United Natural Foods, Inc. appointed JJ Schlangen to the position of president of central region, effective today. Schlangen will lead one of the company’s three regional sales divisions and will report to Steve Dietz, chief customer officer.
Schlangen joined UNFI in 2015 as a member of Supervalu’s financial analyst team. While at UNFI, he has served in a variety of leadership roles of increasing responsibility, helping drive customer profitability, and supporting strategic investments in both wholesale and fresh, according to the company.
“JJ is a collaborative leader who aligns his teams against both strategy and processes that lead to positive results for customers,” said Dietz in a statement. “He has been a tremendous partner to me over the last several years as we have reimagined our team to focus on helping our retail customers grow, however they are positioned in the market.”
Most recently, Schlangen has served in the role of VP of sales strategy and operations since 2022, where he helped develop and implement new sales training and processes. These developments enabled the team to close new business and contributed to the creation of an improved sales and customer support organization, noted UNFI.
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