Columbus based Big Lots appointed Andrej Mueller as its new Executive Vice President of Business Strategy. Mueller, who is native of Munich upholds a Master's degree in business administration from the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management and has 15+ years of experience in the consumer industry. His expertise centered on profitable growth strategy, upgrading marketing, sales and advanced analytics capabilities, and delivering transformational change across a broad range of consumer companies.

He has worked with the Boston Consulting Group from 18 years and most recently held the role of Managing Director and Partner in their German office. Munich has worked in both developed and developing retail environments across Europe, North and South America, Africa and Australia.

Andrej role is an expansion to our leadership team and part of the transformational roadmap for our future growth.

The company that was established with a vision to help people Live BIG and Save Lots has its stores in 47 states with product assortments in the merchandise categories of Furniture, Seasonal, Soft Home, Food, Consumables, Hard Home, and Electronics, Toys & Accessories.

Welcoming Mueller on board, Bruce Thorn, President & CEO, Big Lots stated, “We are excited to welcome to the Company an executive with Andrej's breadth of experience. His role is an expansion to our leadership team and part of the transformational roadmap for our future growth. Andrej is an exceptional strategist with insatiable curiosity and a collaborative work style that will prove invaluable as we position our business for long-term success under our Operation North Star strategic plan. He will report directly to me and is responsible for generating customer and competitive insights, as well as managing the Company's strategy planning efforts. Creating a data-driven enterprise strategy group ensures that we achieve operational excellence and an evergreen strategic planning process”.