Executives of Kroger, J&J and Sysco Join GS1 US Board of Governors

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J. (Dec. 6, 2010) - Rodney McMullen, president and chief operating officer of The Kroger Co., has been appointed to the GS1 US Board of Governors and was named Chairman, the organization announced today. He will serve a two-year term as Chairman.
Also newly elected to the board were John Hogan, Vice President of Customer and Logistics Services for Johnson & Johnson; Larry Pulliam, Executive Vice President of Foodservice Operations for Sysco Corporation; and Sanjay Sarma, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Former Board Chairman J. Alexander M. (Sandy) Douglas, Jr., President of Coca-Cola North America, completed his term and will remain on the board for another year.

GS1 US is a not-for-profit organization that develops supply-chain standards, solutions and services for 25 industries.

"Rodney, John, Larry, and Sanjay provide a rich mix of industry expertise and leadership experience to the GS1 US Board of Governors," said Bob Carpenter, President and CEO of the organization. "Their knowledge will help accelerate both industry adoption and company usage of standards in key areas of asset identification, traceability and safety, and data quality, leading to more efficient value-chain performance."

McMullen has responsibilities for all of Kroger's supermarket divisions, advertising, customer relationship marketing, manufacturing, merchandising and procurement, pharmacy and retail operations.

"I am excited to join the Board of Governors," said McMullen. "GS1 US has been a long-time partner of Kroger, and I know our work will continue to result in business process improvements that will benefit our customers as well as businesses and customers across many industries."

Hogan, in addition to his vice president role, also holds the position of President of Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems, Inc. He provides global leadership for all customer-facing order-to-cash functions, transportation, brand protection, global master-data management, and channel-strategy management.

Pulliam provides leadership for Sysco's contract sales, FreshPoint produce companies, specialty meat companies, Guest Supply companies and international operations, which includes Pallas Foods and International Food Group. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the International Foodservice Distributors Association.

Sarma is one of the founders of the Auto-ID Lab at MIT, which developed many of the technical concepts and standards of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and modern radio frequency identification (RFID.)


The GS1 US board includes executives from leading corporations such as McKesson Corporation; the Premier healthcare alliance; Procter & Gamble; Publix Super Markets; Sam's Club; The J.M. Smucker Company; and Wegmans Food Markets, in addition to the Food Marketing Institute and Grocery Manufacturers of America.