Market Basket names new president after court upholds firing of former CEO Arthur T. Demoulas
Market Basket is making changes at the top, just days after a judge upheld the Massachusetts-based supermarket chain's firing of former president and CEO Arthur T. Demoulas.
Don Mulligan, who has served as interim CEO since September, is retiring. The company's Board of Directors did not say who will take the CEO role next.
Mulligan spent more than four decades with Market Basket, including a 27-year stint as chief financial officer.
"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.
New president of Market Basket
The new president of Market Basket is Chuck Casassa, who started as a bagger with the supermarket in 1976 when he was 14 years old and has since "managed many of our busiest stores in New England," the board said.
"Along the way he earned a reputation for knowing and caring for Market Basket customers and associates, as well as mastering operational details," the board said.
Casassa was promoted to director of operations last year.
Market Basket legal battle
Delaware chancery court judge J. Travis Laster ruled on April 20 that the board was justified in firing the "imperious" ex-president and CEO, known to Market Basket shoppers and employees as "Artie T."
Demoulas' suspension and removal last year was the latest chapter in a decades-long power struggle for control of the family-run grocery store chain.
"[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 court agreed that the board had reason to believe that Demoulas may have been planning a repeat of the famous 2014 Market Basket boycott. Demoulas had countersued to keep his job, arguing that his sisters were "fueled by greed and envy."
Despite the family drama, Market Basket was recently named the second-best grocery store chain in the country. After the judge's ruling, the board said it "anticipates working with [Demoulas] productively into the future as one of the company's important shareholders."
