Ace Hardware Announces New Board Members

Ace Hardware Corporation, the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world, announced changes to the company’s Board of Directors following its 2024 Annual Meeting of Stockholders.

Following the annual shareholder meeting on May 14, shareholders elected member directors Megan Hamilton and James (Jimmy) Nichols to their first term on the company’s Board of Directors.

“I am honored to welcome Megan Hamilton and Jimmy Nichols to the Board of Directors at Ace Hardware,” said Steve Burggraf, Chairman of the Board, Ace Hardware Corporation. “Megan’s experience with her long-standing family business in addition to ownership of several additional businesses will bring valuable knowledge to the board. With his over 40 years of retail and wholesale operations, Jimmy brings a wealth of across-the-board experience that we will rely on as we steer the business for years to come.”

Megan Hamilton is co-owner of Ace Hardware & Home Center, a single Ace store located in Portales, New Mexico. Ace Hardware & Home Center was founded by Hamilton’s grandparents in 1958 as Surplus City, a military surplus store, and became affiliated with Ace in 2014. Together with her husband, sister, and brother-in-law, they also own and operate two Ashley Furniture Home Stores and Enchantment Vineyards and Winery. Hamilton is a former member of Ace’s Communications Retailer Input Team. She is also active in her community, recently serving as the Vice President of Economic Development for Roosevelt County, New Mexico, and as a member of the LEDA Board and the Finance Board for the City of Portales. Previously, she was the Chamber of Commerce President. In addition, Hamilton has served as an honorary commander for Cannon Air Force Base and currently serves on the Portales Military Affairs Committee. She earned a Bachelor of Science in physics with an emphasis in business from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, and holds a certificate in oenology, the scientific study of wines and winemaking, from the University of California, Davis.

Jimmy Nichols is President and Chief Operating Officer of Houchens Food Group, Inc., a $2 billion wholly owned subsidiary of Houchens Industries, Inc., a position he has held since 2021. Houchens Industries is a 100% employee-owned ESOP. Houchens Food Group, Inc. operates 45 Ace Hardware stores across Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, Illinois, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania. Nichols has over 40 years of experience in both retail and wholesale operations. He joined Houchens Food Group, Inc. in June 2010 and served as its Vice President and Chief Operating Officer prior to being appointed its President. Nichols is also a member of the Houchens Industries, Inc. Board of Directors. Houchens Food Group, Inc., under Nichols’ leadership, supports many charitable organizations across the communities that it serves. Among those are, St. Jude, Red Cross, multiple food banks, Boys and Girls Clubs, tornado disaster relief, college scholarships through Tennessee Grocers Education Foundation, and many others. Nichols holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas State University.

In addition to the appointment of new member directors, Ace Hardware shareholders re-elected member director Mark Driscoll to the Ace Hardware Board of Directors.

Mark Driscoll joined the board in 2021 and is the Chair of the Retail Stores and Services Committee and member of the Retail/Supply Chain Committee. Driscoll is the owner of DriBar Ace LLC, which opened the Ace Hardware and Pet Supply in Sugar Grove, Ill., in 2014. Prior to Ace, Driscoll spent 38 years in the grocery business, with the last 27 of those working for Supervalu, Inc., a grocery retail and wholesale company. He spent the first half of his career there working with independent retailers supplied by Supervalu in the Midwest, Southeast, and then nationally and internationally. After Supervalu acquired Albertsons, he served as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing of Jewel Osco in Chicago, from 2007 through 2008, and the VP of Operations of Jewel Osco from 2008 through 2012. He ended his career at Supervalu as Corporate Vice President of Retail Operations where he oversaw 1,100+ supermarkets across the country. Driscoll is a former leader of the Northwest Chicago Dealer Group. He also served on Ace’s Marketing Retailer Input Team and the Windy City Ace Stores Governing Board of Directors. In addition, Driscoll has served on several charitable boards including the Cub Foods Charitable Foundation and the SVU Charitable Foundation. He attended UW- Eau Claire and holds an Associate Degree in Supermarket Management from Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, Minn., and a Mini-MBA from the Minnesota Management Institute of the University of Minnesota School of Business.

Source : Ace Hardware

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