Walmart, General Mills vets to join Target’s food team

Target Corp. on Monday announced the hire of two new senior food and beverage leaders: Mark Kenny, formerly of Wal-Mart Stores, and Liz Nordlie, a veteran of General Mills.

Kenny and Nordlie will accelerate Target’s food and beverage strategy, the retailer said, aiming at offering a differentiated experience, with an emphasis on fresh produce, convenient eating and a curated assortment of affordable and accessible owned and national brands.

“Across all categories of our business, we are investing to build an even better Target for our guests,” Mark Tritton, EVP and chief merchandising officer of Target, said in a statement. “We have been making positive progress with our assortment, presentation and operations in food and beverage this year. With Jeff Burt’s leadership, and the investment we’re making to bring on two new seasoned executives, combined with our already talented team, I’m confident we’ll be able to go even further, faster, delivering both an experience and assortment that’s uniquely Target.”

Kenny (left) will join Target as VP of meat and fresh prepared food, where he will oversee the meat, seafood, deli, bakery and prepared food categories.  Kenny most recently served as senior director of private brands at Walmart.

Nordlie will join Target as VP, product design and development for food and beverage. In this newly created role, Nordlie will oversee the brand direction and product vision for owned brand food and beverage categories. With 27 years of brand-building experience across 30 food and beverage businesses, Nordlie will lead efforts underway with Target’s owned brand portfolio.

Nordlie (left) joins Target from General Mills, where she spent 20 years in general management roles, building brands across cereal, snacks, meals, yogurt and baking core businesses, as well as natural and organics. Most recently, Nordlie was president of General Mills’ baking division.

Kenny and Nordlie will join Target later this month. Kenny will report to Jeff Burt, SVP of food and beverage, and Nordlie will report to Julie Guggemos, SVP of product design and development.