Just two weeks before he’s scheduled to officially take over the top job at Walmart Inc., incoming president and chief executive officer John Furner has orchestrated a shakeup at the highest rungs of the juggernaut retailer.
The changes involve several promotions from within the ranks, which is consistent with Walmart’s track record of elevating its own executives into different assignments and maintaining a strong bench of managers.
Among the changes disclosed Friday:
- David Guggina, currently executive vice president and chief e-commerce for Walmart U.S., will become president and CEO of Walmart U.S., moving into the role that Furner holds until the end of this month. The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said in its statement Friday that under Guggina’s leadership: “Walmart has built industry-leading delivery capabilities that today serve 95 percent of U.S. households in under three hours. Guggina’s background in e-commerce and supply chain operations uniquely positions him to continue to drive our goal of being America’s favorite place to shop.” Previously, Guggina was executive vice president of supply chain operations for Walmart U.S. Walmart bills itself as “a people-led, tech-powered omni-channel retailer.”
- Seth Dallaire, currently executive vice president and chief growth officer for Walmart U.S., was promoted to executive vice president and chief growth officer for Walmart Inc. “Over the past several years, Dallaire and his team have helped Walmart U.S. expand beyond traditional retail, building new revenue streams to enhance customer value. In his new enterprise role, Dallaire will have responsibility for global enterprise platforms, including Walmart Connect/digital advertising, Walmart+, Walmart Data Ventures, Vizio, Sam’s Club MAP, as well as a global Marketplace platform,” the company stated.
- Chris Nicholas, currently president and CEO of Sam’s Club U.S., will succeed Kath McLay as president and CEO of Walmart International. Previously he served as chief operating officer for Walmart U.S. with responsibility for all aspects of Walmart’s U.S. store operations and supply chain. Earlier, he served as chief financial officer for Walmart U.S. and chief financial officer for Walmart International. “Nicholas grew up in retail, he’s a proven operator and has significant international experience, having lived and worked in more than 10 countries,” Walmart said.
- Latriece Watkins, currently executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for Walmart U.S., will become president and CEO of Sam’s Club U.S. “Watkins started her career with Walmart as an intern in 1997. Among her many successes, she reshaped the Walmart U.S. assortment strategy, drove operational excellence, and ensured a consistent, trusted shopping experience. Watkins has held a wide range of leadership roles across Sam’s Club, Walmart U.S. merchandising, people and U.S. store operations.”
These management changes are effective Feb. 1.
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“Over my 32 years with Walmart, I’ve seen that our people are our greatest competitive advantage,” Furner said in his statement. “These internal promotions reflect our culture of opportunity and the depth of our leadership bench. These leadership changes also mark a key step in how we organize for the future. Even the best teams need the right structure to win. As AI rapidly reshapes retail, we are centralizing our platforms to accelerate shared capabilities, freeing up our operating segments to be more focused on and closer to our customers and members.”
It is not known if McLay has a new job. She would have been among those being considered for the top job. She joined Walmart in 2015 as vice president of U.S. finance and strategy, became CEO of Sam’s Club in 2019, then rose to CEO of Walmart’s international operations in 2023.
Walmart’s key challenges center around staying steps ahead of key competitors Costco, Amazon and Target, maintaining its low prices and strong values in face of inflation and new tariffs, further reducing delivery times to households, and continuing to improve its apparel offerings.
Walmart is also up against a stagnant labor market in the U.S. and pressures to raise wages for its 2.1 million associates worldwide.
The giant retailer will also be working to further implement AI to improve efficiencies and engagement with customers. Furner, along with Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google and Alphabet, disclosed at this week’s NRF convention that consumers using Google’s AI-powered shopping assistant, Gemini, will be able to more easily discover and shop products from Walmart and Sam’s Club stores and get a more personalized experience. Among the features, Google’s Gemini will not only display products from Walmart and Sam’s Club stores and websites, but will also call up other relevant products and services during the online conversation, based on the shoppers’ past purchases. It will also link up to Walmart’s loyalty membership program and allow shoppers to cash in on points earned.
To speed deliveries, Walmart is expanding its partnership with Wing, Alphabet’s drone delivery service, to an additional 150 sites, for a total of 270 locations. Forty million people will have access to delivery with Wing. The drone service provides speedy deliveries of small items from Walmart stores to homes. “Roughly 50 percent of people who use the service use it again,” Pichai said. “Half of the deliveries happen in 20 minutes or less. The fastest deliveries are around six minutes.”
Furner acknowledged that working with Wing is complicated. “There are regulations. There’s the weight of the aircraft and the load, and the speed,” of the delivery drone. “There’s lot of these considerations. What’s exciting is that the additional sites will take us coast to coast, from L.A. to Miami and across the country. Customers love the service.”
On the apparel side, there’s room to grow, but there’s been progress, as the retailer continues to move away from its reputation of having heavily basic assortments.
When the company reported its third-quarter financials, Furner said: “We are very encouraged by the fashion business. It grew over 5 percent in the quarter and we see more and more customers choosing Walmart for their source of fashion — and the unit growth across basics for kids, men’s, women’s was really consistent across the categories.” Saks Fifth Avenue veteran Denise Incandela was hired in 2017 and is executive vice president of Walmart U.S.’ apparel division. Designer-to-the-stars Brandon Maxwell joined in 2021 as creative director of the retailer’s Scoop and Free Assembly brands.
Walmart has the advantage of scale over competitors, having generated $681 billion in revenue in 2024, compared to its archrival Target, which generates $100 billion in volume. Costco generates approximately $300 billion in annual volume; Amazon’s annual volume is around $640 billion. Target also has a new CEO, Michael Fiddelke, who is taking the reins from Brian Cornell.
In a recent note, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, described McMillon’s retirement from Walmart as “a small shockwave” for the business, but said the retailer will “start life under its new CEO in a very good state. While the company is huge, its humility and constant willingness to listen and improve give it the entrepreneurial spirit of a much smaller entity.”
Furner has spent his entire career at Walmart. He has run both the Walmart discount stores in the U.S. and Sam’s Club. According to TD Cowen analyst Oliver Chen, Furner has a digital-first mentality, strong relationships with associates and a drive to innovate.
