Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Appoints Greg Penner As New Chairman for Board Of Directors

Wal-Mart director Greg Penner has replaced Rob Walton as the new Chairman for the Board of Directors.

Wal-Mart Inc. will now have a Greg Penner as the new Board of Directors’ chairman. He is company’s owner Sam Walton’s grandson in law. He will be replacing Rob Walton, and will hold the position of BOD’s chairman of the largest retail company of the world.

Mr. Penner will take up the charge after serving the Wal-Mart board since 2008. The company announced this in its annual general meeting along with other top executives attending the session.

Wal-Mart established the stage for new board’s chairman ascent in 2014, when Mr. Penner was named to the latest formed Vice Chairman position. The founding associates, part of Walton family, presently holds almost half of Wal-Mart’s common stock. The believe that past experience of Penner in the tech sector will support the management of the company in the correct path as the retail chain is looking to renovate its e-commerce and emphasizes on small sized format of store.

Penner had previously been holding the chairman responsibility during the absence of Rob Walton. He became the part of the Walton’s family after he got married to Sam Walter granddaughter Carrie Walton Penner.

Before joining the Madrone, he was Wal-Mar Japanese operation’s chief financial officer also has the position of senior Vice President and Strategy for Wal-Mart’s e-commerce online platform, Walmart.com

Furthmore, he has also served numerous corporation namely, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. as financial analyst, earlier in his career. Penner appointment as the Board chairman is effective after the announcement in annual general meeting; however Rob Walton will endure to work as a director in the board.

While talking at the meeting, Rob Walton said, “This transition demonstrates Wal-Mart’s commitment to long-term succession planning and keeping high caliber, capable leaders at the head of our company. Greg’s service to Wal-Mart spans more than 15 years, and during that time he has had a significant impact, both as an associate and as a Board member the past seven years. Greg has done an outstanding job as our Vice Chairman over the past year, and he has provided strong leadership and guidance as the Chairman of our Technology and ecommerce Committee since it was formed in 2011.”

The company’s executives are optimistic that Penner will bring all the expertise required to revamp the operations of the company. Walton added, “He brings an ideal blend of finance, technology and international business expertise – as well as a deep knowledge and love of Wal-Mart – to this role,”

Penner replies: “It would be impossible to overstate Rob Walton’s impact on Wal-Mart and how personally committed him has been over the years. I’m deeply honored to follow in his footsteps and recognize the deep responsibility I have to our associates, all shareholders and the Board.”

WalMart and Google ends relationship Over Local Shopping Ads

As reported in news, the relationship between two giant companies Google Inc. and WalMart stores has come to an end after the internet search company asked for the pricing and inventory data from the retail giant.
According to Wall Street Journal, WalMart was not comfortable with sharing information related to prices. Real strategy president of new builder firm said, the relation between both the companies is surfacing by the day. The disagreement between the companies is due to platform leverage struggle going on in retail. He further said, "Retailers not anymore sell products only, they are rapidly growing into technology platforms. That means that their reliance on, and relationships with, other technology platforms will continually evolve."
Walmart spokesperson said that we never talk about our discussion with suppliers. We do have versatile connection with Google Inc.
The search engine giant utilizes its Ads of inventory in order to create local stores and inventory reachable to online shopping. Google launched its service in the year 2013. To be a part of the service it asks the company's about its inventory and pricing data, however definite inventory information is not required.
As mentioned on company's website, the advertiser is required to send store data of a particular product, also daily update of price and inventory data.
The retail giant joined to avail online services last summer, and ended the link after a short period of time. Earlier last month, representatives from both the companies met to solve the issue. However, the news came put that Wal-Mart is planning to launch its own parallel service and have decided not to pay any one else for this.
WalMart has incurred billions lately to expand its online business. The retailer is extending its online contributions to almost 10 million goods and structuring its fulfillment network as an element of the investment. The company has also allocated cash for e-commerce, mobile app and website. At the time of Christmas, a feature was added to download the store map, which will help them to locate the products. The Sam Walton based company is using its online power to attract customers.
Chief Executive Officer of WalMart, Neil Ashe said on a conference call last month, "We've talked about the importance of investing in talent and the fact that we are building a technology company inside the world's largest retailer. In the past year, we have been able to build up our team to the critical mass needed to be that technology company."
Spieckerman said, as the connection between retail industry and tech is getting distorted day by day, it is not unusual that partnership between giant companies like Google and Wal-Mart gets weaken in short time period.