Two Walmart execs are exiting the company

Two Walmart executives who have accumulated more than four decades of experience are leaving the company, according to internal memos sent Friday (May 22) and first reported by The Wall Street Journal. It is the first major executive shake-up since John Furner was named Walmart CEO in February.

Tom Ward, executive vice president, is leaving his post as chief operating officer at Sam’s Club, according to the memo. Ward was on the fast track since joining Walmart U.S. in May 2013 from ASDA, Walmart’s former grocery chain in the United Kingdom.

Ward was seen as a possible Sam’s Club CEO. He has held nine different roles in the past 11 years, and he was a board member of Walmex, the retailer’s subsidiary in Mexico and Central America, for the past four years. Before joining Sam’s Club a year ago, he was chief e-commerce officer for Walmart U.S., a role he held for three years. Before that, he oversaw drones and final-mile delivery for about a year. Most of his time at Walmart was spent in leadership roles within operations and digital commerce. Ward also spent time overhauling the Walmart academies, where the retailer trains store employees.

The memo states that Ward is retiring, though he is still in his mid-40s. The memo also stopped short of saying whether his position would be filled.

Cedric Clark, executive vice president of store operations, is also leaving. Clark logged more than 20 years at Walmart, joining the company’s asset protection division as a regional manager in 2003. By 2010, Clark was a market manager, and then moved into regional operations out of Chicago, where he was based for 5 years. He left Walmart from 2015 to 2017, where he worked as vice president of store operations for PetSmart. Clark joined Sam’s Club in 2017 as vice president of operations, where he worked for nearly five years. Since 2022, Clark has worked in executive leadership for Walmart’s store operations.

The company said it will name a replacement for Clark in the coming weeks.