Last updated on October 21st, 2016 at 09:48 am
The National Grocers Association (NGA) has appointed David Ochs, SVP of sales, East, KeHE Distributors, and Jeff Strack, president and CEO of Strack & Van Til, to fill recent vacancies on its board of directors. Additionally, the organization has named Mike Stigers, EVP and president, wholesale and supply chain services, Supervalu, to serve on the board’s executive committee.
As an executive at KeHE Distributors, one of the oldest natural, specialty and organic food distributors in North America, Ochs is a key member of KeHE’s East leadership team and is responsible for developing and implementing the sales strategy in this region. With a background in both operations and sales, Ochs has more than 20 years of experience in the food industry in roles with leadership responsibility in operations, finance, human resources, growth and customer service. Before joining KeHE in his current role, he was the VP of sales, higher education, at Aramark Corp. He was the senior sales leader responsible for this $3 billion USD division and led the entire sales team in the U.S. and Canada.
As the leader of Strack & Van Til, which operates 37 supermarkets in northwest Indiana and the Chicagoland area, Strack has more than 25 years of experience rooted in Strack & Van Til’s history. He started his career part-time during grade school as a bagger and worked in nearly every department in the stores. He has held several key leadership roles, including chief marketing officer and chief strategy officer, and contributed to the success and growth of the brands from 10 to 37 stores with nearly 5,000 associates.
At Supervalu, Stigers oversees the company’s relationship with approximately 1,900 independent retail grocery stores across the U.S. He also is responsible for Supervalu’s logistics, procurement and transportation operations as well as third-party logistics.
Stigers began his grocery career in 1974 as a part-time courtesy clerk at Safeway. During the next 14 years, he took on managerial positions of increasing responsibility before joining Jons Markets, an independent retailer based in Los Angeles. During the 1990s, he expanded his scope of experience by working for retail technology companies. He joined PW Supermarkets of San Jose, California, in 1999 as director of operations. Stigers served in executive roles in operations and merchandising and was promoted to SVP and COO in 2003. He subsequently became CEO of the independent retailer. He also has worked on the vendor side of the grocery industry for Bass Inc., a retail automation software company, and for Sterilox Fresh, a food safety company, as regional VP.
Stigers joined Supervalu in 2011 as president of Shaw’s/Star Market grocery stores in New England prior to the company’s sale of those stores in 2013. He then went on to lead Supervalu’s Northern region in Hopkins, Minnesota, before being named president of Cub Foods in March 2014.
“Each of these individuals have a great deal of expertise and are recognized as leaders in the food retailing industry,” said Peter J. Larkin, president and CEO of NGA. “We are pleased to welcome them to the board, and I look forward to working with them as we develop future strategies to advance NGA and the independent supermarket industry.”
The board of directors assists the organization through developing, governing and supporting the mission, vision and agenda of NGA. The new appointments were made during NGA’s fall leadership meetings, held in Chicago earlier this month.
