Supervalu Bags Former Target CIO

Grocery giant Supervalu has hired retail industry veteran Paul Singer as its chief information officer, to assist the company in digesting its recent $17.4 billion acquisition of the Albertsons grocery chain.

Minneapolis-based Supervalu last week named Singer, who served as CIO of retailer Target from 2000 to 2005, as its new CIO and senior vice president. He will report to executive vice president and chief financial officer Pamela Knous.

Singer has 27 years of experience in the retail industry in information technology, merchandising and supply chain management. Prior to joining Target in 1984, he worked for Kmart.

Singer, 53, retired last year from Target to pursue personal interests, which included raising public awareness for adoption causes. He founded the Target Adoption Network in 2003, a networking group for Target employees interested in adoption, and is a board member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

Supervalu had been searching for several months for a CIO to lead the Albertsons integration effort. In May, it brought Robert Borlik, who had retired from the company in November 2005, back on board as an interim CIO to help with the transition.

Bob Dunst, who had been CIO of Albertsons, left the company effective June 2 with the completion of the Supervalu acquisition, according to a company spokeswoman.

In January, Supervalu, drugstore chain CVS and an investment group that included Cerberus Capital Management, agreed to buy Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons for $17.4 billion in cash stock and debt. The deal made Supervalu the third-biggest grocer in the country (after Wal-Mart and The Kroger Co.) with 5,000 retail outlets and $44 billion in revenue.