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, Hacker serves as a director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Aircastle Limited, a commercial aircraft leasing company. He also serves as the Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of a series of open-end investment companies that are part of the Columbia family of mutual funds. Before that, Hacker served as a director of Travelport Worldwide Limited from 2016 to 2019, and as a director of SeaCube Container Leasing Ltd. from 2010 to 2014.
Earlier in his career, Hacker served in a variety of finance and planning roles at American Airlines. He also served as Executive Vice President, Strategy for UAL Corporation, United Airline’s holding company, from 2002 to 2006. Prior to that position, he served with UAL Corporation as President, UAL Loyalty Services from 2001 to 2002, and as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from 1999 to 2001. Hacker earned his A. B. magna cum laude from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
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 CEO of Fortune 400 grocery retailer and distributor SpartanNash (Nasdaq: SPTN), Tony Sarsam leads 19,000 associates serving customers in all 50 states as well as U.S. military troops overseas. Tony joined SpartanNash 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, Tony has come to understand every side of the consumer-packaged goods business – from the plant floor to the C-suite. Before joining SpartanNash, Tony served as CEO of Borden Dairy Company and Ready Pac Foods. At Borden, he led the company through a major corporate restructuring and subsequent sale that preserved employment for all frontline associates. 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. Tony’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, Tony was President of the Nestlé USA Direct Store Delivery Company, which serves Nestlé frozen pizza and ice cream businesses and is the world’s largest frozen DSD sales organization. He has also served as Executive Vice President of Sales and Operations at Dreyer’s, which was acquired by Nestlé. Tony 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 and Region Vice President for Sales and Distribution in the West.
Tony holds a Bachelor of Science, Engineering degree in Chemical Engineering from Arizona State University and a Master of Science in Management from Stanford. He resides in Grand Rapids, Mich. with his wife and children.
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 and was a director of Spartan Stores from 2003 until the merger with Nash Finch. She presently chairs the Audit Committee of SpartanNash and formerly chaired the Audit Committee of Spartan Stores.
In addition to her service on the Board of SpartanNash, Atkins is currently a director of Darden Restaurants, Inc., an owner and operator of full-service restaurants, where she serves on the Audit and Nominating/Governance Committees; and Aurora Cannabis, a leading Canadian integrated cannabis producer, where she chairs the Audit Committee and serves on the Human Resources and Compensation Committee.
In her service as an independent director, Atkins has served on 10 North American public company boards, including SunOpta, Inc., a manufacturer of natural and organic beverages and snacks, where she chaired both the Audit and Compensation Committees; LSC Communications, a provider of print and digital services; True Value Hardware, a leading hardware wholesaler where she served as Chair of the Audit Committee; The Pep Boys — Manny, Moe and Jack, an auto parts and service retailer, where she served terms as both Audit Committee chair and Compensation Committee chair; Shoppers Drug Mart, Canada’s leading drugstore retailer, where she chaired the Audit Committee; and Tim Hortons, Inc., Canada’s leading quick serve restaurant chain, where she served as a director until its sale to Burger King/3G.
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.
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. 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.
Atkins’ qualifications as a director include her expertise in finance and accounting, her extensive experience as a director of other publicly traded corporations, and her experience in developing and executing strategic plans for major retail organizations.
Dr. Frank M. Gambino
Independent Director
Dr. Frank M. Gambino has been a Director of SpartanNash since 2013 and was a Director of Spartan Stores from 2003 until the merger with Nash Finch.
He has been engaged with the Food and Consumer Package Goods industry for over 40 years. He is the Director Emeriti of the Food & Consumer Package Goods Marketing Program at Western Michigan University, where is he is a Professor Emeriti of Marketing.
Gambino is also the immediate past Chair of the Food Industry University Coalition for the National Grocers Association, where he served two terms and is a member of the Higher Education Council for the Category Management Association.
He also served on the Wakefern Food Corporation Board of Directors’ Site Development Committee for 15 years. Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for Alliance Foods.
Gambino spent 15 years in the retail food industry in merchandising and retail operations, and he remains active within the food and consumer packaged goods industries at both the national and regional level.
Yvonne R. Jackson
Independent Director and Compensation Committee Chair
Yvonne R. Jackson has been a Director of SpartanNash since her appointment to the Board in 2010. She is President and Principal of BeecherJackson, Inc., a human resources management consulting firm that she co-founded in 2006.
From 2002 to 2005, Jackson served as Chief Human Resources Officer & Senior Vice President, Corporate Human Resources of Pfizer, Inc. From 2006 to 2012, she served as a Director of Winn-Dixie Stores, Inc., a regional grocery retailer, on its Nominating and Governance Committee and as chairperson of Winn Dixie’s Compensation Committee.
Jackson is a former Director and member of the Compensation and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees of Best Buy Co., Inc. She has more than 30 years of experience in human resources, including experience at Sears, Avon Products and as Chief Human Resources Officer at Burger King and Compaq.
Matthew M. Mannelly
Independent Director
Matthew M. Mannelly joined SpartanNash with 36 years of extensive marketing, sales, retail and consumer goods experience, including 10 years of food distribution experience. He has been a director of SpartanNash since 2018.
Mannelly is the retired Chief Executive Officer of Prestige Brands, Inc., a distributor of healthcare and household cleaning products, a position he held from 2009 until his retirement in 2015. He also served on the board of directors of Prestige Brands, Performance Sports Group and Collier Creek Holdings.
Before that, Mannelly was Chief Executive Officer of Cannondale Bicycle Corporation from 2003 to 2008 and also served as a director of Performance Sports Group from 2015 to 2017. He also served as President, Americas for Paxar Corporation, Chief Marketing Officer for the United States Olympic Committee, and Global Director, Retail Development for NIKE, Inc.
Mannelly’s qualifications as a director include his extensive experience in marketing and his executive leadership of consumer product and consumer goods companies.
Julien R. Mininberg
Independent Director
Julien R. Mininberg is a business executive with extensive retail and marketing experience in consumer goods. He joined the SpartanNash Board of Directors in February 2022. Mininberg brings a 31-year track record of building market-leading multinational brands and businesses, transforming organizations and culture, operating expertise and seasoned leadership skills.
Mininberg currently serves as Chief Executive Officer of Helen of Troy Limited, a global developer, marketer and distributor of consumer products. Prior to assuming that role in 2014, he was Chief Executive Officer of Kaz Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Helen of Troy, since 2010. He joined Kaz in 2006, leading its turnaround as President, then becoming its Chief Executive Officer. 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.
Mininberg currently serves as a director of Helen of Troy Limited. He also serves on the Board of Advisors for Yale School of Management, has been President of its global alumni association Board of Directors, and was recently recognized with Yale Alumni Association’s 2021 Leadership Award.
Mininberg’s qualifications as a director include his 31-year track record of building market-leading multinational brands and organizations, very strong operational and financial expertise, and seasoned leadership skills.
Elizabeth A. Nickels
Independent Director
Elizabeth A. Nickels has been a Director of SpartanNash since 2000. She is an accomplished senior executive and board member with extensive leadership experience in both emerging and mature business segments.
Nickels served as the former President of Herman Miller Healthcare from 2007 to 2012 and as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Herman Miller, an office manufacturing company, from 2000 to 2007. From 2012 to 2014, Nickels was Executive Director of the Herman Miller Foundation. She also has prior executive experience at Universal Forest Products.
Since 2015, Nickels has served as a Director of Principal Funds, a leading provider of mutual funds. She served as a Director of PetSmart, Inc. from 2013 to 2015 and was a Director for Charlotte Russe, a clothing retailer, from 2013 to 2016, in addition to serving on the board of several privately held companies.
Nickels has practiced as a certified public accountant and maintains her registration as a CPA.
Jaymin B. Patel
Independent Director
Jaymin B. Patel joined the SpartanNash Board of Directors in February 2022. Patel is a proven leader with more than 30 years of high-performance global operating experience in technology led gaming, consumer goods and large-scale distribution/supply chain and manufacturing related businesses.
Patel is President & Chief Financial Officer of Clarim Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company. In addition, he is the Executive Chairman of Cloud Agronomics Inc., a leading platform for soil carbon measurement using remote sensing technologies to underpin carbon credit offset markets.
From 2015 to 2018, 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 from 2000 to 2006.
Patel currently serves as an independent director of Bally’s Corporation and as a director of Clarim Acquisition Corp. In addition, he serves on the Board of Rip Van, an innovative low sugar food snacking business. Patel is also Chairman of the Foundation Board of the Community College of Rhode Island.
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.
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.
Proctor currently serves as Managing Partner of Proctor & Boone LLC Consulting, a business consulting firm. He previously served as Senior Logistics Consultant in the Department of Defense (“DOD”) Business Group of Intelligent Decisions, Inc. from 2006 to 2016.
Proctor 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, 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.
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
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.
From 2009 to 2021, 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. Earlier 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. Puryear spent her first 10 years post-MBA in financial services in the real estate investment advisor industry.
Puryear currently serves as an independent director of NextGen Healthcare Inc., where she is a member of the Audit Committee; Standard Motor Products Inc., where she serves on all committees; and Rockley Photonics Holdings, where she chairs the Compensation Committee and is a member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.
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. 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.
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 and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Chair
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 2013 merger. From 2006 until the merger, he was the Chairman of Nash Finch. He presently chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of SpartanNash.
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, 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; as Chief Executive Officer of McCain Foods, Inc.; and as President and a director of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation.
Voss is a certified public accountant (inactive) and has served as a Chairman or director of more than 20 public and privately held companies, including a $6 billion distributor serving the convenience store industry. Voss was also a management consultant advising food, consumer, grocery, retail, drug retail, direct marketing and similar businesses.
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.