Wal-Mart didn't waste much time replacing its top executives in China.
Mario-Jose Medina has been named senior vice president and chief financial officer of Wal-mart China and Del Sloneker has been named chief operations officer of Wal-mart China Hypermarket just days after the departures of China CFO Roland Lawrence and China COO Rob Cissell, who left to explore other opportunities.
Medina had been CEO of Wal-mart Chile at the time of the appointment and Sloneker was most recently COO at China Horizon Management LLC, a New York-based China-focused business consultancy, according to his LinkedIn profile. Sloneker had also spent 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in several capacities, including as a senior vice president, until 2006.
Wal-mart opened its first store in China in 1996. As of August 2010, the company has 189 locations and over 50,000 employees in the country. The retailer has long utilized lower costs of labor in China to provide low prices, but wage costs have been inching up in recent years. Just this month, the company announced an investment in Yihaodian, an online retailer launched in China in 2008. (MarketWatch)
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