Monee Fields-White

Gelson’s Markets has a new leader. The Encino-based supermarket chain has appointed Koichi Toyo as its president and chief executive. The leadership change comes following the departure of Ryan Adams, who had held the role since April 2024. Toyo’s appointment marks the first time Gelson’s has drawn its chief executive from within Pan Pacific International Holdings since the Tokyo-based retail conglomerate acquired Gelson’s from TPG Capital in 2021.

Larry Freedman was there before the jerseys, before the stadium, before the first kick. Freedman joined Los Angeles Football Club in 2014 – four years before the club played a single MLS match – and built the business from the ground up. What followed was one of the more remarkable launches in American professional sports: a sold-out inaugural season, a 2022 MLS Cup and a club now valued at more than $1.3 billion.

The LA Galaxy is part of the origins of Major League Soccer and its inaugural season in 1996. About 60,000 fans filled the Rose Bowl for the brand-new league’s game. And it has blossomed from there. David Beckham’s arrival at the Galaxy turned MLS into an international story, and last year the team celebrated a championship – the club’s sixth. Now, as FIFA World Cup 2026 descends on Southern California, Galaxy President and Chief Operating Officer Tom Braun is considering what comes next.