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BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons Cos. president and chief operating officer Wayne Denningham plans to retire near the end of the company’s fiscal year.
Denningham was with the company more than 40 years, having started working as a clerk as a teenager. The company has named Susan Morris executive vice president and chief operations officer, overseeing the company’s supply chain, manufacturing and operations functions.
Susan Morris
“Susan is a talented leader within our company, and she fully embraces our entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to running really good stores,” said Albertsons chairman and chief executive officer Bob Miller. “Susan raised her hand to come to Albertsons Cos. in 2010 when she was a senior vice president of sales and marketing for a competitor, and she took the only job we had open — a grocery sales manager in our Southwest Division. She has proven herself to be a valuable part of our leadership team in readily accepting new challenges, developing others and bringing teams together, and I know that her broad experience will be of significant value to Albertsons Cos. as we move forward.”
Morris began her career in Albertsons’ Denver Division while still in high school and worked her way up through the ranks, proving her ability to lead, execute and cultivate great teams in one assignment after another in her 30-plus years in the retail grocery business. Her career has spanned roles from store director to corporate grocery sales director, vice president of bakery and operations and, upon the sale of Albertson’s Inc.’s assets to Supervalu, vice president of customer satisfaction.
In 2013, Morris was named Intermountain Division president after a three-year stint in the company’s Southwest Division, and subsequently was asked to lead the Denver Division in 2015. Morris was named executive vice president of East operations in April 2016 and was moved to lead West region operations in March 2017.
Morris will continue to lead the Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Northern California; and Southern California divisions as part of her role. Jim Perkins, executive vice president of operations and special projects, will continue as president of the Acme and Eastern divisions. Mike Withers, executive vice president of East region operations, will lead the remaining divisions — Denver, Intermountain, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Southern, Southwest and United.
Denningham began his career at Albertsons in 1977 and worked his way up in the organization. He was appointed president and COO in April of last year. At the time, Miller called him “a remarkable leader with tremendous grocery retail acumen.”
