The $43 billion supermarket retailer Kroger just crowned its new CEO: longtime retail executive Greg Foran. This is the third time that Foran will be steering a billion-dollar company—and it all started with stocking grocery store shelves.
Born and raised in New Zealand, he started his career working at the country’s popular supermarket chain, Woolworths. The then-teenager already had a part-time job there filling the supermarket shelves on Friday nights when he graduated high school. But Foran said he wasn’t too keen on attending college, and unusually so, his parents actually agreed, believing he wasn’t ready yet.
Instead, his mom inspired him to climb Woolworths’ ranks, sending a job ad his way.
“I actually never went to university,” Foran said on the Between Two Beers Podcast last year. “Mom said ‘Look, there’s a job as a trainee manager in Woolworths, why don’t you apply for that?’…I had never really considered joining as a retailer, and she was the one who said, ‘Well you’re applying.’ And I said, ‘Yes Mum.’”
Foran landed the job while he was still just 17 years old. In the back of his mind, he figured that he’d stay in the role for one year and then move on, Foran admitted. Yet one year blurred into a 30-year career in retail—one that went to heights he never dreamed of early in his career.
