Dollar General Makes Series of Executive Promotions

From left: Matthew Simonsen, Jackie Li and Andrew Newkirk

Dollar General is shaking up its C-suite with the promotions of 11 leaders, with new positions effective May 31. The retailer says the executive moves reflect its culture of employee growth and development, while also illustrating its operating priority of “Investing in Our Diverse Teams through Development, Empowerment and Inclusion.”

Matthew Simonsen has taken on the role of SVP of real estate and development. Simonsen has been with Dollar General since 2013 and most recently served as VP of real estate. Jackie Li has been promoted to SVP of private brands and global sourcing, playing a significant role in the retailer’s non-consumable initiative, health care and other product sourcing initiatives. Li joined the company in 2018.

Andrew Newkirk will join the company as SVP of distribution, and has more than 20 years of experience in distribution, transportation, logistics and operations leadership. Mary Beth Hawthorne has also joined Dollar General, and will serve as VP of store operations for the northeast region.

Other promotions include both Kimberly Huffman and Charlotte Hutchins now serving as VP of human resources. Huffman has been with the company for 10 years and will lead the organizational development and corporate communications teams, while Hutchins will continue to lead the growing and rapidly evolving corporate HR function.

Three new VPs of distribution have also been named, including Matt Lucas, Rebecca Powers and Monty Williams. Lucas joined Dollar General in 2013 and most recently served as senior director of perishable distribution center operations. Powers brings more than 15 years of retail omnichannel distribution experience to the role, and Williams has more than 16 years of warehouse, regional inventory allocation and customer fulfillment expertise.

Finally, Craig Marsh will now serve as VP of information technology. Marsh is responsible for a significant transformation of the DG technology team’s organizational structure and processes since joining the company in 2020 as senior director of information technology.

Dollar General shared its Q1 financial report last week. Despite lower net income and slightly lower same-store sales, the retailer has upgraded its outlook for the rest of the year. The more optimistic take is based on consumers’ deal-seeking behavior during inflationary times and a better set of comparisons during the latter part of 2022.

CEO Todd Vasos said that the adjusted guidance for the back half of the year is also based on a better operating climate. “We are pleased with our start to 2022, and I want to thank each of our team members for their ongoing commitment and dedication to serving our customers every day,” he remarked. “Despite ongoing headwinds due to supply chain pressures and heightened inflation, we remained focused on controlling what we can control and delivered solid financial results, which exceeded our expectations for sales and EPS for the quarter.”

Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General is No. 15 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Dollar General is also PG's 2021 Retailer of the Year.