Wal-Mart Stores Inc director Greg Penner was named the firm’s next chairman at an annual meeting that touted its e-commerce investments and which the retailer called a “turning point.”
Penner, 45, is set to succeed Wal-Mart chairman Rob Walton. Walton, who has been chairman since 1992, is to remain on the board. The move keeps the chairmanship within the family: Penner is the grandson-in-law of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
The announcement was part of a lavish annual meeting for the world’s largest retailer, which used the event as a showcase for its turnaround plans. Wal-Mart set the stage for Penner’s promotion a year ago when it named him to the newly created position of vice chairman.
Photo: Reuters
The Walton family, which owns about half of the company’s shares, is betting that Penner’s technology background can help guide the retailer as it ramps up e-commerce and smaller-format stores. He was already standing in as chairman when Rob Walton, 70, was not present.
“He brings an ideal blend of finance, technology and international business expertise — as well as a deep knowledge and love of Wal-Mart — to this role,” Walton said in a statement.
At the meeting, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, shareholders voted down ballot measures that would have required an independent chairman and made it easier to nominate directors — resolutions that the board opposed.
All 15 director nominees were elected by at least 90 percent, Wal-Mart said. Shareholders also approved a nonbinding resolution on executive compensation and this year’s incentive plan.
Penner joined the billionaire Wal-Mart family by marrying Carrie Walton Penner. She is the granddaughter of Sam Walton, who died in 1992. After Penner received his MBA from Stanford in 1997, he took a series of Wal-Mart management jobs. In 2005, he founded Madrone Capital Partners, a firm backed by money from the Walton family.
Before starting Madrone, he was Wal-Mart Japan chief financial officer and Walmart.com senior vice president of finance and strategy. He also served as a general partner at Peninsula Capital, an early-stage venture firm, and worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs Group Inc early in his career. He first worked for Wal-Mart in 1994 as a manager trainee and an assistant buyer.
Penner, who joined the company’s board in 2008, has also served as chairman of the technology and e-commerce committee since it was formed in 2011.
Wal-Mart chief executive officer Doug McMillon is trying to pull the retailer out of a sales slump. Earnings and revenue both missed analysts’ estimates last quarter, weighing on Wal-Mart’s stock.
He said on Friday that efforts to modernize the company and boost e-commerce would put Wal-Mart on the right track.
“This is a turning point in our story, and the investments we’re making today will set the stage for strong and sustainable growth,” McMillon said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”