Will Kroger's next CEO be a woman?
Will Kroger’s next CEO be a woman? An insider or someone new? An internet wiz or someone all about stores?
Nearly three months after the abrupt departure of CEO Rodney McMullen, the Cincinnati-based supermarket giant hasn’t offered any new information on its search for a successor. Interim CEO Ron Sargent, 69, a Kroger board member and former Staples CEO, told Wall Street analysts the retailer would conduct a national search, but would also consider internal candidates.
Kroger officials declined to comment on the company's ongoing search for a new CEO.
Still, among Kroger’s 12 top executives, four are women and two of them, Mary Adcock and Valerie Jabbar, have critical operations experience that might put them in the running for the top spot. Both have experience overseeing Kroger divisions that include the management of thousands of stores.
If the Kroger board of directors is leaning toward picking an outsider for the top job, the company could look for a top executive (male or female) with experience at a rival, such as Walmart or Costco, or lure top talent from a consumer products supplier, such as Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble.
No clear No. 2 executive at Kroger
One thing missing from the top ranks of Kroger’s executives is anyone with the title of president and chief operating officer, which both McMullen and his predecessor, David Dillon, held before getting the CEO position.
The lack of a clear No. 2 executive suggests McMullen, 64, and the board of directors weren’t planning for a leadership transition in the near future before the CEO’s sudden exit.
Kroger disclosures show McMullen’s departure was hasty: The company said it came about after the board “was made aware” of some undisclosed conduct and “immediately” hired an outside lawyer to investigate 10 days before he resigned. McMullen resigned amid an investigation into his “personal conduct” that was "inconsistent” with the grocer’s policy of business ethics, the grocer announced March 3.
Sargent took over at the retailer after McMullen's sudden exit after more than 11 years as CEO. The company hasn’t offered additional details about the conduct, other than to say it was “not related to the company's financial performance, operations, or reporting, and it did not involve any Kroger associates.”
Kroger officials have offered no update of the CEO search or a timeline for filling the role since Sargent’s comments to Wall Street analysts during the March earnings call.
Grocers prefer insiders with operations experience
A look at Kroger’s past leaders and who rivals tap as CEOs shows retailers prefer internal candidates who have risen through the ranks. Grocery retailers also gravitate toward executives who run large swathes of stores as opposed to heads of major support departments, like human resources, finance, or legal.
At Kroger, McMullen took an unusual path toward the corner office, at first heading finance as chief financial officer in the late 1990s. He was later made the head of strategy and planning in addition to finance in 2000, before becoming president and COO in 2009.
Kroger’s previous CEOs, David Dillon and Joseph Pichler, had both overseen retail divisions at Kroger before becoming president and heir apparent: Dillon ran Dillons Food Stores, which is based in Kansas and also has stores in Missouri and Nebraska; Pichler had also been a top Dillons executive before it was acquired by Kroger.
A similar pattern plays out at top Kroger rivals.
Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon, 58, headed the retailer’s international operations before getting the top job in 2014.
At Costco, Ron Vachris, 59, became CEO in 2024 after serving as president and COO for almost two years and head of merchandising before that, from 2016 to 2022.
In March, Albertsons, which called off its planned merger with Kroger in late 2024 after regulators blocked the deal, named Susan Morris, 56, its CEO after she served from 2018 to 2025 as chief operations officer. She replaced Vivek Sankaran, who announced his retirement the same day McMullen resigned from Kroger.
Who might be the top internal candidates for boss at Kroger?
So, who are the top executives at Kroger with oversight of core operations? While the company lists 12 people among its senior executive team in its annual report, at least half of them oversee supply chain, finance, legal, human resources and other support functions that generally don’t lead to the CEO job. Another is Sargent, who is serving as interim CEO, and two others who have left in recent changes in the executive team.
The top executives below Sargent are:
◾Mary E. Adcock, 49, Kroger’s chief merchant and marketing officer since December, whose previous job was head of retail operations from 2019 to 2024.
◾Yael Cosset, 51, who was named the company’s chief digital officer in March and whose previous job was chief information officer from 2019 to 2025. Kroger’s digital operations, which include home delivery and pickup, is a $12 billion business.
◾Valerie Jabbar, 56, has been the senior vice president responsible for the oversight of several Kroger retail divisions since 2021.
Will Kroger shop outside for its next CEO?
If Kroger’s board wants an outsider for its next boss, it could always poach a top executive from another top retailer. A former Walmart or Costco executive could prove a tempting candidate – assuming non-compete agreements don’t prevent them from moving.
One such possibility, for example, might be Judith McKenna, 58, former CEO of Walmart's international division. She retired from the company in January 2024. Walmart's noncompete agreements typically last two years, according to corporate disclosures, suggesting she might be available in early 2026. She sits on the board of directors of Delta Air Lines and Unilever.
One caveat: senior Walmart executives are expensive; McKenna’s pay when she left Walmart was nearly $14 million annually. (McMullen's last annual pay package, for the 2024 fiscal year, was $15.5 million).
Another option would be to nab a senior executive from a consumer company that works extensively with supermarkets.
When Albertsons enlisted Sankaran in 2019 to lead its company, he’d previously served as a top executive at PepsiCo, most recently as North American CEO of its Frito-Lay division.
Top executives at P&G could also be affordable. One example: Fatima Francisco, CEO of P&G’s paper products business, made $7.3 million in the last fiscal year.