Where are they now? 👩🏾💻👨🏻🎨👩🏻✈️👩🏼🚀👨🏿🔬👨🏽🔧
This monthly feature highlights Lincoln County graduates and talks about what they are doing in life now.
This month’s highlighted alumni is Nicholas “Nick” Bertram. Bertram is a 1998 graduate of Lincoln County High School and is currently the President/CEO of The Giant Company. The Giant Company is an American supermarket chain that operates stores in Pennsylvania , Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. Bertram is the chief executive of a growing company with 35,000 teammates, serving around two million families per week.
After high school Bertram attended Eastern Kentucky University and received a BBA in Marketing. He later received an MBA in Global Management from the University of Phoenix plus has received executive education from Kellog’s, Harvard and Wharton during his career.
“My favorite job was my first job, an apprentice with my dad and grandpa. At 16 I went to work part-time at JCPenney in Danville, KY then eventually started working at Walmart as a part-time grocery stocker,” explained Bertram when discussing his career path. “My professional career started there (Walmart) as an Assistant Store Manager, and then as Regional General Manager. After that I moved on and became Senior Vice President of Retail Operations for Jewel-Osco, then SVP of Merchandising at Ahold USA.”
Nick says football games in Death Valley, opening LCMS as a member of the first class to graduate from there, a trip to Carnegie Hall with Mr. Underwood, and the spring drama/musicals are things he still thinks about with great fondness when reminiscing about his school days. “But there were other things, like being Debbie Demrow’s student aide, seeing the new alphabet characters in Mrs. Noe’s kindergarten class, and the ice cream from Mrs. Hill’s house that just come flooding back. I am very, very proud to have grown up in Stanford.”
Bertram says many teachers at Lincoln County Schools greatly impacted his life. “Mrs. Mattingly pushed me the most academically, but Mr. Underwood was the most impactful on my life. He and Sheila taught me, encouraged me, and indeed loved me. They were parents to so many of us, and he remains one of the great influences of my life.”
Nick and his wife Jennifer have four young boys and currently live in the Philadelphia area. They are passionately involved serving with their church, enjoy cheering for Philly teams and they travel as much as possible. He is also Chairman of the Board for Pennsylvania’s Statewide Chamber and serves on the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Foundation Board.
We are very proud of Nick and all of his achievements in life and are excited to see what the future holds for him!
#TEAMLincoln 🛒🥗📊👨💼
