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John Furner, a Walmart veteran and head of its US operations, will be the retail giant’s new president and CEO, after longtime chief executive Doug McMillon steps down at the end of January, the company said Friday.
McMillon, 59, led the company for nearly 12 years and oversaw its transition to an ecommerce juggernaut. Furner, 51, has been with Walmart for more than three decades, starting as an hourly worker.
The announcement comes six days before the company is set to report quarterly earnings.
Furner will be leading Walmart as it navigates the surge of artificial intelligence and the impact of global tariffs.
Last month, Furner spoke at Semafor’s World Economy Summit about Walmart’s commitment to American manufacturing, the health of the consumer economy, and how AI can be used to meet customer needs.
He predicted that if current trends hold, consumers are likely to keep shopping during the heavy holiday season despite tariffs.
“We see a pretty resilient customer base,” he said, when asked about consumer behavior this winter, particularly with items impacted by tariffs. “We had a good summer. We had a good back-to-school [season]. The way seasons start, they tend to end that way.”
The Trump administration’s tariffs on foreign products have hit a slew of American businesses, and Walmart — the nation’s largest retailer — is no different. In recent months, Walmart has raised prices on select items, including baby items and home goods, to account for the increases. But Furner, who has led Walmart’s US business since 2019, also noted that the retailer has 7,000 rollbacks right now, “up pretty substantially from where we were at the beginning of the year.”
Walmart has been able to increase its quarterly sales and beat revenue forecasts by leaning on its grocery business and providing value for cost-conscious shoppers.
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Walmart is also making a bigger push into AI products, largely to support its customers’ shopping experience.Last month, it announced an integration with OpenAI that lets ChatGPT users buy Walmart products directly through the chatbot. (OpenAI is a sponsor of the Semafor World Economy Summit: Fall 2025 Edition.)
The retailer is integrating agentic features that will help consumers compare products on its website, make purchase decisions, and soon, complete the transaction more seamlessly, Furner said.
“The idea that agents can help us in so many ways in our life is coming real very quickly,” he said. “The real trick for us is understanding at the beginning: What is the demand of an item, and what’s the demand of the category? And then understanding really clearly what we own and where it is, and knowing how deployable it will be in real time so that our customer needs are taken care of.”
Notable
- A recent Yale study shows CEOs picked from within drive higher returns and consistently outperform outside hires.