Walmart Names Chief Tech/Development Officer
Walmart Inc. has appointed Suresh Kumar to a new elevated chief technology officer and chief development officer role reporting directly to President and CEO Doug McMillon. Kumar brings to his new position more than a quarter-century of technology leadership experience at Google, Microsoft, Amazon and IBM.
“The technology of today and tomorrow enables us to serve our customers and associates in ways that weren’t previously possible,” noted McMillon. “We want to take full advantage of those opportunities. Suresh has a unique understanding of the intersection of technology and retail, including supply chain, and has deep experience in advertising, cloud and machine learning. And he has a track record of working in partnership with business teams to drive results.”
“Walmart is one of the great success stories in how a company evolves over time to serve the changing needs of its customers, and today, it is in the midst of a very exciting digital transformation,” observed Kumar. “With more than 11,000 stores, a high-growth ecommerce business and more than 2 million associates worldwide, the potential for technology to help people at scale is unparalleled, and I am excited to be part of this.”
Kumar’s most recent position was at Google, where he was VP and general manager of display, video, app ads and analytics. Before Google, he was the corporate VP of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and operations and spent 15 years at Amazon in a range of leadership roles, among them VP of technology for retail systems and operations, and leading the company’s retail supply chain and inventory management systems. Prior to Amazon, he was a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center.
Walmart’s previous chief technology officer, Jeremy King, left the company in March.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart operates stores under 58 banners in 27 countries, and ecommerce websites. The company is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
