Walmart Marketing Chief to Step Down
Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s longtime chief marketing officer is leaving, and the retailer is reaching outside the company for some help by bringing on a former marketing guru at Target Corp.
Stephen Quinn, 56 years old, who has been Wal-Mart’s marketing chief since 2007, will retire in January, at the end of the retailer’s fiscal year, the company said Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported on his departure.
Wal-Mart is hiring Michael Francis, 53, who spent nearly three decades at Target and was an architect of Target’s cheap-chic image, as a marketing consultant. Mr. Francis will initiate a broad revamp of Wal-Mart’s marketing department and will likely work closely with Mr. Quinn’s eventual successor, said a person familiar with the situation. A Wal-Mart spokesman said Mr. Francis would start Jan. 1 but declined to provide details of what he will do in his role.
“I’m committed to building on the strength of that brand, and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity,” Mr. Francis said in a statement.
The shake-up adds to a growing list of executive changes the world’s largest retailer has made in recent months as CEO Doug McMillon works to spur a turnaround and focus the company’s investments on long-term goals like boosting e-commerce sales and making stores more efficient, as well as appeal to higher-income shoppers. In October, Wal-Mart said longtime CFO Charles Holley would retire at year’s end and Steve Bratspies would become chief merchant.
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Stephen Quinn, 56 years old, who has been Wal-Mart’s marketing chief since 2007, will retire in January, at the end of the retailer’s fiscal year, the company said Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported on his departure.
Wal-Mart is hiring Michael Francis, 53, who spent nearly three decades at Target and was an architect of Target’s cheap-chic image, as a marketing consultant. Mr. Francis will initiate a broad revamp of Wal-Mart’s marketing department and will likely work closely with Mr. Quinn’s eventual successor, said a person familiar with the situation. A Wal-Mart spokesman said Mr. Francis would start Jan. 1 but declined to provide details of what he will do in his role.
“I’m committed to building on the strength of that brand, and I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity,” Mr. Francis said in a statement.
The shake-up adds to a growing list of executive changes the world’s largest retailer has made in recent months as CEO Doug McMillon works to spur a turnaround and focus the company’s investments on long-term goals like boosting e-commerce sales and making stores more efficient, as well as appeal to higher-income shoppers. In October, Wal-Mart said longtime CFO Charles Holley would retire at year’s end and Steve Bratspies would become chief merchant.
Click here for the full article, "Wal-Mart Marketing Chief to Step Down."