HUTCHINSON, Kan. — David Dillon, retired CEO of The Kroger Co., will be the featured speaker at the Hutchinson Community College Entrepreneurs Forum this Thursday, March 3 at 7:00 p.m. The Forum will be held at the Hutchinson High School Career and Technical Education Academy.
“We are truly honored to have a speaker of Dave’s caliber,” Dan “Coach Nac” Naccarato, Business and Entrepreneurship instructor at HutchCC, said. “Throughout his career, Dave has exemplified the principles of strong leadership and will have so much to offer our students and the community members.”
Dillon grew up in the grocery business. The great-grandson of Dillons founder J.S. Dillon, he joined Dillon Companies, the parent company of Dillon Stores Division, Jackson Dairy and Kwik Shop, after earning a bachelor’s degree in Business at the University of Kansas and a law degree at Southern Methodist University. He joined Hutchinson-based Dillon Companies as a management trainee in 1976 with its King Soopers division in Denver.
From 1977 – 1983, he went on to serve in various leadership positions with Fry’s Food Stores in Arizona, including vice president for merchandising and warehousing.
The Kroger Co. acquired Dillon Companies in 1983 and operated it as a wholly-owned subsidiary. From 1983 – 1986, Dave served as vice president of Dillon Companies, and from 1986 – 1995, he served as its president. He was appointed executive vice president of The Kroger Co. in 1990. Dave was promoted to president and chief operating officer of Kroger in 1995.
Dave was president during Kroger’s successful $13 billion merger with Fred Meyer Inc. in 1999, which created the nation’s largest supermarket company and grew Kroger’s food store base by more than 50 percent.
Dave was named CEO of Kroger in 2003 and was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2004. As chairman and CEO, Dave and Rodney McMullen, then Vice Chair, led the Kroger leadership team’s development of the Customer 1st Strategy, which truly puts the customer at the center of how Kroger’s business is run.
Dave retired as CEO at the end of 2013 and as Chairman at the end of 2014. In retirement, Dillon is helping lobby state legislators on behalf of Uncork Kansas, the organization trying to change state law to allow the sale of strong beer, wine and liquor in Kansas grocery and convenience stores. Their sale is currently restricted to liquor stores in Kansas, with only “weak beer” containing 3.2 percent alcohol allowed in grocery stores.
Dillon also serves as a guest lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Business. He recently joined the board of directors of the University of Kansas Hospital, and he sits on the boards of Union Pacific and 3M. An Eagle Scout like his father and son, Dave received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award in 2012 for distinguishing himself in his life’s work after 25 years. Dave has been married to Dee for 43 years. They currently reside in the Kansas City area and have three grown children and seven grandchildren.