Albertsons’ 15-member board raises governance questions

By Marcus Bennett

Why is Albertsons’ board unusually large?

Albertsons’ board now has 15 members, well above the eight-to-12 average for Russell 3000 companies, according to Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance data published last December. Only about 6% of index companies had more than 12 directors in 2025, and that share has trended downward since 2022, the forum said.

Albertsons, which belongs to the index, now sits in a relatively small group of public companies with boards larger than a dozen. The grocer has added five directors over the past few weeks, including its first executive chair.

The board is now an outlier by available benchmarks, before it has produced a measurable result.

What might the expansion signal?

Albertsons has been dealing with weak sales and poor share-price performance, which the governance experts said adds to the intrigue. Halliday said investors may see the expansion as evidence that Albertsons lacks a clear course just when it urgently needs stability.

“Having such a large board is essentially waving their hands up and down on Wall Street saying, ‘We’re not doing very well. We don’t have a strategic direction right now.’ It’s a really bad sign,” said David Halliday, an associate teaching professor of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington University School of Business.

Jason Schloetzer, an associate professor of business administration at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, offered a different reading: “It suggests that the current board had some gaps in skill, rather than the current board was underperforming,” he said.

The account gives no Albertsons rationale for the sudden expansion, so neither interpretation should be treated as an established company position. The size can signal missing skills or missing direction, but the evidence supports neither conclusion yet.

Who joined the expanded board?

Albertsons’ five appointments combine grocery, operational and technology experience:

• Harmit Singh: Albertsons named the chief financial and growth officer of Levi Strauss & Co. as a director earlier in October, bringing the board to 15 members.
• Meg Ham: The grocer added the former president of Ahold Delhaize USA banner Food Lion last month.
• Lowe’s Companies and Aligned Data Centers: Albertsons looked beyond grocery, naming senior executives of the hardware store chain and the data center developer and manager last month, alongside Ham. The source did not identify those executives.
• Meg Whitman: The grocer named the former CEO of HP and eBay as its first executive chair.

Food Lion stood out among Ahold Delhaize’s U.S. grocery chains during Ham’s tenure. The banner posted an extended record of quarterly sales increases, and Ahold Delhaize’s top management repeatedly praised it on earnings calls.

The roster now combines direct grocery experience with experience outside the sector, but no decision-making improvement has been shown.

What does the executive-chair role change?

The executive-chair position gives Whitman broad latitude to influence Albertsons’ operations and top management, according to the account. Schloetzer said: “It might be the case that they’re looking at some short-term wins on the operating dimension. But it certainly looks like they’re setting themselves up for a longer term change in who they are.”

Schloetzer also said changes to a company’s board makeup can signal preparation for bigger changes down the road. Only a minority of companies appoint an executive chair rather than an outside member at the top of the board, according to Schloetzer.

“It just seems odd that a board would suddenly decide, ‘We haven’t done a good job, we need new people.’ That seems like something that they … could have decided a long time ago,” Schloetzer said.

The source gives no targets, timetable or detailed operating mandate for Whitman’s term. Whitman changes the board’s leadership model, but the source provides no measurable standard for her performance.

Can expertise translate into results?

Board expertise will matter only if it changes results, and Halliday cautioned that translating expertise into action can take time. “They have this real expertise. But [to translate] real expertise into real-world action, either cost savings or revenue and profit increases … they’ve got a lot of work to do,” Halliday said about Albertsons.

Schloetzer’s interpretation leaves two possible paths: near-term operating wins and a longer-term change in Albertsons’ identity. Neither path comes with targets or forecasts in the source, and neither is assured.

The next test is whether the expanded board produces cost savings, revenue growth or profit gains rather than only a larger roster.