Seven & i Holdings, parent company of international c-store giant 7-Eleven, has named Stephen Dacus, currently lead independent outside director, as its next CEO. This move is part of a larger restructuring plan that will see 7-Eleven Inc. issue an initial public offering in the U.S., the company announced after a board meeting on Thursday.
Dacus will replace Ryuichi Isaka, who has been CEO of the company since 2016 and has worked in various roles with Seven & i since 1980, according to the company website. This change will become official after Seven & i’s annual shareholders meeting on May 27.
The IPO is currently planned for the second half of 2026, assuming favorable market conditions. The move is expected to leverage the chain’s ubiquity in the U.S. — where it has over 9,000 c-stores — and help it grow faster by giving it more flexibility and responsiveness to its customers while still taking advantage of synergies with Seven & i, according to the meeting presentation. Seven & i is expected to be a majority shareholder of the new company.
Seven & i’s plan also includes selling its superstore business to private investment firm Bain Capital for about $3.4 billion and allotting $13 billion toward stock buybacks by 2030.
Dacus, who will helm the company through most of these changes, brings decades of experience to the role. He has served in leadership roles across multiple industries, including his first CEO role in 2001 with condiment maker MasterFoods Ltd., according to his bio on the Seven & i website. He also spent more than eight years in a variety of leadership roles with Walmart, including senior vice president and CEO of Walmart Japan Holdings.
Additionally, Dacus has served as CEO of pan-Asian foods company Hana Group SAS. Dacus’ years of experience leading food-focused companies will likely be relied upon as 7-Eleven continues to promote and innovate around its foodservice program.
The incoming CEO joined Seven & i’s board as an outside director in 2022. He will be the company’s third CEO since it was founded in 2005, and the first from outside Japan. Toshifumi Suzuki served in that role from the company’s founding until 2016, when he was forced out after a clash with shareholders, according to reporting at the time.
Dacus’ appointment comes as Seven & i weighs a takeover bid from fellow international c-store company Alimentation Couche-Tard. A competing bid from a group led by Seven & i vice president Junro Ito and major shareholder Ito-Kogyo failed in February after it could not secure enough funding to take the company private.
While there is no official decision on Couche-Tard’s offer, Seven & i noted this week that both sides have been working on a potential divestiture package that “would be unprecedented in scope and size” to address the regulatory concerns that have served as a major hurdle to the tie-up.
Dacus was a member and the chairman of the special committee Seven & i formed to evaluate that offer. As of yesterday, he had stepped down from that post and been replaced by Paul Yonamine, another independent outside director.
