every day. Adcock oversees customer experience, associate experience, asset protection, process change and productivity improvement initiatives and is responsible for maintaining the highest food safety and regulatory standards.
As senior vice president of operations, Adcock has delivered more than $1 billion in annual operations savings for six consecutive years. This strategic focus on efficiency improvements provided Kroger the ability to reinvest those savings to consistently lower prices for customers and increase wages for associates. Adcock achieved this efficiency goal while also improving the customer and associate experience by developing Kroger’s Full, Fresh & Friendly: Every Customer Every Time program.
Adcock also played a lead role in operationalizing Zero Hunger | Zero Waste, Kroger’s commitment to end hunger in the communities it serves and eliminate waste as a company. She led the organization in achieving 100% store participation in the company’s surplus food rescue program for the first time.
Adcock joined Kroger in 1999 in the company’s manufacturing division, where she held a variety of leadership positions. In 2009, she was promoted to vice president of deli/bakery manufacturing, and in 2012, Adcock became vice president of natural foods. In 2014, she led merchandising and operations for the Columbus division. Adcock was promoted to group vice president of retail operations in 2016 and named as senior vice president of retail operations in 2019. In 2022, Adcock was a Top Women in Grocery Trailblazer.
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