Sam’s Club Gets a New CEO

Walmart has named Kathryn McLay as the new chief executive of Sam's Club, effective today. According to a filing, McLay will be the EVP, president and CEO of Walmart Inc.’s Sam’s Club division and report to the company’s CEO. She was most recently the EVP, Walmart U.S. Neighborhood Markets, where she led the growth and overall operations of nearly 700 Neighborhood Markets across the U.S.

The move comes after Walmart named John Furner, who was president and chief executive of Sam's Club, as chief executive of Walmart U.S. after Greg Foran's departure. Since February 2019, McLay has served as EVP, Walmart U.S. Neighborhood Markets.

McLay joined Walmart in 2015 as the VP of U.S. Finance and Strategy, where she led the Legacy strategy – a set of initiatives identified by Walmart U.S. as critical to transforming the U.S. business. She was then promoted to senior vice president of supply chain, where she had oversight of U.S. flow. In this role, she led the organization to develop an integrated end-to-end Walmart U.S. supply chain. In addition to her strategic role, she led the Import and Reverse Supply Chain teams, where she was responsible for ensuring product flows throughout international and domestic distribution channels to and from stores at the right time and with the highest quality.

McLay commenced her career in 1992 at Deloitte as an undergraduate cadet while she finished her business degree and her postgraduate studies in psychology. After seven years in both external and internal audit, she moved to Qantas where she was promoted to internal audit manager. In 2001, she joined Australian retailer Woolworths as the corporate audit manager and completed her professional studies as a Certified Internal Auditor. In 2007, she was selected as the GM for Business Development and subsequently held executive leadership roles throughout Woolworths’ retail and supply chain.

Sam’s Club had revenues of $59 billion for fiscal year 2018, 100,000 associates and almost 600 clubs.