Walmart announces top executive leadership changes

Walmart announced Friday (Jan. 16) significant changes in executive leadership resulting from the pending retirement of Walmart CEO Doug McMillon. Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner will after Jan. 31 be CEO with the Bentonville-based global retailer.

The retailer said the changes announced Friday will be effective Feb. 1.

“Over my 32 years with Walmart, I’ve seen that our people are our greatest competitive advantage,” Furner said in a statement. “These internal promotions reflect our culture of opportunity and the depth of our leadership bench. These leadership changes also mark a key step in how we organize for the future. Even the best teams need the right structure to win. As AI rapidly reshapes retail, we are centralizing our platforms to accelerate shared capabilities, freeing up our operating segments to be more focused on and closer to our customers and members.”

Following are the top leadership shifts announced by Walmart.

Seth Dallaire, executive vice president and chief growth officer for Walmart U.S. is being named executive vice president and chief growth officer for Walmart Inc.

Dallaire will have responsibility for global enterprise platforms, including Walmart Connect/digital advertising, Walmart+, Walmart Data Ventures, Vizio, Sam’s Club MAP, as well as a global Marketplace platform.

David Guggina, executive vice president and chief e-commerce officer for Walmart U.S., will become president and CEO of Walmart U.S. Previously he was executive vice president of supply chain operations for Walmart U.S.

Chris Nicholas, president and CEO of Sam’s Club U.S., will succeed Kath McLay as president and CEO of Walmart International. Previously he served as chief operating officer for Walmart U.S. with responsibility for all aspects of Walmart’s U.S. store operations and supply chain, chief financial officer for Walmart U.S. and chief financial officer for Walmart International.

Latriece Watkins, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., is being named president and CEO of Sam’s Club U.S. Watkins started her career with Walmart as an intern in 1997, and has held a wide range of leadership roles at Sam’s Club, Walmart U.S. merchandising, People and U.S. store operations.

Talk Business & Politics will update this story later today.