Deidra (Dee) Merriwether is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of W.W. Grainger, Inc. She oversees the company's financial activities, including controllership, treasury, financial analysis, investor relations, internal audit, tax and financial operations. She is also responsible for Grainger’s corporate strategy, analytics, real estate and the U.K. business. (Cromwell).
Before becoming CFO in 2021, Deidra served as Senior Vice President and President, North American Sales and Services, responsible for sales, inventory management solutions, and customer engagement strategies in Canada, Latin America and the United States. She also served as Senior Vice President, Direct Sales and Strategic Initiatives, leading the U.S. sales team, pricing strategy and gross margin optimization. In 2017, Deidra developed and launched Grainger’s new pricing strategy, reinvigorating the company’s relationships with large and medium customers. Deidra joined Grainger in 2013, as Vice President, Finance, Americas, leading financial planning and analysis for Canada, Latin America and the United States. In this role, she launched the Grainger Procurement Company and led efforts to expand operating margins through improved expense leverage.
Deidra is an accomplished leader with more than two decades of broad management, operations and financial experience. She started her career as an engineer and production leader at Eli Lilly and gained valuable accounting and M&A experience at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She held both general management and financial roles of increasing responsibility at Sears Holdings, departing as Chief Operating Officer in 2013. Over her career, she is known for delivering customer results and consistent top quartile performance.
Deidra earned an MBA in Finance and Operations Management from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University. She is also a graduate of the Executive Accounting Program at the University of Texas and a fellow of the CEO Perspectives and CFO Leadership programs at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and the Harvard Business School, respectively.
Deidra currently serves on the board of directors of Weyerhaeuser Company, one of the world’s largest timberlands operators, as well as the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.