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Fortune Profiles Walmart’s McKenna Among ‘Powerful Women in Business’

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Fortune magazine, as part of its “Most Powerful Women in Business” list, profiles Judith McKenna, the CEO of Walmart’s international operation, who is overseeing some of the retail giant’s biggest bets, including the $16 billion Flipkart deal.

Judith McKenna, a Brit who has headed up the international business since February, tends to lean a bit more toward classic English understatement: “It’s certainly been a busy four months,” she said at an investor meeting in June—although later this summer at Walmart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark., she admits, “I’m not necessarily recommending it as a way to come into a job.”

Indeed, McKenna and her team bear a Walmart-size responsibility with Walmart-size consequences. In reprioritizing the company’s global footprint, they are effectively placing bets on the future of retail. “We’ve made no secret that in certain markets we’ll do no more bricks and mortar,” McKenna says—a striking admission from a company that built its U.S. fortunes on the back of big-box retailing. Instead, Walmart is redeploying its capital in the e-commerce sphere, a move driven in large part by its existential battle with Amazon.

Fortune reports that McKenna, a former Asda CFO, was once considered risk averse, but at Walmart, she’s had to get comfortable with it.

“I think that’s an important shift in us as a business — and for individuals like me,” she said.

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