Privately owned supermarket chain Publix is promoting Merriann Metz to the position of vice president, general counsel and secretary.
Metz joined Publix in 2006 as an attorney in the company’s corporate legal department and was promoted to senior attorney in 2010. She was promoted to assistant general counsel in 2011 and to her current position of assistant general counsel and assistant secretary in 2016.
Before working at Publix, she was an attorney with the Lowndes Drosdick law firm in Orlando, Florida.
Metz will succeed senior vice president, general counsel and secretary John Attaway, who has announced his decision to retire on May 31, 2019. Attaway joined Publix in 1997 as corporate counsel and became general counsel and secretary in 2000. He was promoted to his current position of senior vice president, general counsel and secretary in 2005.
Publix is privately owned and operated by its more than 200,000 employees, with 2018 sales of $36.1 billion, according to the company. It has 1,213 stores in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia.
‘John started our corporate legal department and has been instrumental in developing our legal team,’ Publix CEO Todd Jones says in a statement. ‘In addition, throughout his career he has taken on many additional responsibilities. I’m thankful for John’s contributions to the growth and success of Publix and wish him much happiness in the next chapter of his life.
‘Merriann has a collaborative and thoughtful approach to everything she works on. I’m excited to see her take this next step in her career.’
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
