CEO H. Lee Scott Jr. is retiring and will be succeeded by Mike Duke, who heads the company’s growing international operations, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Duke joins Walmart’s board immediately and will take over as CEO February 1. Scott will continue on as Walmart’s chairman of the executive committee and will become a company advisor.
The change in leadership is only the fourth in the company’s 46-uear history, and third since founder Sam Walton ceded power of the company in 1988.
Duke has 13 years of experience at Walmart, including tenures as head of its enormous logistics operation as well as stints running its U.S. and foreign operations, according to WSJ.
The search for Scott’s replacement began two years ago and was formalized during a November 2007 meeting. Scott and Eduardo Castro-Wright, the 53-year-old head of Walmart’s U.S. operations, were in the front-running for the position. Castro-Wright was passed over and was given an expanded role as vice chairman and head of the company’s global procurement operation. He is the former CEO of a division of Honeywell International, Honeywell Transportation, and Power Systems Worldwide.
In the last three years, Scott led a turnoaround of Walmart’s U.S. operations, bringing in executives from outside the company. Scott reached out to critics and launched an environmental initiative to reduce company waste and increase fuel efficiency.
“We hope with the change of leadership Walmart will turn over a new leaf and allow workers to choose freely whether or not to organize a labor union, rather than continue its coercive antiunion campaigning,” said Carol Pier, labor rights and trade senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit organization.
Walmart has been expanding its global operations and expected to see success in the U.K. as well as in Japan. Walmart did not indicate who will succeed Duke as head of the international division, which for the first nine months of this year posted sales of $74 billion versus $184 billion for the U.S., according to WSJ.