United Natural Foods (UNFI) recently appointed J.J. Schlangen as president of the company’s central region. He will lead one of UNFI’s three regional sales divisions and report to Steve Dietz, chief customer officer.
Schlangen joined UNFI in 2015 as a member of Supervalu’s financial analyst team. During his tenure with the company, 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, the company reported.
“J.J. is a collaborative leader who aligns his teams against both strategy and processes that lead to positive results for customers,” Dietz said in a news release. “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 served as vice president of sales strategy and operations, where he helped develop and implement new sales training and processes that enabled the team to close new business, and contributed to the creation of a “best-in-class” sales and customer support organization.
Schlangen earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota and is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s Food Industry Management Program.
