Executive Management

D.G. Macpherson was named Chief Executive Officer and appointed to the Board of Directors in October 2016. In 2017, he was named Chairman of the Board. He served as Chief Operating Officer for Grainger from August 2015 through September 2016.

Prior to these roles, D.G. was Senior Vice President and Group President, Global Supply Chain and International, where he led the development of corporate strategy and continuous improvement, the global supply chain organization, the company’s single channel online business model and international operations in Asia and Europe. Prior to that, he was Senior Vice President and President, Global Supply Chain and Corporate Strategy.

D.G. joined Grainger in 2008 from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where, from 2002-2008, he was Partner and Managing Director. In that capacity, he served as a consultant to Grainger on several strategic and operational efforts, including availability improvement, pricing strategy, product line expansion and sales force effectiveness.

At BCG, D.G. was a member of the Industrial Goods Leadership Team with strong experience in production systems and continuous improvement methodologies. Early in his career, he was an operations manager for Rain Bird Sprinkler Manufacturing Company and a test engineer with the U.S. Air Force.

D.G. holds a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

D.G. serves on the Museum of Science and Industry Board of Trustees, and in 2021, D.G. was appointed to the International Paper Company Board of Directors.

Kathleen Carroll was named Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer in 2018. She is responsible for global human resources strategies and operations, communications and corporate responsibility that enable the company’s business goals, support a high-performance culture and strengthen the company’s brand as an employer of choice. Kathleen brings 30 years of experience with a unique combination of deep finance and accounting expertise with human resources leadership. She has a proven track record driving profitable growth and designing environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies related to executive compensation, ethics, governance, sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion.

For most of Kathleen’s career, she held finance, HR and strategy roles at companies specializing in consulting, e-commerce, financial services, private equity, supply chain, and telecommunications. Before joining Grainger, Kathleen was Executive Vice President and CHRO at First Midwest Bank. Prior to that, she held a number of leadership positions with Aon Corporation, which included Global Head of Talent Acquisition and HR Lead for Mergers and Acquisitions. She also held leadership roles in Corporate Development and Strategy where she led strategic initiatives, acquisitions and divestitures. She served as the overall project leader for the creation and development of Aon Hewitt’s Corporate Health Care Exchange business and played a central role in the Aon/Hewitt merger integration.

Kathleen earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Missouri and received a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

She currently serves on the boards of directors for the International Women’s Forum and the Executive Committee for Leadership Greater Chicago.

Barry Greenhouse was named Senior Vice President and President, Global Supply Chain and Customer Experience, in November 2019. He is responsible for all aspects of the customer experience from order to delivery, as well as the overall design and capabilities for Grainger’s industry-leading fulfillment network. This includes the North American distribution centers (DC), branch network and customer service centers, as well transportation, inventory planning and investment, and supplier performance management.

Since joining Grainger in 2004, Barry has held several roles of progressive responsibility in the supply chain organization. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain. Under Barry’s leadership, Grainger’s distribution network has undergone enhancements in software and automation including the wall-to-wall modernization of the 1.2 million square foot Greenville, S.C., distribution center. While at Grainger, Barry has overseen the construction of new DCs in San Francisco, New Jersey, Chicago, Louisville, and Toronto, representing more than 5 million square feet. Earlier in his career, Barry led the New Jersey DC and space management systems and processes. He started his career at Grainger as an Operations Manager at the Los Angeles DC.  

Prior to joining Grainger, Barry held roles in operations, sales, marketing, and project management at McMaster-Carr and Webvan. Barry holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and an MBA, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. 

John L. Howard joined Grainger and was named Senior Vice President and General Counsel in January 2000. His responsibilities include all of the company’s legal and corporate environment, health and safety and corporate security functions.

Before joining Grainger, John served as Vice President and General Counsel for Tenneco Automotive, a subsidiary of Tenneco, Inc. Prior assignments included Vice President, Law, and Assistant General Counsel at Tenneco. From 1990 to 1993, John served in The White House as counsel to the Vice President of the United States. From 1984 to 1990, he held a variety of legal positions within the federal government, including Associate Deputy Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice.

John earned his bachelor’s degree in finance, with honors, from the Indiana University School of Business in 1979. He earned his JD from Indiana University in 1982. In 1989, he received his LL.M. from George Washington University, graduating with highest honors. John completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 2003.

John is a Fellow of the American College of Governance Counsel and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the boards of 1871 Chicago, Rush University Medical Center and The Grainger Foundation. In February 2002, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to a five-year term as Chairman, Special Panel on Appeals. He also has served on the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Seventh District Advisory Council and as Vice Chairman of the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Jonny LeRoy was named Chief Technology Officer in April 2020. He is responsible for the technology systems, security and operations that underpin Grainger’s business model. 

Jonny joined Grainger after a 15-year career at ThoughtWorks, where as Head of Technology for North America, he led their technology organization, growing new offerings and capabilities, while also helping to progress their talent, culture and delivery expertise. In prior roles at ThoughtWorks, Jonny served as Market Tech Principal for the West Coast and Lead Developer in the U.S. and UK. Earlier in his career, Jonny was a founder and CTO of a successful UK start-up. 

Jonny holds CPE from Westminster University, and a MA, Literae Humaniores from the University of Oxford. Jonny is a 2022 Daniel Burnham Fellow with Leadership Greater Chicago and also serves on the Board of Advisors for the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) College of Computing.

Deidra C. Merriwether was named Grainger’s Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in January 2021. 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 real estate, corporate strategy and analytical functions.

Deidra is an accomplished leader with broad general management, operations and financial experience. She led transformations at Sears Holdings, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Eli Lilly, and is known for delivering customer results and consistent top quartile performance. At Grainger, Deidra previously 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 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 program at Northwestern and Kellogg Schools of business.

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.

Paige Robbins was named Senior Vice President and President of the Grainger Business Unit in January 2021. She has responsibility for Grainger’s integrated commercial function, which includes sales, KeepStock, marketing, customer strategy, merchandising and supplier management, as well as Grainger Canada and Grainger Mexico.

Ms. Robbins has extremely broad operations and commercial experience at Grainger and brings a strategic mindset, customer focus and track record of strong operational results.

Most recently, Paige served as Senior Vice President, Chief Technology, Merchandising, Marketing and Strategy Officer, where she had responsibility for building, merchandising, marketing and delivering MRO and technology solutions for Grainger’s customers and team members. Her teams included the Grainger Technology Group including Grainger.com; marketing; merchandising and supplier management; customer and corporate strategy, analytics and customer insight teams.

Paige has also served as Senior Vice President, Global Supply Chain, Branch Network, Contact Centers and Corporate Strategy, where she had responsibility for all aspects of the customer experience from order to delivery. This included managing the company’s distribution centers, branch network, contact centers, inventory investment, transportation network, the overall design and capabilities of the fulfillment network and Grainger’s corporate strategy, analytics and customer insight teams. Paige joined Grainger in September 2010 as Vice President of Logistics Management.

Prior to joining Grainger, Paige served as Partner and Managing Director at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where she specialized in industrial companies. She helped her clients on a range of issues including growth, customer segmentation, pricing, profit improvement, supply chain and merger and acquisition strategies.

Paige received both her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Stanford University in Industrial Engineering and earned an MBA from Harvard University. Paige is also a fellow of the CEO Perspectives program at Northwestern and Kellogg Schools of business.

Masaya Suzuki was named Managing Director, Endless Assortment Business in January 2020. His responsibilities include overseeing Grainger’s entire endless assortment portfolio, which includes Zoro in the United States and the United Kingdom as well as continuing his role as President and CEO of MonotaRO in Japan.

In 2000, Masaya joined MonotaRO as part of a joint venture between Sumitomo Corporation and W. W. Grainger, Inc. In 2012, he was named President and CEO of MonotaRO. He has since led the company to achieve substantial revenue growth, expand its product offerings and launch new businesses in South Korea, Indonesia and India.

As part of the Grainger and Endless Assortment Leadership Teams, Masaya continues to focus on product expansion, acquiring more customers, and driving more independence for Grainger’s Zoro operations.

Brian Walker was named Chief Product Officer in October 2019. In this role, Brian leads the prioritization of Grainger’s technology investments including Grainger’s digital platforms, mobile solutions and the industry leading Grainger.com. 

Brian has held many roles of increasing responsibility at Grainger. Most recently, Brian served in technology innovation capacities including Vice President, Digital Architecture and Operations and President of Gamut.com. Prior to that, while headquartered in London, England, he served as Vice President of Strategy and Marketing for Grainger’s Online Business with operations in Canada, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. Brian has also led teams responsible for corporate strategy, merchandising and pricing for the Grainger U.S. Business. He joined Grainger in September 2006 as Purchasing Manager. 

Prior to joining Grainger, Brian led teams in warehousing, logistics, supply chain and sales operations at McMaster-Carr Supply Company. 

Brian holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wesleyan University, a master’s degree in Applied Statistics from DePaul University, and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. Brian serves on the Board of Trustees of the Illinois Institute of Technology and is on the Board of advisors for IIT’s Institute of Design. He has served as a founding board member for Wesleyan’s Quantitative Analysis Center and is a current member of Wesleyan’s President’s Council. Brian also is a Lecturer at Carnegie Mellon University for their Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer programs.