Walmart announced the appointment of Google executive Suresh Kumar as the company’s new Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer.
Kumar, who will officially join the retailer July 8, brings more than 25 years of technology leadership experience to the mega-retailer, coming from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and IBM. He is presently the Vice President and General Manager of Display, Video, App Ads and Analytics for Google. He previously served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure and Operations. He has also spent 15 years at Amazon, including time as the company’s Vice President of Technology for Retail Systems and Operations. Before that, he was a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Kumar holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from Princeton University, and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
“The technology of today and tomorrow enables us to serve our customers and associates in ways that weren’t previously possible,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a news release. “We want to take full advantage of those opportunities. Suresh has a unique understanding of the intersection of technology and retail, including supply chain, and has deep experience in advertising, cloud and machine learning. And he has a track record of working in partnership with business teams to drive results.”
E-commerce has been a big focus for Walmart, which has been rapidly expanding its grocery pickup and delivery services. Kumar joins at a time when Walmart is rapidly transforming its customer and associate experiences.
“Walmart is one of the great success stories in how a company evolves over time to serve the changing needs of its customers, and today, it is in the midst of a very exciting digital transformation,” said Kumar. “With more than 11,000 stores, a high-growth e-commerce business and more than two million associates worldwide, the potential for technology to help people at scale is unparalleled, and I am excited to be part of this.”
