Walmart appoints new CTO

Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart has hired a technology executive who has leadership experience coming from Amazon, Google, Microsoft and IBM.

The nation’s largest grocer appointed Suresh Kumar to chief technology officer and chief development officer, reporting directly to President and CEO Doug McMillon. Kumar joins Walmart at a time when the company is rapidly transforming its customer and associate experiences.

“The technology of today and tomorrow enables us to serve our customers and associates in ways that weren’t previously possible. We want to take full advantage of those opportunities,” McMillon said. “Suresh has a unique understanding of the intersection of technology and retail, including supply chain, and has deep experience in advertising, cloud and machine learning. And he has a track record of working in partnership with business teams to drive results.”

Kumar brings more than 25 years of technology leadership experience, most recently serving as Google’s vice president and general manager of display, video, app ads, and analytics. Prior to Google, he was the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and operations. Before Microsoft, he spent 15 years at Amazon in several roles, including vice president of technology for retail systems and operations and head of Amazon’s retail supply chain and inventory management systems.

“Walmart is one of the great success stories in how a company evolves over time to serve the changing needs of its customers, and today it is in the midst of a very exciting digital transformation,” Kumar said. “With more than 11,000 stores, a high-growth e-commerce business and more than two million associates worldwide, the potential for technology to help people at scale is unparalleled, and I am excited to be part of this.”