Walmart International yesterday announced that David Cheesewright (pictured) will be promoted to president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc's second largest operating system.
Cheesewright, who is currently president and CEO of Walmart's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Canada region will report to Doug McMillon, who was two weeks ago named Wal-Mart Stores' president and CEO. Both assume their new roles on 1 February 2014.
In a statement, McMillon, who is replacing Mike Duke as the world's largest retailer's top executive, said of Cheesewright: “We have strengthened our business and gained market share in the majority of our international markets, and he had a key role in that success.”
Like McMillon, Cheesewright has been with the company for many years. He began his career at Walmart in 1999.
In his fifteen years with Walmart, Cheesewright took up several leading roles within Asda and played a pivotal role in its £778 million acquisition of Netto's UK portfolio in 2010.
“He does seem like a very natural candidate,” Cowen and Company analyst Faye Landes told the New York Times.
“He’s their one-man SWAT team. He’s been sent to work on a lot of very important international missions and he’s been successful.”
Walmart's international strategy is currently in a period of transition. In October, the company announced it would close about 50 underperforming stores in China and Brazil and delay indefinitely its plan to open hundreds of superstores across India.
© 2013 - European Supermarket Magazine by Enda Dowling
