Ahold Delhaize USA’s De Paoli is America’s gain

On Sept. 11, Ahold Delhaize USA’s Juan De Paoli will celebrate his fifth year as a U.S. citizen. Born in Italy, De Paoli became a U.S. citizen in 2013 while living in San Antonio. Fascinated with the country and its ideals, De Paoli had wanted to be a U.S. citizen since he was a child.

“I just love this country,” says De Paoli, the senior vice president of private brands for Retail Business Services, an Ahold Delhaize USA.

De Paoli’s citizenship is a win for America. He’s a humble, thoughtful and gracious person. And, these days, America can use all the humble, thoughtful and gracious people it can get.

While he is the leader of Ahold Delhaize USA’s private brands team, De Paoli is more about the team than himself. Let me tell you a quick story about his me-second approach.

De Paoli was on the cover of the July issue of Store Brands. The story was about Ahold Delhaize USA’s private brands team. It should be duly noted that De Paoli wanted a photograph of himself with several members of his team on the July cover. While that didn’t happen, De Paoli’s request tells a lot about his character.

We elected to place De Paoli alone on the cover for a few different reasons. One, it’s important to take a simplistic approach when deciding on an image for a magazine cover. With one person on the cover, our readers can quickly figure out who that person is by reading the accompanying copy. But when there are four or five people on the cover, we are asking our readers to identify several people, which they might not do. A cover can simply just get too “busy” with more than two people on it.

Second, it’s also difficult to get several people on a cover because of its vertical format. Then the photographer has to take a photo from farther away, which can impact the drama or emotion that might come with just one person being photographed from a closer distance. Remember, photography is art.

So, considering that De Paoli leads the private brands team, we decided to feature him alone on the cover. While I apologize for the quick lesson in cover photography 101, I just want to let you know our philosophy behind cover shoots. And revealing the story behind the cover shoot had to be told as an anecdote to reveal what makes De Paoli operate.

De Paoli is downright passionate in his quest to make Ahold Delhaize USA’s private brands “world class” and “famous.” He is also highly regarded by his team members and his peers for just being a genuinely good guy.

After the photo shoot, De Paoli took me to his office to show me what he calls his “most valuable property.” It wasn’t a photograph of a car or a house — not even close. The “property” consisted of two folded-up flags in display cases placed on a shelf in his office — one a U.S. flag and the other a Texas flag, both awarded to him the day he became a U.S. citizen.

“I’ve lived in multiple countries around the world, and this is the best country and the best place for anybody to be,” De Paoli said, beaming.

Like I said, Juan De Paoli is America’s gain — for the good of the store brands industry and for the good of our country’s people.