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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Hy-Vee Inc. has promoted Jay Marshall to the new role of vice chairman, and Darren Baty to the key post of executive vice president and chief merchandising officer. The promotions are among a series of executive moves at the grocery chain, which operates more than 265 retail stores across eight Midwestern states.
Marshall will serve as vice chairman of Hy-Vee, while continuing to oversee the operations of the company’s supply chain and subsidiaries. In this new position, he will work with chairman, president and CEO Randy Edeker, and the company’s board of directors, in leading Hy-Vee forward.
“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, holding a variety of leadership roles at both the store and corporate level. For the past two years he has served as executive vice president, co-chief operating officer and president of Hy-Vee subsidiaries/commissaries. Following his promotion, executive vice president Jeremy Gosch will continue to serve as the company’s COO.
Hy-Vee has also named Baty executive vice president and CMO. In that role he will oversee merchandising as well as other areas of the company, including health and beauty, floral, procurement, and advertising.
Baty, who began his Hy-Vee career in 1987 as a part-time courtesy clerk at a store in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was named to the Hy-Vee Hall of Fame last January. He was promoted to his most recent position of executive vice president on nonfoods in 2018.
As executive vice president and CMO, Baty succeeds Brett Bremser, who retired from that post on January 1.
Bremser started with Hy-Vee in 1981 as a part-time clerk at a Hy-Vee in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and spent several years in various management positions at Hy-Vee stores in the Omaha area. He served on the Hy-Vee board of directors in 2008 before becoming an officer of the company as assistant vice president of advertising in 2010. In 2012, he became vice president of center store, and in 2013 he was promoted to senior vice president of merchandising. Bremser was named senior vice president of the Western region, in 2014, and in 2015 he was promoted to executive vice president of the Western region. He was promoted to his current post as CMO in 2017.
“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.”
Craig Clasen, Hy-Vee’s senior vice president of retail business development, also retired on January 1. Clasen oversaw several vendor and supplier relationships while also vetting new, innovative products and companies.
