Monro Inc. has named Jerry Alessia as senior vice president of tire merchandising and Avi Dasgupta as vice president of information technology (IT) infrastructure and data architecture. Both will support the Monro.Forward initiative, which focuses on tire strategy, technology and brand standards.

Alessia will oversee all elements of Monro’s tire merchandising operation as the company works to optimize its tire assortment. Alessia joins Monro with 27 years of industry experience at large, national retailers. This includes 12 years with Goodyear, where he served in a number of roles focusing on retail store management, best practices, category management and strategic pricing administration. Alessia reports to Monro president and CEO Brett Ponton.

Dasgupta will oversee the expansion of Monro’s IT infrastructure and data capabilities, supporting a number of Monro.Forward initiatives that will be rolled out in the coming months. He joins Monro with over 25 years of IT experience at companies including Constellation Brands, where he was vice president of application delivery, and Xerox Corp., where he was a director of project management. Dasgupta reports to Brian D’Ambrosia, Monro’s senior vice president of finance and CFO.

Monro kicked off its Monro.Forward initiative this year with an objective to update tire offerings aligned to local store demographics, improve customer communication, and develop a more robust omni-channel presence. Monro, for example, recently announced a “ship to store” collaboration with Amazon to provide tire installation services at its retail tire and automotive service centers.

The initiative also includes plans to drive consistency in store appearance and store layout across markets and store formats. The move is important for a company like Monro, which has grown through decades of acquisition, resulting in a store base with a wide range of sizes and configurations, according to management.