Dick was the President and CEO of Vons companies, a 329 store chain that is now part of Safeway. Prior to that Dick was on the Executive Committee of American Stores, the 1695 store supermarket chain that was #2 in the US in 1990, prior to its merger with Albertsons. Dick was the President and COO of Lucky’s Supermarkets from 1988 to 1994.> more


Robert J.Dunst, Jr.
Industry Advisor

Mr. Dunst served as Executive Vice President of Supply Chain and Technology at Albertson’s, Inc. as well as Chief Technology Officer. He was responsible for the company’s supply chain organization as well as procurement, inventory management, distribution, warehousing, and logistics. > more


Bill Bishop, PhD
Industry Advisor

Founder and chairman of Willard Bishop LLC, Bishop has been involved in thought-leading research and consulting in the supermarket and retail industries for more than 30 years and has led major studies on topics ranging from new "wide-angle" approaches to pricing strategy, to the application of activity-based costing to improve operational performance > more


Patrick L. Kiernan
Industry Advisor

Patrick Kiernan is a managing partner of Day/Kiernan and Associates, a consulting group focusing on growth strategies and emerging issues with an emphasis on consumer future forces, e-commerce, and trade policy development. He serves on the advisory council of Saint Joseph's University Center for Food Marketing, and is a research affiliate with the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, Calif. > more


Mike Heschel, PhD
Industry Advisor

Mike Heschel was Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer for The Kroger Company, where he shaped the entire IT strategy since 1991 till his retirement in 2006. Mr. Heschel, was initially the group vice president of management information systems (MIS). Three years later, he was promoted to senior vice president with responsibility for coordinating all MIS services, logistics and reengineering projects. He was appointed executive vice president and CIO in 1995. > more


Ravi Chiruvolu
Industry Advisor

Ravi Chiruvolu is a general partner with Charter Venture Capital, where he focuses on information technology, in particular enterprise software and software infrastructure. Ravi is a director of Ellie Mae, ManageStar, Niku, Quantum3D, Talaris, Verano, and Winery Exchange. Additionally, Ravi is an active speaker and thought leader in the venture capital industry, and among other things, writes a monthly technology column for the Venture Capital Journal. > more


Howard Befort
Retail Industry Advisor

Howard till recently was the VP Pricing of Safeway. > more


Donald Harrington
Price Optimization Advisor

Mr. Harrington brings 26 years of retail industry experience and has held a variety of key executive positions such as President, GMM, VP Store Operations and Regional Director at national retailers such as Elder Beerman, Pic n' Pay, and CVS. At these retailers, Mr. Harrington successfully managed and led chain-wide process reengineering efforts and multiple turnarounds, including Bee Gee Shoes, a 130-store footwear retailer. > more


Sanjay Kasturia
Technology Advisor

Sanjay was the Department Head of Wireless technology research at Bell Labs with responsibility for defining the technical direction of wireless research and delivering breakthrough technologies to Lucent’s business units. Hehas over 20 yrs of experience in the industry heading Wireless design projects. He was the co founder of Airgo Networks and VP of Engr. at IOSpan wireless, pioneers in the 802.11 space. He was the He is currently the CEO and Founder of Teranetics.> more