Long-time Woolworths Ltd executive Greg Foran has been appointed as the new president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores’ operations in China.
Foran, who takes up the post on 1 March, joined Wal-Mart in October last year, after resigning from Australia’s largest retailer.
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He spent a decade at Woolworths and was most recently director of the retailer’s food, liquor and petrol divisions in Australia and New Zealand.
“With his distinguished career in retail, Greg is uniquely qualified to lead our growing business in China,” said Scott Price, president and CEO of Wal-Mart’s operations in Asia. “I’m very pleased he is bringing his talents to help us continue Walmart’s expansion there.”
The appointment of Foran follows a year of upheaval at Wal-Mart’s Chinese operations. Ed Chan, the previous president and CEO of Wal-Mart China, resigned in October for “personal reasons”. However, his resignation came amid a police investigation into claims that pork on sale in some of Wal-Mart’s stores in China had been re-labelled as organic. Wal-Mart said Chan’s departure was not related to the investigation, which led to 13 of the retailer’s stores being closed and 25 staff arrested.
In June, Shawn Gray, vice president of Wal-Mart’s hypermarket operations, also handed in his notice. A month earlier, COO Rob Cissell and CFO Roland Lawrence also decided to leave the business.
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By GlobalDataAll three left for “personal reasons to explore other opportunities”, the company had said, which declined to comment further on the exact reasons for their departures.
In July, Sean Clarke, head of finance for Wal-Mart’s operations in Canada, took the COO role in China.
Wal-Mart also appointed Mario-José Medina as CFO of the Chinese business and Del Sloenker as COO of the hypermarkets division.
To date, the US retail group has more than 370 units in 140 Chinese cities.
