Wal-Mart’s Vasquez Receives Recognition

Most Whispers readers likely are familiar with the whole “40 Under 40” concept.

It’s a yearly endeavor at lots of publications, including ours. We tout our list as something along the lines of “40 of the best-in-class professionals under the age of 40 who are doing business in our six-county area.”

Well, despite the fact it covers a significantly wider area, Fortune magazine recently featured a face that might be familiar to some here in our neck of the woods. In its own 40 Under 40 list, Fortune included Raul Vazquez, president of Wal-Mart West.

Here is the description given the 39-year-old exec: “El Paso native Vazquez moved to San Francisco during the dotcom boom but ended up at an old giant, joining Walmart.com in 2002 and becoming its CEO in 2007. In January he was promoted to run all of Wal-Mart West, one of three U.S. divisions. Though the company doesn’t break out regional sales, total U.S. revenue last year was $258 billion, so it’s safe to say the Stanford engineer has a lot on his shoulders.”

Oh, yeah, Fortune also mentioned Vazquez likes “the symphony and poetry.”