SpartanNash hires Masiar Tayebi as chief strategy officer

Masiar Tayebi has joined SpartanNash as executive vice president and chief strategy officer, a newly created position.

Tayebi started in the new post today, coming over from Whirlpool Corp., where he served as global head of corporate strategy and business development.

As SpartanNash’s chief strategy officer, Tayebi reports to President and CEO Tony Sarsam and leads the development and execution of corporate strategy to spur growth and sharpen business performance. He will work closely with senior leaders to identify, analyze and solve business challenges and capitalize on new growth opportunities, including mergers and acquisitions, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based grocery distributor and retailer said.

Tayebi’s more than three-year tenure at Whirlpool included serving as chief operating officer of its subsidiary Yummly, a digital food platform offering personalized recipes, recipe search and online grocery delivery to millions of users.

Before joining Whirlpool, Tayebi (left) spent 15 years in financial services and management consulting. From 2007 to 2014, he served as an executive director at UBS, where he defined and executed strategic objectives related to acquisitions, technology-driven innovation and multimillion-dollar organizational transformations, SpartanNash said. Prior to that, he held consulting positions focused on strategy and transformational change for Fortune 500 companies, including at PwC Consulting, Salience and Andersen Business Consulting.

Related:SpartanNash taps C&S Wholesale’s David Petko as supply chain chief

“Masiar’s track record of defining and executing strategies based on deep financial and strategic analyses has resulted in significant growth in his previous roles,” Sarsam said in a statement. “While head of corporate strategy and business development at Whirlpool, he led the successful diligence and acquisition of companies, including Yummly. In doing so, he managed a team of high-performing leaders across corporate strategy, innovation, M&A, competitive intelligence and strategic planning. We believe his commitment to executing with excellence will advance our people-first culture and enable us to capitalize on new growth opportunities.”

The hiring of Tayebi continues a recent flurry of executive appointments at SpartanNash. Last week, the company named former C&S Wholesale Grocers executive David Petko as chief supply chain officer. That followed a trio of appointments in March: Amy McClellan as vice president of fresh merchandising for retail, Nestlé USA executive Greg Molloy as vice president of environmental health and safety, and Jason Monaco as chief financial officer, succeeding Mark Shamber. Also in March, SpartanNash announced that Douglas Hacker will take the chairman’s reins from Dennis Eidson in May at the company’s 2021 annual shareholders meeting.

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