Bob Mariano

Bob Mariano

Mr. Mariano started out in the retail grocery business at the age of 17, working as a part-time deli clerk at Dominick’s Finer Foods. In 1971 he became a sales representative for Oscar Mayer & Company selling to the retail industry. After working for Oscar Mayer, Mr. Mariano returned to Dominick’s and in 1995 became President and Chief Executive Officer of Dominick’s Finer Foods. Under Mr. Mariano’s leadership, the company became a top performing regional supermarket chain with 115 stores in the Chicagoland area. Dominick’s became a public company in 1996 and Mr. Mariano remained with the company until Safeway acquired it in 1998. In June of 2002, Mr. Mariano became the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Roundy’s, Inc. Roundy’s is a leading Midwest grocery retailer with approximately $4 billion in annual sales and over 22,000 employees operating under the Pick ’n Save, Copps, and Metro Market banners in Wisconsin and the Mariano’s banner in Illinois. Mr. Mariano continued Roundy’s growth with the introduction of Mariano’s Fresh Market in 2010. Today, the stores are simply known as Mariano’s, a strategically unique grocery banner offering a highly differentiated food shopping experience fashioned from Mr. Mariano’s four decades of experience. In 2013, Roundy’s acquired 11 Chicagoland Dominick’s stores from Safeway. These stores were converted to the Mariano’s banner and today, the Mariano’s banner consists of 30 stores located throughout the Chicago metropolitan area. Mr. Mariano’s strong commitment to the community led to the establishment of the Roundy’s Foundation in 2003. Since its inception, the foundation has given more than $9 million to organizations addressing hunger relief and families in crisis due to domestic abuse. In 2009, Mr. Mariano received the prestigious Ben Franklin Award from the Milwaukee Public Library Foundation for his commitment to literacy. He received the 2008 Humanitarian of the Year Award from the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans in Chicago, and in 2014, he received the inaugural IBEW Chicagoland Business Person of the Year award. Mr. Mariano currently serves on several boards, including Rush University Medical Center Board of Directors, the University of Chicago - Booth School of Business Advisory Council, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee - Business Advisory Council, the Economic Club of Chicago, and the Food Marketing Institute. Mr. Mariano received his MBA from the University of Chicago and his Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Mariano is also the recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from DePaul University.