New leadership is on deck at Costco Wholesale Corp., which announced Craig Jelinek will step down as CEO, effective January 1, 2024, at which time the chief executive post will pass to Ron Vachris, Costco’s president and COO since February 2022.
Vacharis has more than 40 years of Costco experience, starting out as a forklift driver and subsequently serving in every major role related to Costco’s business operations and merchandising activities, the company pointed out. Before his appointment as president and COO, he was executive vice president of merchandising from June 2016 to January 2022 and senior vice president of real estate development from August 2015 to June 2016. He also is a board of directors member.
“Costco has a very strong culture and a deep bench of management talent,” Jelinek said in announcing the succession. “I have total confidence in Ron and feel that we are fortunate as a company to have an executive of his caliber to succeed me.”
Jelinek will serve in an advisory role at Costco through April 2024, assisting Vachris during the transition, the company indicated. Jelinek will continue serving on the Costco board and will stand for reelection at the January 2024 annual meeting.
