Walmart on Tuesday said it has appointed Suresh Kumar, an IIT Madras graduate and former Google executive, as chief technology officer and chief development officer.He holds a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and a Ph.D. in Engineering from Princeton University.
His appointment comes as Walmart is undertaking major investments in its e-commerce business to compete more effectively with Amazon.
Suresh Kumar will directly report to the Walmart's Chief Executive Doug McMillon.“The technology of today and tomorrow enables us to serve our customers and associates in ways that weren’t previously possible. We want to take full advantage of those opportunities," said McMillon.
“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."
Suresh Kumar was associated with Google where he was serving as vice president and general manager of display, video, app ads and analytics.
Before joining Google, he was the corporate vice president of Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and operations.
He was also associated with Amazon in various leadership roles, which included vice president of technology for retail systems and operations, and he led Amazon’s retail supply chain and inventory management systems. Before Amazon, he was a research staff member at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center. Kumar brings a total of over 25 years of technology leadership experience.
"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 an exciting digital transformation," Kumar said.
"With over 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", Kumar added. Kumar will replace Jeremy King, who left Amazon in March.