BENTONVILLE, Ark., Jan. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/
Gisel Ruiz, 41, is promoted to executive vice president and chief operating officer for Walmart U.S., effective Feb. 1. In this position, she will be responsible for the company's U.S. operations, which cover more than 3,800 stores and include Supercenters, discount stores, Neighborhood Markets and Walmart Express formats.
Gisel will continue reporting to Walmart U.S. President and CEO Bill Simon and all three regional business unit presidents will report to her.
Ruiz was most recently executive vice president of People for Walmart U.S. where she was responsible for the human resources and store innovation organizations supporting more than 1.2 million associates. She helped transform the company's approach to talent management and leveraged technology to drive process changes that increased efficiencies and improved the customer and associate experience.
"I'm incredibly excited to see Gisel's impact on the stores," said Simon. "She started in our stores, ran stores and, more importantly, understands the perspective of our associates like no one else on our leadership team. That's invaluable. For nearly 20 years, Gisel has proven herself to be a strong and capable operator, manager, teacher, retail executive and role model for our culture."
Ruiz began her career at Walmart U.S. as a store management trainee in 1992 and has held a variety of leadership positions in store operations, labor relations and human resources. In 2006, she became vice president, regional general manager in the field operations division, and was responsible for 150 Walmart stores in western Texas and New Mexico. In February 2011, Latina Style honored Ruiz as its 2010 Latina Executive of the Year.
