Shopko names interim CEO

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Shopko announced Wednesday that Mike Bettiga has been named interim CEO to replace Paul Jones, who resigned to pursue another opportunity.

Bettiga is a 35-veteran of the company and most recently served as EVP and COO, a role he has held since April 2009. He began his career with Shopko as a pharmacist in 1977, and has held a number of positions during his tenure, including executive leadership of store, pharmacy and optical operations, retail health merchandising and responsibility for the Shopko Express stores.

"I am grateful for the opportunity to serve as Interim CEO for Shopko, a company that I have been an integral part of for most of my professional career," Bettiga said. "We have ambitious plans for the future, including the continued rollout of the Shopko Hometown concept and I look forward to leading the team on that effort and our other growth initiatives."

In December 2011, Bettiga testified on behalf of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights against the ESI-Medco merger.

"We appreciate the many contributions Paul Jones has made to Shopko during the past five years and wish him nothing but the best," said Scott King, senior managing director of Sun Capital Partners, a leading private investment firm whose affiliate owns Shopko. King noted that a national search is under way to select a new leader for the company.

As reported earlier this year, Shopko merged with retailer Pamida, converting all of the latter's stores to the Shopko Hometown format. Over the summer, the company also had appointed a new SVP and general merchandise manager of home and hardlines and expanded the role of its SVP product development to become responsible for overseeing the retailer's consumables division.