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d Stores here has named Dennis Hopkins vice president of marketing, public relations and consumer affairs.
In this new position, Hopkins reports to Stephen P. Kaczynski, executive vice president of sales and merchandising. His responsibilities include designing and implementing marketing programs to increase sales, managing all public and consumer affairs programs and acting as the corporate spokesman.
Hopkins, who has 25 years of experience in store operations and merchandising, was most recently a regional vice president of operations.
Kroger Co. Fills Group VP Post
CINCINNATI -- Kroger Co. here has named Lynn Marmer group vice president of corporate affairs. She succeeds Jack Partridge, who left the company to join Grand Union Co., Wayne, N.J.
Marmer most recently was part of Kroger's corporate legal staff, which she joined in 1997. In her new position she is responsible for government and media relations, and community and consumer affairs, including the company's charitable activities, such as the Kroger Co. Foundation. She reports to Joseph A. Pichler, chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Marmer has a bachelor's degree in education, a master's degree in urban planning and a law degree. Before joining the law firm of Dismore & Shohl, Marmer had been a teacher, a city planner and the executive director of a nonprofit group that provides housing for the physically disabled. In 1994 she was elected to the Cincinnati Board of Education, where she recently completed a one-year term as board president.
In recognition of this community involvement, Marmer was named a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year in 1997.
GMA Taps VP, Senior Manager
WASHINGTON -- The Grocery Manufacturers of America here has announced two appointments. Gene Grabowski has been named vice president of communications, and Lance W. Hastings has been appointed senior manager for state affairs for the Western region.
In his new position, Grabowski reports to C. Manly Molpus, president and chief executive officer of the GMA. He succeeds Ben Zingman, who left the GMA to join Z Communications, Arlington, Va., as senior vice president and general manager.
Grabowski was most recently a director at Burson-Marsteller here, where he led advocacy and media relations campaigns for major corporations. Before that he spent five years as director of media relations for the American Council of Life Insurance, two years as manager of press information at C-SPAN, one year as a White House reporter for the Washington Times, and nine years as a reporter and editor for the Associated Press.
Hastings succeeds Dan Colegrove, who left the GMA to be manager of planning and programs at the Washington office of Kraft Foods, Glenview, Ill. Hastings works out of the GMA's Western region office in Sacramento, Calif., and reports to Chip Kunde, vice president of state affairs.
Most recently chief consultant to Assemblyman Keith Olberg (R) Hastings has also worked as a legislative assistant to Assemblyman David Knowles (R) and as district director for U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif.
