Albertsons expands board for third time in five weeks

Albertsons expanded its board from 10 members in September to 15 with its latest appointment, growing its board for a third time in 5 weeks according to Grocery Dive. Harmit Singh, who plans to retire from Levi Strauss on Nov. 30, currently leads the company’s finance division, transformation office, investor relations and information security. Singh played a key role in overseeing Levi Strauss’ return to the public markets in 2019 as well as its global retail footprint expansion, and previously served as CFO at Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Before Hyatt, Singh worked as CFO of Yum! Restaurants International and Pizza Hut, alongside financial leadership roles at American Express and PricewaterhouseCoopers. "His track record of accelerating growth, improving business performance, scaling store and franchise networks and guiding public companies through complex transformations will bring valuable perspective to our board as we create long-term value for all stakeholders," Albertsons CEO Susan Morris said in a statement about Singh. At the start of September, Albertsons named Meg Whitman to the newly created role of executive chair of the company’s board of directors to act as an advisor to Morris and the C-suite. At the end of September, Albertsons added three more members to its board: Bill Boltz, executive vice president of merchandising for Lowe’s Companies, Chris Drumgoole, chief operating officer of Aligned Data Centers, and Meg Ham, the former president of Ahold Delhaize USA banner Food Lion. “We continue to strengthen our board with capabilities that support Albertsons’ next phase of growth,” Whitman said in the Thursday announcement. Meanwhile, the grocery company is consolidating 11 divisions into four regions and said Sharon McCollam, its president and CFO, will retire later this year while competitors like Costco, Amazon and Walmart see grocery sales increase.