Walmart CEO Doug McMillon will retire in January 2026 after more than a decade at the helm.
Walmart announced this in a statement on Friday, November 14, 2025, noting that McMillon’s retirement was a planned transition.
The company said McMillon, 59, will be replaced by United States division chief CEO John Furner, 51, a veteran with three decades at the company.
Walmart’s shares cut earlier losses to trade down about 0.6%. McMillon’s decision to step down came sooner than anticipated, though his tenure at the time of his expected January 31 retirement makes him one of the longest-serving CEOs in company history.
“Given that Mr. McMillon was unequivocally Walmart’s best CEO since the company’s founder in Sam Walton, the announcement will likely cause some anxiety by shareholders, particularly since the change was a bit earlier-than-anticipated,” an analyst with Gordon Haskett, Chuck Grom, said.
McMillon took over from Mike Duke in February 2014, when the company was playing catch-up to online sales giant Amazon that was quickly capturing a lion’s share of the booming consumer demand for ecommerce.
McMillon tapped into the company’s vast store footprint to speed up deliveries, incorporate automation technology at warehouses, and expanded its marketplace and advertising business to boost income.
Since he took the job, Walmart’s value has more than tripled to its current $817 billion as he ramped up ecommerce efforts.
When he took over, the company’s global ecommerce sales had just surpassed $10 billion; in its most recent fiscal year ended in January, that figure had surpassed $120 billion.
The Managing Director of Retail at GlobalData, Neil Saunders, told Reuters: “Walmart has performed very well under Doug’s tenure.
“It has become a way more influential ecommerce player, has integrated new technologies to improve efficiency, and has pushed into new areas like retail media.”
McMillon, who joined Walmart in 1984 as an hourly associate, has served in leadership roles at all three Walmart divisions ― U.S., International, and Sam’s Club.
He rose through the ranks to become CEO of Walmart in February 2014, replacing Mike Duke.
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