THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200558
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 40 lines
After a year-long search for a new chief executive officer, Jackson Hewitt Inc. has tapped Keith E. Alessi, vice chairman of the Farm Fresh Inc. supermarket chain.
Alessi, who joined Jackson Hewitt's board of directors in January, will become its CEO and president on July 1, the Virginia Beach-based tax-preparation company said Wednesday.
Jackson Hewitt's current CEO, John Hewitt, will remain with the company as chairman.
Alessi, 41, said he was approached by one of three directors on Jackson Hewitt's search committee and asked to consider the job. ``It was immediately appealing,'' he said.
Jackson Hewitt's rapid growth and status as a publicly traded company were some of the characteristics that attracted Alessi.
``I'm going into this with my eyes open,'' he said. ``I see my skills and John Hewitt's skills complementing each other.''
Mike Julian, chief executive officer of Farm Fresh, credited Alessi with having a combination of financial acumen and leadership.
``Keith has a first-rate business mind,'' he said. ``You won't find a guy with more ideas about how to make a business succeed.''
Alessi will remain on Farm Fresh's board of directors and will have a consulting position with the grocery chain, Julian said.
A Detroit native, Alessi earned a master's degree in business administration at the University of Michigan and worked as a certified public accountant before getting into the grocery industry.
Alessi spent 1987 and 1988 at Richmond-based Richfood Holdings, where he helped convert the grocery wholesaler from a cooperative to a public company.
Between 1988 and 1992, he worked as chief financial officer and then as president and chief operating officer of Farm Fresh.
When the Norfolk-based grocery chain split off its Virginia Supermarkets Inc. unit in 1992, Alessi headed that operation and in 1994 sold it. He returned to Farm Fresh in 1994 as vice chairman. by CNB