MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 19, 2026--
SPS Commerce (NASDAQ: SPSC), the leading intelligent supply chain network, today announced the inaugural class of its Top Supply Chain Leaders, recognizing an initial 50 operational leaders and their teams from organizations across the U.S. and Canada, including Walgreens, US Foods, Petco, Fastenal, Ace Hardware, Gordon Food Service, and Canadian Tire. The recognition celebrates leadership in driving innovation, resilience, and operational excellence across retail, grocery, and distribution.
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In recent years, supply chain has become one of the most visible and strategically important functions inside an organization. Yet the leaders responsible for navigating disruption, modernizing operations, transforming with AI, and strengthening customer relationships often do not get the public recognition they deserve. SPS Commerce created the "Top Supply Chain Leaders" list to close that gap.
As the leading intelligent supply chain network, trusted by seven of the top ten largest retailers per NRF and over two-thirds of today's fastest growing brands by Bain & Company, SPS is uniquely positioned to highlight the retailers, brands, manufacturers, distributors, and logistics providers that are setting a high bar for future operations.
"The future of supply chain won't be defined by technology alone, but by the leaders who know how to use it to solve increasingly complex business challenges," said Tony DiPaolo, General Manager of Retail at SPS Commerce. "These honorees and their teams are setting a new standard for operational excellence while helping their organizations become more resilient, collaborative, and better prepared for what's next in the Agentic AI era. We're proud to recognize these individuals whose work often happens behind the scenes but positively impacts millions of consumers every day."
As AI, automation and increasingly connected trading networks transform supply chain operations, SPS Commerce believes the industry's greatest competitive advantage remains the people who successfully bring those technologies together to solve real-world operational challenges.
"We are honored to be recognized by SPS Commerce alongside so many accomplished leaders across retail, grocery, and distribution," said Jeff Swiney, Director, Supply Chain & Logistics at K-VA-T Food Stores (Food City). "This acknowledgement reflects our team's commitment to building stronger partnerships, embracing innovation, and finding better ways to keep products moving for the customers and communities we serve, despite an increasingly complex business environment."
The inaugural list was selected by SPS Commerce based on their demonstrated leadership, industry impact, and commitment to advancing supply chain excellence. Additional leaders will be recognized in the coming months, completing the inaugural class of Top Supply Chain Leaders for 2026, with plans to continue an annual list in subsequent years.
See the list and read about the Top Supply Chain Leaders.
About SPS Commerce
SPS Commerce (NASDAQ: SPSC) is the leading intelligent supply chain network, connecting trading partners around the globe to optimize supply chain operations with all retail partners. Our AI-powered network connects 300,000+ trading relationships worldwide and moves more than 750M transactions and over $650B in gross merchandise value each year. From retailers and brands to manufacturers, distributors, and logistics providers, SPS is trusted by seven of the top ten largest retailers, and over two-thirds of today's fastest growing brands. Our multi-solution portfolio orchestrates the data, decisions, and relationships that keep the world's supply chains moving forward. With nearly 3,000 employees and offices worldwide, SPS Commerce is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more information, visit spscommerce.com.
Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements, including information about management's view of SPS Commerce's future expectations, plans and prospects, including our views regarding future execution within our business, the opportunity we see in the retail supply chain world and our performance for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025, within the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause the results of SPS Commerce to be materially different than those expressed or implied in such statements. Certain of these risk factors and others are included in documents SPS Commerce files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to, SPS Commerce's Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Walgreens, US Foods, Petco and More Recognized in the Inaugural Class of Top Supply Chain Leaders by SPS Commerce
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies announced Wednesday that they are investigating senior officials in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, a day after the country’s recently fired defense minister called for national elections despite the ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion.
The revelation brought another test of Zelenskyy’s political resilience as Ukraine’s war with its bigger neighbor stretches into its fifth year.
Investigators are conducting an operation to expose a criminal organization allegedly led by a sitting and a former lawmaker, involving senior officials from the presidential office and other individuals, according to a joint statement from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office.
Further details would be released later, the agencies said in a joint statement.
Zelenskyy made no public comment on the investigation but issued a decree dismissing Iryna Mudra from the position of deputy head of the Office of the President.
Zelenskyy remains dogged by high-level graft investigations.
Last year, his chief of staff Andriy Yermak resigned and was later named as a suspect in a major graft probe involving a luxury construction project in the biggest threat to Zelenskyy’s government since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
Also last year, a major embezzlement and kickbacks scandal involving the state-owned nuclear power company brought the resignations of Ukraine’s justice and energy ministers.
The European Union has identified deep-seated corruption as one of the major hurdles to Ukraine's desired membership in the bloc.
Zelenskyy is already under pressure over his firing last month of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, one of the longest-standing members of his team and a close ally since he helped Zelenskyy win the 2019 presidential election.
Zelenskyy, seeking to reconcile tensions between the defense ministry's young and tech-savvy innovators and Ukraine's seasoned, Soviet-trained battlefield leaders, risked angering both sides by reshuffling his wartime leadership. He ousted both Fedorov, whose changes to military procurement aimed to stamp out corruption, and commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.
That sparked days of street protests in support of Fedorov. For Zelenskyy, it was the second time in a year that a wartime decision triggered a strong public backlash, after he moved in mid-2025 to curb the powers of anti-corruption agencies.
Fedorov, in a video address posted to YouTube late Tuesday, called for elections to be held in Ukraine in a bombshell statement that appeared to directly confront Zelenskyy, who says a ballot can't be held under the martial law in place due to the war.
“We must find a legal, safe and realistic mechanism that will allow Ukraine to restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war,” Fedorov said.
He said Ukraine is facing a systemic crisis in how it is governed, arguing that the current system is oriented toward protecting itself and resisting change. He also condemned corruption among officials without naming anyone, saying it had weakened Ukraine’s ability to fight the war.
Zelenskyy’s office did not immediately comment on Fedorov’s address. It was not immediately clear whether Fedorov's appeal for a ballot would resonate with Ukrainians.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has balked at negotiating a peace deal directly with Zelenskyy, asserts that the Ukrainian president is an illegitimate leader because his term expired in 2024.
Ukraine’s Parliament approved Zelenskyy's candidate, Yevhenii Khmara, as the new defense minister in a vote Wednesday, a move that effectively closes the door to Fedorov’s return to the post, which he has sought, any time soon.
Lawmakers also gave their consent for Andrii Sybiha to stay on as foreign minister after holding the post in an interim role.
The political disarray comes after recent successes in the war for Ukraine. Using its innovative drone technology, it has repeatedly hit Russian oil facilities, causing fuel shortages. It has also shocked the Russian public by striking warehouses of Wildberries, Russia's biggest online retailer, and stalled front-line advances by Russia's bigger army.
But Zelenskyy has been unable to get traction in U.S.-led peace efforts, and Ukraine is at the mercy of Russia's ballistic missiles because more U.S.-made Patriot interceptors aren't available due to low international stockpiles.
In its latest strike on oil facilities, a drone hit an oil refinery in Ufa in Russia's Bashkortostan, its Gov. Radiy Khabirov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The city of Ufa is located roughly 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of the border with Ukraine. There are three oil refineries in Ufa, and all three have been attacked before.
Russian air defenses overnight intercepted 453 Ukrainian drones over multiple Russian regions, as well as occupied Crimea and the Black Sea, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday.
The Defense Ministry said Russian forces on Tuesday evening hit a bulk carrier in the Black Sea, southeast of Odesa, that was carrying military equipment. On Wednesday, the Russian military struck what it said were fuel and lubricant storage tanks for the Ukrainian armed forces in the southern port of Chornomorsk.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Kherson region on Wednesday morning, killing four people, said Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration. Four women were also wounded in the strike and were hospitalized, he said.
Also, a Russian drone struck a civilian car in Kherson city, the region's capital, on Wednesday, killing a woman, Prokudin said.
Amid the fighting, Russia and Ukraine each sent home 103 prisoners of war Wednesday, according to Zelenskyy and the Russian Defense Ministry.
Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
People sing and hold up their cell phone flashlights during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People stand still for a minute of silence during a rally to protest against the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
People march during a rally to protest the dismissal of Mykhailo Fedorov as Ukraine's Defense Minister in Kyiv, late Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
FILE - Ukraine's Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov speaks to journalists during a joint press conference with Sweden's Defense Minister Pal Jonson in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, file)
