Leadership

Kieran Shanahan serves as executive vice president and chief operating officer for Walmart U.S. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of Walmart’s U.S. Store Operations and Supply Chain – including strategy, innovation, automation, store operations, distribution center and fulfillment center operations, last mile delivery capability and real estate.

Prior to this role, Kieran served as executive vice president, International Operations, and regional CEO for Walmart International. In this role Kieran led performance and strategy for Massmart and Chile, as well as serving as the operating partner for Canada, drawing upon his over 25 years of experience in Walmart, Sam’s Club and Asda to guide these markets. He also oversaw the Technology, Operations, Marketplace, Real Estate and Supply Chain teams within the International division. While each of these areas has a different function, they each serve the same goal: deliver value for customers in the 18 countries where Walmart International operates.

Kieran joined Walmart over 25 years ago as a store associate at Asda. He progressed through various operations leadership roles as store manager and regional operations manager, before ultimately leading Asda’s Grocery eCommerce business, and the company’s move into Click & Collect and Pickup. He moved to California in 2014 as the vice president for online grocery for Walmart U.S. There, he was one of the pioneers of creating and scaling the online grocery pickup & delivery service that continues to be one of the key growth drivers for the U.S. business today. He then moved to become a divisional merchandise manager in the U.S. stores merchandising teams for dry grocery, deli, breakfast and bread.

Following these roles, Kieran led the eCommerce merchandising team at Walmart U.S. as the GMM and senior vice president of food, consumables, health & wellness. He and his team successfully launched new initiatives for our customers like Baby Registry and PetRx as well as new brand partnerships across beauty, household and grocery.

As chief merchant for Walmart Canada, Kieran oversaw the merchandising, health & wellness and eCommerce teams. Undertaking transformation efforts in parallel with navigating the challenges of the pandemic, his team successfully implemented a review of an omnichannel customer value proposition, category transformations and transitioned to omni ways of working. The merchandising team took a leadership role in developing more sustainable and regenerative practices and leading on supplier inclusion efforts.

In 2022, Kieran joined Sam’s Club as executive vice president and chief growth officer. During his time with Sam’s Club, Kieran ensured the business stayed ahead of the curve through member obsessed and data driven growth, identified and developed future revenue streams and doubled down on convenience as the differentiator for members.

Kieran is a graduate of the Nottingham Trent University Law School. He is also a graduate of the Harvard Business School Program for Leadership Development and a winner of The Grocer Magazine Top New Talent award in the U.K.