Report: Tovar Resigning Over Deceitful Resume

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive David Tovar is resigning from the company after it was discovered he lied about his college education, a person familiar with the situation told Bloomberg News.

As reported last week by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, Tovar, the company’s vice president of corporate communications, announced in an email to media Sept. 12 he is leaving the company, effective Sept. 30.

According to the Bloomberg report, Tovar’s official biography said previously said he earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Delaware in 1996.

While conducting additional due-diligence screening, which is standard for employees who reach a certain level, Walmart discovered he never received the degree, according to the report.

Tovar, 40, was promoted to the position of vice president of communications in November, and has worked with Walmart about eight years.

“He was discontinued on May 25, 1996,” Janice Wiley, the academic-records assistant at the University of Delaware, told Bloomberg. That means Tovar didn’t register to finish his required coursework, she said. Before then, Tovar had been enrolled in the school’s College of Arts & Sciences, where he’d pursued a degree in art.