Hy-Vee promotes company veteran to vice chairman role

Hy-Vee is making some changes to its top leadership. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based retailer has promoted Jay Marshall, a 38-year veteran of Hy-Vee to the role of vice chairman. He will continue to oversee the operations of Hy-Vee’s supply chain and subsidiaries.

Marshall will assist Hy-Vee chairman, CEO and president Randy Edeker, alongside Hy-Vee’s board of directors, with leading the company through today’s rapidly changing retail climate, the company said.

“While Jay will oversee key areas of our company, he will also work on the larger challenges facing the retail industry today,” Edeker said. “Jay has worked in and led virtually every area of Hy-Vee throughout his career, and he is a great and trusted leader. I am confident that he will do an excellent job in this new role.”

Marshall has been with Hy-Vee since 1982, filling a variety of leadership roles at both the store and corporate level. Most recently, he has served as executive vice president, co-chief operating officer, and president, Hy-Vee subsidiaries/commissaries, for the past two years.

With this change, Hy-Vee’s executive vice president Jeremy Gosch will continue to serve as the company’s COO. 

Additionally, Hy-Vee executive Brett Bremser recently retired as executive vice president and chief merchandising officer.

“To say that Brett has been an integral part of our company is an understatement,” Edeker said. “Brett is one of the hardest working and most dedicated people Hy-Vee has ever seen. I wish Brett and his family all the best in his retirement.”

Bremser started with Hy-Vee in 1981 as a part-time clerk at a Hy-Vee in Council Bluffs, and spent several years in various management positions at Hy-Vee stores in the Omaha area. He received his first Hy-Vee store director assignment in 2002 at the Overland Park South Hy-Vee. In 2005, he was selected to lead the Perry store, and in 2007 became director of the Urbandale Hy-Vee store. He served on the Hy-Vee board of directors in 2008 before becoming an officer of the company as assistant vice president, advertising, in 2010. In the ensuing 10 years, Bremser moved through various merchandising various roles, culminating in him becoming chief merchant in 2017.

With Bremser’s retirement, current Hy-Vee executive vice president Darren Baty will become executive vice president, chief merchandising officer. Baty will oversee merchandising as well as other areas of the company, such as health and beauty, floral, procurement and advertising.

Craig Clasen, Hy-Vee’s senior vice president of retail business development, also retired on Jan. 1. Clasen oversaw several vendor and supplier relationships while also vetting new, innovative products and companies.