Today, Bill Simon, President and CEO of Walmart US, announced the senior leadership team that will move the company forward. The memo below was sent to all Walmart US associates today.
To: All Walmart US Associates
From: Bill Simon, President and Chief Executive Officer – Walmart US
Date: July 2, 2010
RE: Our Leadership Team
Three days ago I was given the honor to lead the Walmart US team – to build on the foundation established by Eduardo and those that came before. An important part of our history is what Sam Walton taught us – namely that we have a responsibility to always look for ways to improve, and that we must never get set in our ways.
As I said earlier this week, our mandate is clear: increase customer traffic, make sure our products are relevant to our customer and never give an inch on price leadership. These areas matter most for the continued growth of our business. They require strong leadership and a sense of urgency. Today, I'd like to tell you about the Walmart US senior leadership team that will move us forward.
Last January we announced a new Walmart field structure which aligned three very successful operating divisions – Logistics, Real Estate and Store Operations, as part of three distinctive geographic business units (GBUs) – Walmart West, South and North. I am pleased about the progress made and the growth opportunities that are emerging for our associates.
Moving forward, our GBU leaders, -- Raul Vazquez, (West), Rosalind Brewer, (South) and Hank Mullany, (North) will continue to report to me. In the months ahead, we will bring an even greater focus to growing in new markets and moving our business closer to our customers.
Mr. Sam always believed that you – our associates – were the reason for our company's success. You are more important today than ever before as we focus on our customers. So we are taking this opportunity to align all our Human Resource functions together to maximize support for both our field and home office associates. I am pleased to announce the promotion of Gisel Ruiz to Executive Vice President, Walmart People. Gisel began her Walmart career in 1992 as a management trainee. She has worked as an assistant manager, co-manager and store manager. In 2006, Gisel was promoted to vice president and regional general manager and assumed her current role as senior vice president of People in 2008. In her newly expanded role, Gisel is responsible for the HR function across our field and home office organizations, including talent management and compensation. Gisel will report to me.
Stephen Quinn, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer; Johnnie Dobbs, Executive Vice President, Logistics; Eric Zorn, President, Walmart Realty; and Tom Mars, Chief Administrative Officer will report directly to me.
John Fleming, Chief Merchandising Officer has made a personal decision to leave the company. In the 10 years John has spent at Walmart he has built a strong team and been the architect of groundbreaking efforts to grow our e-commerce business, creative marketing programs to communicate with customers and inventive merchandising initiatives. On a personal note, I'd like to thank John for his many contributions and for the direction he set for the company.
I've asked Jack Sinclair, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Grocery to lead Food as well as the Health & Wellness merchandising teams; and John Westling, Executive Vice President, Planning, Pricing and Replenishment to lead the General Merchandising and Replenishment teams. Both Jack and John Westling will report directly to me until we name a replacement for John.
Our leadership team will focus on picking up our pace to meet our challenges. We have an organization with the determination to compete to win in the marketplace. And we have you – our associates who make a difference to our customers today and every day.
Many of you have sent notes this week to wish me well. Let me tell you again that it is a privilege to serve in this position. I look forward to what we can do together to run our business even better and continue to offer our customers great products at lower prices.
Let me thank you for what you are doing to help our customers save money so they can live better.
Please join me in congratulating Gisel on her promotion and wishing John well.