Doug McMillon transformed the largest U.S. retailer into a technology-driven giant and led a period of strong sales growth since taking the helm in 2014, giving no indication that he was planning to step down from managing the group.
John Furner, 51, will assume the position on February 1, one day after McMillon’s departure.
Although McMillon announced he will spend a year advising his successor, the news came as a surprise, and Walmart’s shares fell 3% before the market opened.
In contrast to Jeff Bezos of Amazon or Elon Musk of Tesla, Doug McMillon is not a well-known name, yet he played a crucial role in the retail group and made a significant contribution to the U.S. economic fabric.
Walmart’s performance serves as a consumption barometer, given its size and broad customer base. The company claims that 90% of American households depend on Walmart for a variety of products, and more than 150 million customers shop on its website or in its stores every week.
Walmart is also the largest private employer in the country, with 1.6 million workers.
McMillon started at Walmart in 1984 and became CEO three decades later when the stores were disorganized and employee morale was low.
McMillon focused on human resources and invested $2.7 billion (2.32 billion euros) over three years to increase wages, expand parental leave, and launch education and training programs.
Simultaneously, he embraced new technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics, and invested heavily in e-commerce and faster deliveries. About one-third of orders reach customers in three hours or less, and 20% in 30 minutes or less.
Under his leadership, Walmart’s annual revenue grew from $485.7 billion (418 billion euros) to $681 billion (586.1 billion euros) in the last fiscal year. Shares, which were priced at around $25 when he took charge, are now above $100 (86.1 euros).
“Over more than a decade as CEO, Doug led a comprehensive transformation, investing in our associates, improving our digital and e-commerce capabilities, and modernizing our supply chain,” stated Greg Penner, chairman of Walmart’s board of directors and son-in-law of the group’s late founder, Sam Walton.
Successor John Furner started at Walmart in 1993 as an hourly worker in a store in Bentonville, Arkansas, where the company is headquartered. He served as president and CEO of the American division of Sam’s Club, a group wholesale chain, before taking on similar roles at Walmart U.S.
The CEO change comes at a challenging time for retail companies, who have spent nearly 11 months in an uncertain economic environment as the Trump administration adopted volatile tariff policies and initiated a crackdown on immigration that reduced the labor supply.
The company stated that it is absorbing some of the additional costs from Trump’s tariffs on foreign products, but customers will bear some of the price increases.
