Former Sports Authority exec lands tasty CIO role

Veteran retail information technology executive Kathy Persian is the new CIO at a leading integrated food retailing company.



The Schwan Food Company named Kathy Persian senior VP and CIO with responsibility for the strategic direction and execution of the company’s information services department.



She most recently served as senior VP of business transformation and CIO for the Sports Authority, where she was responsible for corporate strategy development, the information services team, e-commerce, and enterprise program and process capabilities. Earlier, she served in several finance and information technology leadership roles at Supervalu, including CIO, and also held leadership roles at Best Buy.



“I am extremely excited to have someone with Kathy’s broad experience and strong leadership style join our team. Her deep knowledge and extensive background in business and information technology will be extremely valuable to our efforts to execute our business plans, grow as a company and enhance service to our customers,” said Dimitrios Smyrnios, CEO of The Schwan Food Company.



Schwan is a privately held, multibillion-dollar manufactures and marketer of frozen foods through home-delivery, retail-grocery and food-service channels.