Troubled-Company Expert Joins A&P Board

JON SPRINGER

MONTVALE, N.J — The board of directors of A&P here has added a bankruptcy expert to replace a representative of its largest stockholder. Greg Rayburn, most recently the chief executive officer of New York City Off-Track Betting and a former chief restructuring officer of WorldCom, was elected to join the board, succeeding Jens-Jurgen Bockel.

Bockel is the chief financial officer of Tengelmann Group, the German retailing group that owns a majority share of A&P stock, and has served on A&P’s board for seven years.

Rayburn has more than 28 years of experience leading companies and maximizing enterprise value through strategic and competitive challenges in a wide range of industries, including retail, freight, manufacturing, telecommunications, gaming, hospitality, home building and health care, A&P said. He has also served as CEO of Magna Entertainment Corp., Syntax-Brillian Corp., International Outsourcing Services, Muzak Holdings and Sunterra Corp. Earlier in his career, he was chief restructuring officer of WorldCom — then the largest U.S. bankruptcy filing to-date.

"We are pleased to welcome Greg to A&P’s board. His experience in leading companies through critical transitions will be invaluable to the board,” Christian Haub, AP’s chairman of the board, said in a prepared statement. “I am looking forward to working with Greg as we continue to execute on A&P’s comprehensive turnaround under Sam Martin’s leadership.”