BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart has named a new chief executive officer for Sam’s Club, whose current CEO is leaving, and promoted another executive to chief operating officer of Walmart U.S., a newly created position.
The discount store giant, the nation’s fourth-largest retail pharmacy operator by locations, said Friday that Brian Cornell, 52, president and CEO of Sam’s Club, has told the company that he and his wife want to move back to the Northeast for family reasons.
With his exit, Rosalind Brewer, president of the Walmart U.S. east business unit, is being promoted to president and CEO of Sam’s Club effective Feb. 1.
As president of Walmart U.S. east, the 49-year-old Brewer oversaw a business that generates more than $100 billion in annual revenue and has almost 1,600 stores and over 500,000 associates. In her new post as Sam’s Club CEO, she reports to Walmart president and CEO Mike Duke.
Meanwhile, Gisel Ruiz, executive vice president of people for Walmart U.S., is being promoted to executive vice president and COO for Walmart U.S. and is slated to start in the new role Feb. 1.
With the move, the 41-year-old Ruiz shifts from a human resources position to a retail operations role. As COO for Walmart U.S., she will be responsible for the retailer’s U.S. operations, which cover more than 3,800 stores and include Supercenters, discount stores, Neighborhood Markets and Walmart Express formats. In her previous post as executive vice president of people for Walmart U.S., she directed human resources and store innovation organizations supporting over 1.2 million associates.
Ruiz will continue to report to Walmart U.S. president and CEO Bill Simon, and all three regional business unit presidents will report to her.
In other senior management changes, Walmart has promoted corporate chief information officer Rollin Ford to chief administrative officer, effective Feb. 1. To replace him, Karenann Terrell, assistant CIO for Walmart, is being promoted to CIO, also starting in that post on Feb. 1.
"We are very intentional about developing talent to meet the needs of our rapidly growing business worldwide," Duke said in a statement. "The promotions we are announcing today are clear evidence that our succession and management development programs work, and that we have highly talented, well-rounded and experienced business leaders ready to step into larger roles when the opportunities arise."
Among retail pharmacy operators, Walmart ranks third in pharmacy dollar volume, with estimated sales of over $21.4 billion, and fourth in pharmacy count, with about 4,400 pharmacy locations, according to Chain Drug Review‘s 2011 Annual Report of Retail Pharmacy. The company’s Sam’s Club warehouse club chain has more than 500 in-store pharmacies.
