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BENTONVILLE, Ark. — The latest chapter in the story of Kath McLay’s impressive Walmart career began last August, when she was named president and chief executive officer of Walmart International. McLay replaced Judith McKenna, who retired after six years at the division’s helm.
McLay took on the leadership role at International after four years of stunning success as CEO of the Sam’s Club division. During her tenure, Sam’s Club achieved a 43% increase in sales — despite opening no new clubs. The chain also recorded 12 consecutive quarters of same-store sales growth, increased its market share and added millions of new members, all without expanding its store base.
McLay joined Walmart in 2015 as vice president of U.S. finance and strategy after a 14-year career at Australian retailer Woolworths Ltd., and she quickly began building a track record of impressive and varied accomplishments. Her first major assignment was overseeing a set of strategic cross-functional initiatives, dubbed Legacy, that were designed to help drive the transformation of the Walmart U.S. business by creating the first seamless omnichannel shopping experience at scale.
In 2016 she led the redesign of Walmart’s supply chain to create a digitally connected, integrated end-to-end logistics network for the company’s flagship division. Two years later she was named executive vice president of Walmart’s nearly 700 Neighborhood Markets.
Kath McLay
McLay takes the reins at International after a recent reshaping of the portfolio.
During her tenure, McKenna had engineered an extensive overhaul of the division that included exiting four under-performing markets: Argentina, Brazil, Japan and the United Kingdom. But her legacy also included a strategic plan to grow to approximately $200 billion in GMV (gross merchandise value) over the next five years and more than double International’s profits. Digital penetration is projected to double during that span as well.
Even with the reduction of markets, McLay now leads a business that is the largest global omnichannel retailer in the world, with 500,000 associates serving 80 million customers a week in 18 countries across the globe.
“Over the last quarter, I’ve been in Mexico, China and India, and just looking at the pace of transformation and the way the teams rise to the challenge to be relevant in those local communities is extraordinary,” she said. “So I’ve been impressed by the strength of the teams that we have out there and also just really impressed by how they’re translating our purpose and mission to save people money so they can live better into being really relevant.”
