Incoming Walmart chief government John Furner began at the mega retailer as an hourly worker stocking cabinets. Now, the largest U.S. company by income is relying on him to information it by its subsequent chapter.
CEO Doug McMillon introduced his retirement in November after a decade as chief of the No. 1 company on the Fortune 500. His final day was Jan. 31. Taking his place is Furner, who begins his CEO tenure Sunday after beforehand serving as the president and CEO of Walmart’s U.S. operation.
Furner, 52, began his Walmart journey at a backyard heart in the company’s hometown of Bentonville, Ark., however will now tackle the process of main the company’s 2.1 million staff and operations at its practically 11,000 shops throughout 19 nations.
After learning advertising and marketing administration at the College of Arkansas, Furner rose by the ranks at Walmart from retailer supervisor to district supervisor and purchaser, then on the company facet as divisional common supervisor, and VP of world sourcing. He even spent two years in Shenzhen with Walmart China operating merchandising and advertising and marketing.
Earlier than overseeing Walmart U.S., Furner was CEO of Sam’s Membership.
“John understands each dimension of our enterprise—from the gross sales flooring to world technique. He has confirmed he can ship outcomes whereas residing our values,” Greg Penner, Walmart’s chairman of the board, stated in an announcement.
On his manner out the door, McMillon additionally gave credit score to Furner, who he stated he has labored carefully with for 20 years.
“He loves this company and his fellow associates, he deeply understands our enterprise so properly, and he has the proper traits to guide us into the future. He’s a service provider, an operator, an innovator and a builder,” McMillon stated Friday in a publish on LinkedIn.
Furner’s funding in staff
Partly due to his humble beginnings as a retailer affiliate, Furner has throughout his tenure helped oversee an enormous remodeling of how Walmart pays its retailer managers. In an effort to spice up morale and retention, Walmart supplied its highest performing managers pay packages price between $420,000 and $620,000 per 12 months.
The employees’ base wage was raised to between $130,000 and $160,000—greater than double the median yearly wage of an American employee. The remainder is made up of enormous inventory grants and annual bonuses, which Furner stated was meant to “make managers really feel like house owners.”
The company additionally introduced again a bonus program for retailer staff. Some qualifying staff may probably earn as much as $1,000 per 12 months from the program based mostly on their years of service, in response to the company.
At the same time as AI threatens the jobs of staff throughout industries, Furner has stated its worker rely over the coming 5 years will stay regular even when staff are extra productive. The roles that do disappear shall be changed with new positions inside the company, he added.
“We’re extending folks’s profession and people jobs pay higher. The attrition charges are actually low,” Furner stated throughout the Brainstorm Tech convention in Park Metropolis, Utah in September.
Partly due to these modifications, the company claimed a top 10 spot on Fortune‘s Greatest Massive Workplaces checklist in retail for 2024.
Why Walmart selected John Furner as CEO
A part of Furner’s administration philosophy might have been influenced in half by his household and early experiences. Engaged on the farm along with his grandfather as a baby, Furner realized the worth of arduous work.
“I realized with him that the animals don’t take Sundays and Saturdays and Wednesdays off,” he stated, in response to Fox Information. “They’re all the time up. You stand up early in the morning. You go drive the fence line to be sure that a cow hadn’t pushed his manner by.”
His grandfather’s hands-on method additionally utilized to fixing issues. When he wanted one thing, Furner’s grandfather, who he stated was a product of the Nice Despair, most well-liked to piece collectively an answer by hand as a substitute of shopping for one thing.
“In a enterprise, there’s so many distinctive conditions that simply land on you that there is probably not a transparent reply, however between your group, your sources, American ingenuity and creativity—There’s in all probability a option to resolve it,” he stated.
Furner’s penchant for arduous work and inventive drawback fixing got here in helpful throughout his most current high-profile roles as president and CEO of Sam’s Membership after which Walmart U.S. Throughout his stint as chief of Sam’s Membership, Furner oversaw 11 consecutive quarters of optimistic progress and took on competitor Costco partly by making the company leaner and shutting shops.
Then, when the company was hit with an unprecedented problem in the type of the COVID-19 pandemic, Furner helped the company beef up its provide chain and success facilities to fulfill the second.
As he informed Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the Nationwide Retail Federation in 2020, Walmart reshaped it enterprise, deprioritizing optical and auto-care facilities whereas investing in its grocery enterprise to fulfill demand from what he referred to as the “stock-up section,” the place prospects rushed to construct up their provide of every part from rest room paper to consumables.
Then, the company invested deeply in success facilities in addition to pick-up and supply companies to adapt to the “work at home” period and skyrocketing on-line purchases.
Because of this, web gross sales grew in each 2020 and 2021, regardless of the pandemic disruption. In 2021 alone, Walmart’s web gross sales for its U.S. enterprise grew by an eye-popping $29 billion, drastically outpacing the earlier 12 months’s gross sales progress, whereas its ecommerce operations grew by 79%.
A model of this story was revealed on Fortune.com on Nov. 14, 2025.
Extra on Walmart:
- Walmart is more and more working like a tech company
- Walmart doubles down on well being, giving 3,000 pharmacy staff a promotion and a increase of as much as 86%
- Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon is retiring—his top tip for Gen Z is that ‘life is simply too brief’ to hate their jobs
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
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