Walmart chief Doug McMillon praises Greg Foran

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from The Aust - Extract only

• The Australian
• 12:00AM January 16, 2018
• ELI GREENBLAT

Walmart chief Doug McMillon praises Greg Foran

The president and chief executive of global supermarket giant Walmart has singled out Australian executive and one-time candidate for the CEO role at Woolworths, Greg Foran, for doing a “masterful” job running Walmart’s US operations.

Walmart’s global CEO Doug McMillon said Mr Foran was doing a “good job” and was a “real talent”, potentially marking the Australian as a contender to lead Walmart when there is a change of leadership.

He also gave an upbeat assessment of the economy, both in the US and globally, saying he was seeing the kind of optimism among shoppers he hadn’t seen in a while.

Mr McMillon spoke to The Australian after leaving the stage of the National Retail Federation convention in New York, where he praised Mr Foran before an audience of thousands of attendees and Walmart executives for doing a “masterful” job running the chain’s biggest region. He said Mr Foran was driving “solutions for customers that are seamless, and that is ultimately where we can win’’.

Mr Foran is president and CEO of Walmart US, where he is responsible for more than 4600 Walmart stores, one million staff and a business that turns over $US307 billion ($386bn).
Mr McMillon also praised Mr Foran for his work in weaving together the bricks-and-mortar stores and Walmart’s online offering, especially after the company last year paid $US3.3bn to acquire online retail business Jet.com.

“He is a real talent,’’ Mr McMillon told The Australian.
Walmart’s gain was Woolworths’ loss. Mr Foran was the head of supermarkets for Australia’s largest supermarket chain until 2011 when he quit after missing out on the top job to Grant O’Brien.