Walmart announces series of executive moves

MAY 1, 2015 | BY MIKE TROY

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Operational changes keep coming at Walmart with another round of senior executive moves — and several retirements — announced late Friday that involve some familiar leaders in new roles focused on supercenters, small format and the rollout of grocery home shopping.
 

Veteran Walmart operator Mike Moore, who currently serves as executive vice president of the 613-unit Neighborhood Market division, will transition to a new EVP role with oversight of Walmart’s much larger 3,421 unit supercenter operation in the U.S. Assuming Moore’s previous position is Walmart West Executive Vice President Julie Murphy.
 

Also of note is an expanded role for Walmart U.S. Senior Vice President of Innovations Mark Ibbotson. He retains his SVP title in the innovations organization now named “Central Operations,” but has been given new responsibilities for asset protection and work with Walmart Global eCommerce to implement grocery home shopping within operations.
 

The key operational moves were shared in an internal announcement on Friday from Walmart U.S. President and CEO Greg Foran and Walmart U.S. COO Judith McKenna.
 

In addition to new responsibilities for Moore and Murphy, it was also revealed that Pam Kohn, executive vice president of Walmart Realty and Joaquin Gonzalez Varela, executive vice president of Walmart East, will leave the company.
 

The changes represent a fresh approach to operations as Walmart appears intent on flattening its operation's organizational structure to put senior leadership in tighter contact with the field. A similar approach has been applied in the merchandising area, where four EVPs of merchandising report directly to Foran.
 

In the operations area, Walmart previously employed a conventional approach, dividing the U.S. into five large regions and later three regions. However, last year when Moore was given oversight of the Neighborhood Market division in recognition that the operational needs of a 40,000-sq.-ft. small format store are different than those of a 180,000-sq.-ft. supercenter, the company divided the nation in half. EVPs Murphy and Gonzalez Varela were given oversight of the west and east, respectively. With the departure of Kohn, a former supermarket executive Walmart has relied on at various times to lead Neighborhood Market and fresh merchandising, JP Suarez will be elevated to the role of senior vice president of Walmart Realty. He currently serves as SVP of real estate strategy, design and construction.
 

The other notable change related to Kohn’s departure is that Walmart Realty now reports to COO McKenna, who, like Foran, assumed her current position last year.