Grainger Recruits Advance Auto Parts CFO

By Imani Moise

W.W. Grainger, Inc., the largest industrial supplier in North America by sales, said Monday Thomas Okray will become its next finance chief after Ron Jadin's retirement next month.

Mr. Okray, 55, joins the company from Advance Auto Parts Inc. where he held the same position. He also has held finance and supply chain related positions at Amazon.com Inc.'s global customer fulfillment business and at General Motors Co.

In addition to a one-time sign on bonus of $800,000, Mr. Okray will receive a base salary of $700,000 with the opportunity to earn a bonus of up to 90% of his base salary. The outgoing CFO's most recent base salary was $748,995, according to a March filing. Mr. Jadin's retirement ends his decade-long tenure in the CFO role.

Grainger has been trying to keep competitors from siphoning away smaller customers with lower prices on maintenance and operations supplies. The distributor typically reserved its best deals for large, high volume industrial and institutional purchasers on long-term contracts. But insurgent online competitors like Amazon have forced Grainger to cut prices by up to 25% to retain its other customers.

Grainger shares, unchanged in the extended session, have rallied 17% so far this year while the S&P 500 has dropped 3.4%.

Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 02, 2018 17:39 ET (21:39 GMT)

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