NEW YORK — Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who turned America’s largest retailer into a tech-powered giant and spearheaded a period of robust sales growth since becoming chief executive in 2014, plans to retire early next year, the company said Friday in a surprise announcement.
John Furner, 51, the head of Walmart’s U.S. operations, will take over on Feb. 1, the day after McMillon’s retirement becomes effective, the company said. Although McMillon is set to spend a year advising his successor, Walmart shares fell 3% immediately in premarket trading after the news of the unexpected leadership change.
Unlike Amazon’s Jeff Bezos or Tesla’s Elon Musk, McMillon isn’t a household name, but he played a key role in the U.S. economy. Walmart’s performance serves as a barometer of consumer spending given its size and vast customer base. The company maintains that 90% of U.S. households rely on Walmart for a range of products, and more than 150 million customers shop on its website or in its stores every week.
Walmart also is the nation’s largest private employer, with 1.6 million workers.
The pending CEO switch comes at a challenging time for retail companies and other employers that have spent almost 11 months navigating an uncertain economic environment as President Donald Trump’s administration adopted volatile policies on tariffs and initiated an immigration crackdown that threatened to shrink the supply of workers.
McMillon started with Walmart in 1984 and became chief executive three decades later. During his tenure as CEO, he invested heavily in employees by increasing wages, expanding parental leave and launching a program for employees seeking advancement and education opportunities to earn certificates and degrees.
Under his leadership, Walmart has been laser-focused on maintaining low prices while embracing new technology like artificial intelligence and robotics.
“Over more than a decade as CEO, Doug led a comprehensive transformation by investing in our associates, advancing our digi