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Walmart promotes Chris Nicholas to new role of U.S. COO

Instacart’s Seth Dallaire named to newly created post of chief revenue officer

Russell Redman

October 6, 2021

4 Min Read
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Chris Nicholas starts in his new post effective immediately, while Seth Dallaire will join Walmart in the coming weeks, Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner said in a company memo.Walmart

Walmart U.S. has promoted Chris Nicholas to chief operating officer and hired Instacart’s Seth Dallaire as chief revenue officer, both newly created positions.

Nicholas starts in his new post effective immediately, while Dallaire will join Walmart in the coming weeks, Walmart U.S. President and CEO John Furner said in an Oct. 1 company memo announcing the new roles. Steve Schmitt, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Walmart U.S. omnichannel, will take over Nicholas’ previous position as Walmart U.S. CFO. Nicholas.

Both Nicholas, who retains his executive VP title, and Daillaire report to Furner. Schmitt reports to Walmart CFO Brett Biggs.

“We continue to make bold moves this year to improve our offer for customers and support our strategic priorities. We’ve had strong results, we are gaining share in categories like food and consumables, and we are reshaping our offer to be a seamless, omnichannel experience for our customers,” Furner stated in the memo. “Designing for the customer and focusing on simplicity have guided our choices. To accelerate our strategy, we are adding two new positions. Ensuring our structure reinforces our strategy is imperative to our transformation to a more digital, customer-centric organization. And it will ultimately power our flywheel by helping us win in primary destination and better monetization of our assets and capabilities.”

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The new Walmart U.S. COO role combines store operations and supply chain responsibilities and will focus on the “transformation of our end-to-end ways of working” and “deliver a seamless customer experience” as Walmart works to become consumers’ primary destination, according to Furner.

“We’ve asked Chris Nicholas to lead the joint organization that includes all the aspects of our supply chain, including strategy, innovation and automation, distribution center and fulfillment center operations, store operations, operations transformation and support, our emerging last-mile delivery capability and real estate,” he said in the memo. “Our goal is to do a better job of connecting the dots and flow our inventory in new and more productive ways.”

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Nicholas (left) joined Walmart in August 2018 as senior VP and deputy CFO of Walmart International and in January 2020 was elevated to Walmart International CFO. Then in February 2021, he was promoted to executive VP and CFO of Walmart U.S. He also served as a board member of Walmart de Mexico from October 2019 to February 2021.

Before coming to Walmart, Nicholas spent nearly four years at Australian grocery retailer Coles Group, most recently as CFO, and almost a year-and-a-half as group finance director for Denmark’s Dansk Supermarked Group (now The Salling Group). Those positions followed 12 years at United Kingdom-based food retailer Tesco, including as CFO of Tesco Poland and Tesco Hungary.

Related:Whole Foods Market co-founder and CEO John Mackey to retire in 2022

Furner noted Nicholas’s more than 20 years of U.S. and international retail experience. “Chris grew up working in retail and is deeply grounded in our purpose,” he said. “In addition to his most recent role as EVP and CFO for Walmart U.S., his retail experience in nine countries and multiple finance and commercial roles, including chief merchant experience, position him well for this new responsibility.”

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Dallaire (left) comes to Walmart after nearly two years as chief revenue officer at online delivery giant Instacart, where he also occupied a newly created position. He started at Instacart in November 2019 after over seven years at Amazon, most recently as VP of global advertising sales and marketing. Prior to that, he spent two-and-a-half years at Yahoo! as vice president of global agencies and accounts and seven years at Microsoft as senior director of MSN advertising sales. 

“His remit will include Walmart Connect, membership (Walmart ), data monetization and business partnerships,” Furner explained in the memo. “We haven’t had this role before, but this title and set of responsibilities is becoming more common in other businesses.”

Daillaire’s role will be more sharply defined going forward, but he won’t be accountable for overall revenue or sales, noted Furner.

“With the chief revenue officer position, we’ll accelerate growth to help power the flywheel,” he said. “Janey Whiteside, EVP and chief customer officer, and her team have done important work standing up revenue-generating businesses, allowing us to reinvest in the customer value proposition. This work is now at a point where we are ready to put additional focus on scaling efforts for more revenue growth.”

For the fiscal 2022 second quarter ended July 31, net sales at Walmart U.S. rose 5.3% to $98.19 billion, with comparable sales up 5.6% and e-commerce sales up 6% year over year.

About the Author

Russell Redman

Senior Editor
Supermarket News

Russell Redman has served as senior editor at Supermarket News since April 2018, his second tour with the publication. In his current role, he handles daily news coverage for the SN website and contributes news and features for the print magazine, as well as participates in special projects, podcasts and webinars and attends industry events. Russ joined SN from Racher Press Inc.’s Chain Drug Review and Mass Market Retailers magazines, where he served as desk/online editor for more than nine years, covering the food/drug/mass retail sector. 

Russell Redman’s more than 30 years of experience in journalism span a range of editorial manager, editor, reporter/writer and digital roles at a variety of publications and websites covering a breadth of industries, including retailing, pharmacy/health care, IT, digital home, financial technology, financial services, real estate/commercial property, pro audio/video and film. He started his career in 1989 as a local news reporter and editor, covering community news and politics in Long Island, N.Y. His background also includes an earlier stint at Supermarket News as center store editor and then financial editor in the mid-1990s. Russ holds a B.A. in journalism (minor in political science) from Hofstra University, where he also earned a certificate in digital/social media marketing in November 2016.

Russell Redman’s experience:

Supermarket News - Informa
Senior Editor 
April 2018 - present

Chain Drug Review/Mass Market Retailers - Racher Press
Desk/Online Editor 
Sept. 2008 - March 2018

CRN magazine - CMP Media
Managing Editor
May 2000 - June 2007

Bank Systems & Technology - Miller Freeman
Executive Editor/Managing Editor
Dec. 1996 - May 2000

Supermarket News - Fairchild Publications
Financial Editor/Associate Editor
April 1995 - Dec. 1996 

Shopping Centers Today Magazine - ICSC 
Desk Editor/Assistant Editor
Dec. 1992 - April 1995

Testa Communications
Assistant Editor/Contributing Editor (Music & Sound Retailer, Post, Producer, Sound & Communications and DJ Times magazines)
Jan. 1991 - Dec. 1992 

American Banker/Bond Buyer
Copy Editor
Oct. 1990 - Jan. 1991 

This Week newspaper - Chanry Communications
Reporter/Editor
May 1989 - July 1990

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