Legend

2023 Inductee

Dan Shapiro

Dan Shapiro was a former Loblaw Companies executive and a 2004 Golden Pencil recipient. He retired in 2000 as senior vice president of marketing and advertising but stayed on in an advisory role until 2003. Described by his grocery industry peers as a fair but tough leader, a true gentleman and a legend, Shapiro led Loblaw’s National Grocers Retailers (NGR) division, which included all of Loblaw’s conventional banners for independents. During the 1989s, he oversaw the transition of bringing the variously named independents under one name as Your Independent Grocers. He began his career at Loeb in 1961 in Ottawa and remained with the wholesaler until 1974. At the time, he was president of Loeb but received a job offer to oversee the establishment of franchises in Canada for a U.S.-based Tiffany Bakery. After helping the company to establish more than 100 franchisees, he shifted back to the grocery industry in 1979, joining Loblaw, a company he would stay with until his retirement. Shapiro passed away in March 2022.