Leadership
Kathryn McLay is president and CEO of Walmart International, where she leads a team of some 500,000 associates serving 80 million customers per week across 18 countries. As the world’s leading international omnichannel retailer, Walmart International significantly contributes to the long-term growth for Walmart and its stakeholders, helping people save money and live better. She was named president and CEO of Walmart International in fall 2023.
Prior to leading Walmart International, Kathryn was president and CEO of Sam’s Club, a members-only warehouse club and division of Walmart Inc. that employs more than 100,000 associates across 600 clubs in the United States and Puerto Rico. During her nearly four-year tenure at Sam’s, revenues grew by 43 percent to $84 billion in fiscal year 2023, and the clubs added millions of new members.
Kathryn has held a number of leadership roles at Walmart since joining in 2015 as vice president of U.S. Finance & Strategy. Her first role was driving the transformation of the Walmart U.S. business through oversight of a set of strategic, cross-functional initiatives called Legacy. In 2016, she moved to Supply Chain, where she redesigned the way product moved from supplier to shelf, created an integrated end-to-end Walmart U.S. supply chain and led operations of the imports and reverse networks. In 2018, she was named executive vice president of Neighborhood Markets for the Walmart U.S. business, where she led nearly 700 of the small-format stores across the country.
Kathryn began her career in 1992 at Deloitte as an undergraduate and worked in both internal and external audit and later at Qantas Airlines. In 2001, Kathryn joined Australian retailer Woolworths in corporate audit and completed her professional studies as a Certified Internal Auditor. Kathryn was then appointed head of audit reporting to the CEO and the audit committee chair. In 2007, she was selected as the general manager for business development and subsequently held executive leadership roles throughout Woolworths’ retail and supply chain.
She is past president and chairwoman of the Institute of Internal Auditors and also served as a board member of ECRA, an industry board comprised of retailers and suppliers.
A native of Australia, Kathryn has a bachelor’s degree in accounting and finance from the University of Technology in Sydney.
Kathryn and her husband live in Bentonville, Arkansas, with their three children.
