Albertson’s Player Roster

Larry Johnston
Chairman and CEO
Just two months after departing GE Appliances in April 2001, he outlined a five-part plan for remaking Albertson’s that included closing money-losing stores, unifying point-of-sale technology and cutting waste from the supply chain. The goal: save $750 million by the end of 2004—and outrun Wal-Mart in the process. Having studied life and business under motivational speaker Ed Foreman, Johnston is known as a perpetual optimist who loves technology. He encourages grocery shoppers to e-mail him on his BlackBerry. When not traveling for business, Johnston drives around Boise in a bright yellow Hummer H2.

Bob Dunst
Chief Technology Officer
Dunst is a grocer’s grocer, having spent his entire technology career with various supermarkets, most recently Safeway. He has methodically met Johnston’s technology checklist, such as installing new NCR point-of-sale systems at Albertson’s 2,300 stores, creating a data warehouse, offering West Coast cities online shopping via the albertsons.com Web site and experimenting with self-checkout and handheld computers for customers to free up in-store personnel.

C.J. “Gabe” Gabriel
Executive Vice President, Supply Chain Management
Gabriel oversaw Albertson’s effort to get suppliers to send item data electronically, by January 2004. The goal is to beat the rest of the industry, which loses an average of 3.5% of sales to supply-chain inefficiencies.

Sean McKinless
Group Vice President, Procurement
Hired from Dell, where he served as director of worldwide logistics, he is helping Gabriel convert Albertson’s distribution facilities from profit makers to cost centers, to improve their efficiency.

Roe Cefalo and Bob Butler
Executive Vice Presidents, Operations
Operations is where the Wal-Mart threat is felt every day. Albertson’s tack is to abandon regions where it isn’t one of the top two in the market. Cefalo and Butler helped shut down 165 stores after Johnston took over.

Mike Czuchra
Director, Logistics and Transportation
Czuchra was recruited from Wal-Mart, where he headed the retail giant’s private fleet of 3,000 trucks and 12,000 trailers. Albertson’s distribution costs run as much as 5% higher than Wal-Mart’s.

Ed Foreman
Motivational Guru, Dallas
Foreman regularly leads a three-day, $1,500 “Successful Life Course” designed to teach businesspeople how to create happier lives at work and at home.

Mark Hurd
CEO, NCR Corp., Dayton, Ohio
NCR is the single most important technology partner for Albertson’s, providing it with a real-time data warehouse as well as the majority of its point-of-sale terminals and helping roll out new self-checkout systems.

Glenn DuBois
Executive Vice President, UCCnet, Lawrenceville, N.J.
The nonprofit industry organization provides a central registry for suppliers and retailers to exchange standardized item information, such as product weight, size and pricing, plus trading-partner information.

Rob Bonavito
CEO, iTradeNetwork
Livermore, Calif.
Supplies procurement and logistics software to Albertson’s to help synchronize data files with UCCnet standards. Also works with competitors such as Kroger, Food Lion, Hannaford Bros. and Wal-Mart.