Greg Foran: The New CEO of Kroger

Greg Foran began his career filling shelves at a supermarket in Hamilton, New Zealand. Nearly fifty years later, he is the chief executive of Kroger, a company with $147 billion in annual revenue and more than 400,000 employees. This is his story and how he, along that path, helped the world's largest retailer regain its footing.

Key insights

• A career being built: Foran started as a shelf stacker and went on to run some of the largest retail operators in the U.S.

• The Walmart turnaround: As CEO of Walmart U.S., Foran led the company back to stability and growth, delivering 20 consecutive quarters of comparable sales growth.

• Kroger's first external CEO: In February 2026, Foran became the first CEO in Kroger's 143-year history to be brought in from outside the company.

A job recommendation from his mother

Greg Foran was born on July 22, 1961, in New Zealand. He grew up in Hastings and Hamilton, and after finishing high school, he began working part-time filling shelves at a supermarket in Hamilton. Foran had never considered it as a career, but one day his mother came across an advertisement for a trainee manager position at Woolworths and encouraged him to apply.

He got the job, and a path that he thought would last a year turned into a lifelong career.

As his trainee position endured, Foran’s ambition grew to run one of the company's stores. Three years later, he achieved it, at just 20 years old.

Thirty years at Woolworths became the start of something new

That early promotion set the pace for what followed. After working his way up to running replenishment across the supermarket network, Foran moved into general management, leading Dick Smith Electronics and Big W (Woolworths ’ department store chain), before eventually taking charge of the supermarket division across both Australia and New Zealand. By his own account, he oversaw the majority of the company’s operations across both markets. When the CEO position opened up in 2011, Foran was among the internal candidates considered. However, he did not get it.

Rather than stay in the company, he began looking elsewhere.

Joining Walmart

In late 2011, Foran joined Walmart and moved to Bentonville, Arkansas. The start was not what he might have expected, as the first four to five months were spent learning the business while waiting for a suitable role to open up. Finally, one did. He was named president and CEO of Walmart China before being promoted to CEO of its Asia division.

Shortly after, in August 2014, he became the first non-American asked to run Walmart U.S. It was the company's core division in every sense: around 4,200 retail units, nearly 1.4 million employees, and roughly $280 billion in revenue.

Fixing what was broken

When Foran took over Walmart U.S., the business had been lagging, with negative quarterly comparable sales for more than a year. Employee turnover was high, and stores were poorly maintained. In his first earnings call, Q2 2015, he laid out his priorities: "being in stock; clean stores; the right price; the right items; improved service; better productivity" (sourced through Quartr Pro).

Foran visited locations unannounced, joining the shop floor anonymously to experience what customers and employees actually encountered. He concluded that roughly half of Walmart's stores were not managed to the standard the company required.

Another action that would set the tone within the company was when Foran asked store managers to personally write to him on how to improve the company's operation. Around 2,700 managers responded, and Foran personally replied to all of them.

The interaction gave him valuable insights. For example, much of the cleaning staff on Walmart's enormous parking lots had been cut to save money. While it may seem like a small thing, cuts like that collectively affect the shopping experience. Foran's personal approach also had a positive effect internally, as managers saw him as approachable and genuinely committed to improvement.

The broader turnaround followed the same logic. He widened the store's aisles and expanded the space for fresh produce. Foran hired more regional managers to improve local oversight and add an internal training programme for store associates. He pushed for online grocery ordering and curbside pickup. The minimum wage for employees was increased to $9 USD in 2015 and to $10 in 2016. (The federal minimum wage is $7.25.)

These changes yielded positive effects. By the time Foran departed as CEO in early 2020, Walmart U.S. had recorded 20 consecutive quarters of positive comparable sales growth under his leadership. In the Q4 2020 earnings call, the new CEO, Doug McMillon, said the following on Foran's legacy:

A new direction

In February 2020, Foran became CEO of Air New Zealand. He arrived with a plan similar to his approach at Walmart, initially working alongside cabin crew, serving passengers, and cleaning aircraft to understand the business from the ground up. However, within days, COVID-19 made that difficult.

With most of the fleet grounded and passenger revenue collapsing by around 90%, Foran shifted focus to keeping the airline alive. That meant raising new capital, cutting thousands of jobs, and working through difficult negotiations with unions. But when borders finally reopened, the road ahead would not be uncomplicated.

Throughout his tenure at Air New Zealand, engine faults remained a significant challenge, but in early February 2025, they hit their peak when approximately 20% of the fleet was grounded. While Foran indicated that the situation would improve the following year, he decided to leave in October 2025.

He had been away from retail for five years; that was about to change.

CEO of Kroger

Kroger's board had been searching for a new permanent chief executive officer for nearly a year. Rodney McMullen had led the company since 2014 but resigned in March 2025, with board member Ron Sargent stepping in as interim CEO during the search.

On February 9, 2026, Kroger announced that Greg Foran would become its new CEO, effective immediately. It was the first time in Kroger's 143-year history that an outside CEO had been hired. As of early 2026, the company he joined operated almost 2,700 stores across 35 states and could be considered the second-largest U.S. grocery market behind Walmart.

While the business has been growing steadily, Foran has signalled he will apply the same playbook he ran at Walmart, focusing on store standards, price perception, and using physical stores to drive e-commerce. The ideas are not new for Kroger. The difference is the person delivering them.

Closing thoughts

Greg Foran did not plan a career that would take him from a supermarket floor in Hamilton to lead some of the largest retail operations in the U.S. He planned to one day run a single Woolworths store, and he got there in three years. Everything after that followed the same pattern: walking the floor, talking to the people doing the work, and fixing what was broken.