Sam’s Club chief operations officer Gisel Ruiz, 48, decided to retire early to “pursue other passions,” according to a March 6 internal memo from Sam Club’s CEO John Furner. Sam's Club is a division of Walmart. Ruiz at one time served as head of international HR at Walmart. Walmart’s top HR head, Jacqui Canney, left in February to work at WPP, a major advertising firm.
While the share of Walmart corporate officers who are women has increased since 2009, the same year then CEO Mike Duke created the President’s Global Council of Women Leaders to nurture future female leaders, these departures highlight Walmart’s struggles to keep its top female executives.