Former Land O' Lakes exec new Safeway CIO

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Safeway has appointed Land O' Lakes executive Barry Libenson as the company’s SVP and CIO. He succeeds David Ching, who retired earlier this year after 19 years with the company.

As CIO, Libenson will oversee Safeway's extensive information technology business functions, reporting directly to Safeway EVP Larree Renda.

Libenson served as SVP and CIO at Land O' Lakes since, where he and his team transformed the technology group to ensure that IT was fully aligned and executing against that company's long-term strategic direction. Prior to that, he was VP and CIO at Ingersoll Rand, where he was responsible for defining and implementing that company's global electronic and Internet business strategies. Libenson joined Ingersoll-Rand as VP of e-business in 2001. Prior to his tenure at Ingersoll-Rand, he served as an EVP at Surety.com, a data-integrity services company, and CEO for Visix Software, a software publisher. He also held management positions with Phoenix Technologies and Oracle Corporation.

"We are pleased to have someone with Barry's credentials join our executive team as we look to further ensure our IT organization is aligned with our key business strategies," said Renda. "His track record managing a complex set of technology functions across a diverse group of companies will be of significant value to the organization."

Libenson has a master’s in business administration from Duke University and a bachelor’s in computer science from Colgate University. He has served on the University of North Carolina's Graduate School of Computer Science IT Advisory Panel as well as Blumberg Capital's CIO Council. Libenson also serves as director of Tavant Technologies, a software firm with offices in California and Bangalore, India.

Safeway operates 1,638 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $44.2 billion in 2012.