Forty Under 40: Kerry Harmon

Kerry Harmon has been with Wal-Mart Stores Inc. since the age of 16.

“I started out pushing shopping carts in from the parking lot,” said Harmon. Now, 19 years later, Harmon, 35, is regional vice president of operations for Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club division.

Three years after beginning work at the new Wal-Mart store in Paducah, Ky., Harmon found himself on the company’s management track. Harmon caught the Wal-Mart fever from Jerry Sparks, manager of the Paducah store. Harmon said Sparks managed to convey Sam Walton’s philosophy in way that excited him and made him want to stick with the company.

“I fell in love with the company through those meetings [with Sparks],” Harmon said.

Harmon worked at Wal-Mart stores in Missouri, Tennessee, Ohio and Rhode Island before going over to the Sam’s Club division in 1995.

He moved to Bentonville in 1997 to serve as director of personnel for Sam’s Club. Two years later, he was promoted to his current position.

“I still believe life is what you’re willing to put into it,” Harmon said.

Harmon said he enjoys his job, but he also makes time for his family, which includes his wife Carmen and two children.