Distinguished Guest Speakers – Spring 2025
Anthony Hucker, President and CEO, Southeastern Grocers (SEG)
Linda Parker Hudson, Founder, Linda Parker Hudson Leader-in-Residence Program
On February 11-12, the Engineering Leadership Institute (ELI) hosted Mr. Anthony Hucker as the Spring 2025 Linda Parker Hudson Leader-in-Residence (LIR). Mr. Hucker is an experienced CEO and highly regarded retail leader in the food industry and serves as the President and CEO of Southeastern Grocers (SEG), one of the largest conventional supermarket chains in the U.S. His focus on operational excellence, leadership development, and cultural transformation are renowned and have been the cornerstones of his success in multiple business turnarounds, delivering growth and profitability while building the capabilities for long-term strategic advantage.
His LIR service began with a dinner meeting at the F club on the evening of February 11th where he talked with the administration and faculty of the college and institute on a variety of interesting leadership topics. The discussions occurred in a “fireside chat” format hosted by Ms. Linda Parker Hudson founder of the LIR program that was highly entertaining and informative.
The LIR program continued the next day, starting with a student leaders’ breakfast with Mr. Hucker. Discussions centered around the topic of organizational culture with a focus on student understanding about what it is, why it matters, and how they might assess the culture of organizations they’ll be considering for employment. Following a tour of the new Malachowsky Hall, Mr. Hucker then met with students taking the institute’s advanced engineering leadership development course. The class discussions focused on the Harvard Business School case study on SEG, and the cultural transformation launched by Mr. Hucker that was needed to achieve a financial turnaround of SEG and sustain a competitive advantage. He then had lunch with other college administration and faculty members including a general Q/A session about leadership development and advancing into more senior leadership roles. His LIR service ended with a student-hosted seminar where he presented his “lessons in leadership” followed by a Q&A session with 120+ attendees.
Dr. Angela Lindner, Interim Director of ELI, stated: ”As being new to the ELI directorship, this was a tremendous initiation to the Hudson LIR program. I learned a lot about leadership from Anthony and was particularly impacted by his statement that “leaders rent their office but they own their character”. I am also so appreciative of Linda for providing us with the resources to hold these LIR events.”
