Retail/Wholesale: MICHAL LAGUNIONEK

A native of Poland, Lagunionek has maintained a low profile since moving to the United States to start work in June 2021 as president and CEO of Lidl US, the U.S. arm of the German discount grocery chain.

Even when headlines broke that Lidl US had named its fourth leader since the German discounter established its U.S. headquarters in Arlington in 2017, scant details about Lagunionek floated to the surface. What is known: He previously served as CEO of Lidl’s Poland division for a decade. In 2015, Lagunionek moved to Germany to join the board of Lidl International, where he helped oversee Lidl’s development in other countries.

In June 2021, Lagunionek inherited a stronger market when he succeeded Johannes Fieber as U.S. head, after some difficulty during the grocer’s U.S. rollout, which included larger and more expensive-to-operate stores than those in Europe, as well as competition from other discount grocers. Fieber helped steady the ship by streamlining its marketing and expansion strategies, which included Lidl’s purchase of 27 Best Market stores in 2018.

Lidl US, which ranked as a top 5 U.S. grocer in USA Today’s 2022 10 Best Readers’ Choice Awards, operates 150 stores across nine East Coast states. In June, Lidl opened its 34th store in Virginia in McLean.