Former Michael’s Stores, Inc. CEO Brian Cornell has been named the new CEO of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s Sam’s Club warehouse chain, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Before holding the CEO position at Michael’s, Cornell was executive vice president and chief marketing officer at Safeway, Inc., where he is credited with introducing higher-margin private-label and prepared foods and experimenting with new store formats.
Cornell replaces Doug McMillon, who is now the head of Wal-Mart’s international division. To replace Cornell, Michael’s has named former Wal-Mart chief administrative officer John Menzer CEO. Menzer was also previously vice chairman and CFO at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart will be giving Cornell a $1 million signing bonus, an annual salary of $800,000 and $2 million in restricted Wal-Mart stock. As with many of the club-stores in the early days of the recession, Sam’s Club saw an increase in sales in fiscal year 2009, with sales of $46.8 billion, an increase of 5.6% from the previous year.