Walmart announced on Friday that CEO Doug McMillon will retire in January after more than a decade leading the retail behemoth.
He will be succeeded by Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner effective Feb.1. Furner will also join the company’s board of directors on the same date.
To ensure a smooth leadership transition, Walmart said McMillon will remain on the company’s board until the next annual shareholders meeting in June.
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“Serving as Walmart’s CEO has been a great honor and I’m thankful to our Board and the Walton family for the opportunity,” McMillon said in a statement.
McMillon was tapped to lead the global corporation in 2014. He began his career at the company as a teenage summer associate in 1984, where he was tasked with picking orders and unloading trailers in a warehouse. He served in senior leadership roles across each business segment during his time at the Arkansas-based company before becoming the head of Walmart International in 2009.
McMillon said he has worked with Furner for over two decades and applauded his passion for the company as well as his skill set, noting that he is “uniquely capable of leading the company through this next AI-driven transformation.”
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“He’s a merchant, an operator, an innovator, and a builder. I know that our future is bright with his leadership,” McMillon said.
Furner made a name for himself in an industry often characterized by rapid change and relentless competition, rising from an hourly associate in Arkansas to becoming a member of the company’s C-suite over two decades later.
Like McMillon, Furner worked his way from an hourly associate in 1993 to CEO of Walmart’s membership warehouse, Sam’s Club, in 2017. Two years later, he was tapped to lead the nation’s largest private employer, which has more than 4,600 stores.
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In a 2024 interview with FOX Business, Furner said that a pillar of his leadership involves creating a network of people he can listen to for advice, especially during difficult times. Throughout his career, Furner also learned that understanding one’s weaknesses and knowing when to look to others for help underpins a good leader.
“It’s important to recognize who you are and what you bring in the environment. And that cannot be everything,” he said. “A lot of situations come up that I’m calling someone on my team or asking who they know in the world that has thought through the type of situation we’re facing and go get help and advice.”
Despite a challenging economic climate marked by inflation, cost pressures and tariffs, Walmart has remained in strong shape across consecutive quarters, delivering rising sales, higher profits, and growth in its higher-margin businesses.
The company has continually said it “will play offense” and may make strategic investments to strengthen its value proposition as it contends with tariffs, which the Trump administration has implemented in an effort to bring manufacturing back to the U.S.
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