TEWKSBURY, Mass. — Market Basket has named longtime executive Chuck Casassa president, elevating a 50-year company veteran as the grocer works to stabilize leadership after a high-profile legal battle and the ouster of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
Casassa, who started as a bagger at 14, succeeds interim leader Don Mulligan, who is retiring after over 40 years with the company, including 27 as CFO. Mulligan served as interim CEO after Demoulas’s firing last year and will stay on as an advisor. The company did not name a new CEO.
“Mr. Casassa embodies the very best of Market Basket. Beginning his career at the age of 14 as a bagger, he rose through the ranks: a front-end manager, merchandiser, assistant manager, until he was promoted to store manager in 1987. For the next 30 years, he proudly managed many of our busiest stores in New England with skill and trained his colleagues along the way. In 2017, he was again promoted, this time to Grocery Supervisor, overseeing more than 25 stores, followed by his most recent promotion to Director of Operations in 2025. Mr. Casassa’s leadership and dedication to Market Basket over the past 50 years are highly valued by the Board, and we cannot be more proud to have him serve as our President,” Board Chairman Jay Hachigian said in a statement.
The board also recognized Mulligan’s tenure and transition.
“The Board is deeply grateful to Mr. Mulligan for his many years of dedicated service, the proud example he set for our associates as a leader of Market Basket, and his 'customer first' approach to his responsibilities,” board member Steven Collins said in a statement.
The leadership changes come days after a Delaware Court of Chancery ruling upheld the company’s decision to remove Demoulas, capping the latest chapter in a long-running family dispute over control of the New England grocery chain.
Judge J. Travis Laster ruled that the board acted within its authority in firing Demoulas, citing governance concerns.
“[Demoulas] ran the business profitably as CEO for nearly two decades, but he stubbornly resisted board oversight and excluded his sisters and their families from the business,” the judge wrote.
“The three directors rationally concluded— one could say reasonably or fairly concluded—that the CEO’s longstanding resistance to board oversight, imperious manner, and refusal to compromise with his sisters threatened the company,” the decision said. “Arthur had the burden at trial to prove that a majority of the Current Directors acted in bad faith. He failed to carry his burden.”
Demoulas challenged his dismissal, arguing that the board’s actions were unjustified and driven by internal family conflict, while the board maintained that he was insubordinate and potentially planning a repeat of the 2014 employee walkouts and customer boycott that once rocked the chain.
Despite the governance turmoil, the company signaled continuity in its operating model and ownership structure.
“Market Basket will continue to be a family-owned and operated business, offering the lowest prices and best value for customers, creating good jobs with profit sharing for associates, and supporting its customers and communities—well into the future. We’re excited about all of that,” the board said, adding that it “anticipates working with him productively into the future as one of the company’s important shareholders.”
With Casassa now in the president role and no CEO named, the transition marks a return to internally developed leadership as Market Basket looks to move past the dispute and maintain its standing as a value-focused regional grocery operator.
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