BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons Cos. has named Omer Gajial as its new senior vice president of pharmacy and health, according the the retailer’s LinkedIn page. He previously held positions at Amazon and PepsiCo.

Omer Gajial

Gajial replaces Mark Panzer, who left his role as senior vice president of pharmacy, health and wellness in August. A  former chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Panzer had been been in the role since 2015.

“My vision is to create a customer-centric, integrated health care business that offers convenient, timely, and innovative solutions to our customers,”said Gajial.

Gajial comes to Albertsons Compaies after 4 years at Amazon, which started in 2016 with him leading GM, Softlines and Consumables for Amazon Marketplace before being promoted in 2018 to GM, Category Development for North America. During his time there, he was the architect of many category and private label initiatives which accelerated growth through expanded catalogue, delivery innovation, improved Customer experience, subscriptions and in-store pick-ups. Before Amazon, Omer was with PepsiCo for fifteen years. He started as a Franchise Manager in the West Asia Business Unit and held several positions of increasing responsibility before being named VP Global Strategy, Category Management & Insights for PepsiCo’s Walmart Customer team in 2012. In his roles there, he led engagement for sales strategy and category management.

Gajial is the second member of Albertsons leadership team with extensive time at PepsiCo. CEO Vivek Sankaran, who took the lead role at Albertsons in April 2019, also spent over 10 years at PepsiCo, and becoming CEO of Frito Lay North America.