Board of Directors
Douglas A. Hacker
Independent Director and Board Chair
Douglas A. Hacker is a business executive with extensive experience in consumer goods, finance and planning roles. He has been a director of SpartanNash since 2013 and was a director of Nash Finch from 2005 until the merger with Spartan Stores. He presently chairs the SpartanNash Board of Directors.
In addition to his service on the Board of SpartanNash, Mr. Hacker serves as a director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Aircastle Limited (NYSE), a commercial aircraft leasing company, since 2006. He was previously the Co-Chair and now serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of a series of open-end investment companies that are part of the Columbia Threadneedle Investments family of mutual funds, since 1996. Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset management group specializing on investment strategies. Before that, Mr. Hacker served as a director of Travelport Worldwide Limited (NYSE) from 2016 to 2019, and as a director of SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd. from 2010 to 2014.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Hacker served in a variety of finance and planning roles at American Airlines from 1981 to 1993. He then held various executive roles at United Airlines (United) and UAL Corporation (UAL), the holding company for United. He was Chief Financial Officer for United from 1993 to 2001; Chief Financial Officer for UAL from 1999 to 2001; President of UAL Loyalty Services from 2001 to 2002; and Executive Vice President, Strategy for UAL from 2002 to 2006. Mr. Hacker earned his A. B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Hacker’s qualifications as a director include his extensive experience in financial and operating management, including his prior service as Executive Vice President, Strategy, and his service as Chief Financial Officer of a major airline, in addition to his depth of knowledge of executive compensation.
Tony Sarsam
President and Chief Executive Officer
As President and Chief Executive Officer of SpartanNash, Tony Sarsam leads 17,500 Associates serving food retailers in all 50 states as well as the U.S. military both domestically and abroad. Mr. Sarsam joined SpartanNash and the Board in 2020 and has since focused on building a strong People First culture as the company renews its commitment to growth, operational excellence, customer service and innovation.
With more than three decades of experience in the food industry, Mr. Sarsam has come to understand every side of the consumer-packaged goods business – from the plant floor to the C-suite. Before joining SpartanNash, Mr. Sarsam served as Chief Executive Officer of Borden Dairy Company, a dairy processor and distributor, from 2018 to 2020, and Ready Pac Foods, a manufacturer and distributor of convenience fresh foods, from 2013 to 2018. At Borden, he led the company through a major corporate restructuring and subsequent sale that preserved employment for all frontline associates during a time of significant industry consolidation. His leadership at Ready Pac helped the company grow by more than 60% and establish a dominant 80% share of the complete meal salad category. Mr. Sarsam’s success at Ready Pac attracted great interest and culminated in the sale of the business to Bonduelle in 2017.
Prior to leading Ready Pac, Mr. Sarsam was President of the Nestlé USA Direct Store Delivery Company, where he created and led the world’s largest frozen direct store delivery network, serving Nestlé frozen pizza and ice cream businesses. He has also served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Operations at Dreyer’s, which was acquired by Nestlé. Mr. Sarsam began his career at PepsiCo, where he started as an Associate Engineer and progressed through a series of leadership roles, including Plant Manager, Director of Finance, Region Vice President for Sales and Distribution, and Group Vice President of Go to Market Strategy.
Mr. Sarsam’s qualifications to serve as a director include his extensive industry experience and deep insight into the Company’s business as our Chief Executive Officer.
M. Shân Atkins, NACD.DC and ICD.D.
Independent Director and Audit Committee Chair
M. Shân Atkins, NACD.DC and ICD.D is a business executive with extensive experience in retail strategy and operations, consumer goods, food distribution, accounting and finance, and private investment. She has been a director of SpartanNash since 2013. She presently chairs the Audit Committee of SpartanNash, and also serves on the Company’s Compensation Committee.
In addition to her service on the Board of SpartanNash, Ms. Atkins has served on nine other North American public and private company boards. She has been a director of Darden Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE), an owner and operator of full-service restaurants, since 2014, where she serves on the Audit and Nominating/Governance Committees; and Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQ), a leading Canadian integrated cannabis producer, since 2019, where she chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Human Resources and Compensation Committee.
Her prior experience includes serving as a director of SpartanNash Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ), from 2003 until the merger with Nash Finch Company in 2013, where she served a term as chair of the Audit Committee; SunOpta, Inc. (NASDAQ), a manufacturer of natural and organic beverages and snacks, from 2014 to 2019, where she chaired both the Audit and Compensation Committees; LSC Communications (NYSE), a provider of print and digital services, where she served as a director from 2016 to 2021; The Pep Boys — Manny, Moe and Jack (NYSE), an auto parts and service retailer, from 2004 to 2015, where she served terms as both Audit Committee chair and Compensation Committee chair; Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s leading drugstore retailer, from 2005 to 2012, where she served a term as chair of the Audit Committee; and Tim Hortons, Inc. (NYSE), Canada’s leading quick serve restaurant chain, where she served as a director from 2007 until its sale to Burger King/3G in 2014. Ms. Atkins also served on the board of True Value Hardware, a leading hardware wholesaler where she served as Chair of the Audit Committee, from 2010 to 2018.
Ms. Atkins is a former partner in the global consumer and retail practice at Bain & Company, the major international consulting firm. At Bain, she spent 13 years serving clients in a variety of consumer goods categories (food, health and beauty, household products, apparel and footwear) and retailers of various types including supermarkets, chain drug stores, mass merchants and specialty retailers. In her executive career she spent five years with Sears Roebuck & Company in a variety of senior roles, including general management responsibility for a $2.3 billion hardlines business which she led to record results, and running foreign sourcing for both Sears Roebuck (USA) and Sears Canada through a network of overseas sourcing offices and staff.
Ms. Atkins started her career as a public accountant with Price Waterhouse Canada. She maintains current registration as both a certified public accountant (USA) and chartered accountant/chartered public account (Canada) and has served as an SEC-designated financial expert on all of her audit committees, including in her current role as chair of the Company’s Audit Committee. She holds the highest certification as a professional independent director in both the USA (NACD.DC) and Canada (ICD.D) and is a regular speaker at corporate governance programs across North America. In 2021, Ms. Atkins received a Certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight from the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute.
Ms. Atkins’ qualifications as a director include her expertise in finance and accounting and in cybersecurity, her extensive experience as a director of other publicly traded corporations, and her experience in developing and executing strategic plans for major retail organizations. As chair of the Audit Committee, Ms. Atkins oversees the Company’s controls and procedures relating to ESG risks and disclosures, including oversight of data disclosed in the Company’s ESG reporting.
Julien R. Mininberg
Independent Director
Julien R. Mininberg is a business executive with extensive experience in consumer goods. He joined the SpartanNash Board of Directors in February 2022. Mr. Mininberg brings a 32-year track record of building market-leading multinational brands and businesses, transforming organizations and culture, operating expertise, and seasoned leadership skills. Mr. Mininberg serves on the Company’s Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees.
Mr. Mininberg has been Chief Executive Officer of Helen of Troy Limited (NASDAQ), a $2 billion global consumer products company, since 2014. In 2017 and 2021, he was recognized by Institutional Investor magazine as the top mid-cap CEO in the Food, Beverage, Personal Care and Household Goods industry and elected to their All-America Executive Team. Institutional Investor also named Helen of Troy as one of America’s Most Honored Companies in 2021. He previously led Kaz Inc., a private equity backed company, through a major turnaround from 2006 to 2010, serving as its President and later as its CEO. Before joining Kaz, he spent 15 years at The Procter & Gamble Company, where he served in a variety of general management and marketing leadership positions with roughly equal amounts of time in roles in the United States and Latin America. In addition to Mr. Mininberg’s 10 years of experience as a director on public boards, he completed Stanford’s Directors’ College in 2019.
Mr. Mininberg currently serves as a director of Helen of Troy Limited. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Yale School of Management and is past President of the school’s Alumni Association. In 2021, he was recognized with Yale Alumni Association’s Leadership Award. Mr. Mininberg also served as Vice Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce’s Board of Directors in Guatemala from 2003 to 2005.
Mr. Mininberg’s qualifications as a director include his 32-year track record of building market-leading multinational brands and organizations, proven operational and financial expertise, and seasoned leadership skills.
Jaymin B. Patel
Independent Director and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair
Jaymin B. Patel joined the SpartanNash Board of Directors in February 2022. Mr. Patel is a proven leader with more than 30 years of high-performance global operating experience in technology led gaming, consumer goods, large-scale distribution/supply chain, and manufacturing related businesses. He presently chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of SpartanNash. As chair of this Committee, Mr. Patel oversees compliance with the Company’s corporate governance policy and practices; shareholder engagement; Board composition and refreshment; directors’ evaluation and compensation; and the Company’s ESG framework, sustainability targets, disclosures, and periodic reports from management on progress against goals and targets. He also serves on the Company’s Audit Committee.
Mr. Patel has served as the Executive Chairman of Perennial Climate, Inc. (formerly known as Cloud Agronomics Inc.), a leading platform for soil carbon measurement using remote sensing technologies to underpin carbon credit offset markets, since 2019. From 2015 to 2018, Mr. Patel was Chief Executive Officer and director of Brightstar Corporation, a global wireless device services company backed by Softbank (during that time). For more than two decades, he served in various executive and financial leadership roles at GTECH (now IGT), including as President and Chief Executive Officer of GTECH Corporation, from 2007 to 2015, and as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the publicly traded GTECH Holdings Corporation (NYSE) from 2000 to 2006.
Mr. Patel currently serves as an independent director on the Board of Directors of Brown & Brown, Inc. (NYSE), a leading insurance brokerage firm, and Bally’s Corporation (NYSE), a world leader entertainment company. He also serves on the Board of Rip Van, an innovative low sugar food snacking business, and on other private company boards. Mr. Patel is the Chairman of the Foundation Board of the Community College of Rhode Island. He previously served on the Willis Tower Watson board from 2013 through 2022.
Mr. Patel’s qualifications as a director include his long record of leadership with consistently driven high performance within the technology sector, as well as strong supply chain experience, sophisticated business and financial acumen. Mr. Patel has been designated an Audit Committee financial expert supported by his experience overseeing a principal financial or accounting officer, controller, auditors and public accountants.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Hawthorne L. Proctor
Independent Director
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Hawthorne L. “Peet” Proctor has been a director of the Company since the merger and served as a director of Nash Finch since 2007. His experience includes over 30 years in food distribution and more than 15 years in retail and consumer goods. Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Proctor serves on the Company’s Audit and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Proctor has served as Managing Partner of Proctor & Boone LLC Consulting, a business consulting firm, since 2006. He previously served as Senior Logistics Consultant in the Department of Defense (“DOD”) Business Group of Intelligent Decisions, Inc. from 2006 to 2016.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Proctor previously served for nearly 35 years in the United States Army, where he performed with distinction in numerous senior logistics management roles, including Commander, Defense Personnel Support Center and later Commander, Defense Supply Center, Philadelphia, 46th Quartermaster General of the United States Army, and J3, or Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Defense Logistics Agency. While a Commander at the Defense Supply Center, Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Proctor led the way in revolutionizing the customer supply chains in food, clothing, medical supplies, equipment and pharmaceuticals. Innovations included initiating the DOD Mail-Order Pharmacy Program; expanding the use of existing commercial supply chains; establishing e-Commerce portals; and reducing the DOD supply chain footprint and the cost of doing business for food, clothing, pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and equipment.
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Proctor’s qualifications to serve as a director include his extensive service with the military as an innovative logistician that was exhibited through his prior leadership of a $3.2 billion enterprise that provided food, clothing, pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to DOD organizations.
Pamela S. Puryear, Ph.D.
Independent Director and Compensation Committee Chair
Pamela S. Puryear, Ph.D. is a business executive with 35 years of global experience in financial services, consulting, healthcare and retail. She joined the SpartanNash Board of Directors in February 2022. She presently chairs the Compensation Committee of SpartanNash, and also serves as a member of the Company’s Audit Committee.
From 2009 to 2021, Dr. Puryear held several executive leadership roles, including Executive Vice President, Global Chief Human Resources Officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance; Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer at Zimmer Biomet; Senior Vice President, Chief Talent Officer at Pfizer Inc., and Vice President, Organizational Development and Chief Talent Officer at Hospira Inc. Prior to 2009, Dr. Puryear led an independent organizational development consulting practice for 12 years working globally and across industry sectors, including consumer products, financial services, healthcare, professional services and insurance. Dr. Puryear spent her first 10 years post-MBA in financial services in the real estate investment advisor industry.
Dr. Puryear currently serves as an independent director of NextGen Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ) since 2021, where she is a member of the Audit Committee; and on the board of Standard Motor Products Inc. (NYSE) since 2021, where she serves on all committees, and has been appointed as Chair of the Compensation and Management Development Committee effective May 2023.
Dr. Puryear holds a Ph.D. degree in organizational psychology; an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School; and a BA degree in psychology with a concentration in organizational behavior from Yale University. She is a recognized business and human capital thought leader, currently serving as a member of the Advisory Board, Human Capital Center at The Conference Board, a research think tank that delivers business insights to 1,000 public and private organizations in 60 countries. Dr. Puryear was also inducted into the Executive Leadership Council (ELC), the preeminent member organization for Black Executives in 2019, and was named one of the 2021 “Elite 100,” recognizing black female executives changing the face of corporate America.
Dr. Puryear’s qualifications to serve as a director include her proven track record of driving value creation through her expertise in human capital management, organizational transformation, innovation and operational excellence.
William R. Voss
Independent Director
William R. Voss is an investor and business executive with 35 years of experience in consumer goods, retail and distribution. He has served as a director of SpartanNash since the merger in 2013. From 2006 until 2013, he was the Chairman of Nash Finch. He presently serves on the Company’s Compensation Committee.
Mr. Voss has served for more than 20 years as Managing Partner of Lake Pacific Partners, a private equity investment firm specializing in food, consumer products and services. During his career, Mr. Voss has led merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions totaling more than $1 billion.
He previously served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Natural Nutrition Group, Inc., a leading natural and organic food processor from 1996 to 1999; as Chief Executive Officer of McCain Foods, Inc. from 1993 to 1995; and as President and a director of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation (NASDAQ) from 1988 to 1992.
Mr. Voss is a certified public accountant (inactive) and has served as a Chairman or director of more than 20 public and privately held companies since 2005, including a $6 billion distributor serving the convenience store industry. Mr. Voss was also a management consultant advising food, consumer, grocery retail, drug retail direct marketing and similar businesses.
Mr. Voss’ qualifications to serve as a director include his extensive experience as an entrepreneur, executive, consultant, investor, and director in the consumer products industry, as well as his experience serving as Chairman, President and director of various Fortune 500 companies.