Executive Moves: Walmart and Transplace

   Walmart has hired Suresh Kumar for the newly created role of chief technology officer and chief development officer.
   Kumar (pictured above) has 25 years of technology leadership experience, most recently with Google as vice president and general manager of display, video, app ads and analytics. He also worked for Microsoft as the corporate vice president of cloud infrastructure and operations. 
   He spent 15 years at Amazon in various leadership roles, including vice president of technology for retail systems and operations. Before that, Kumar was a research staff member at the IBM T J Watson Research Center.
   “As the global CTO, Suresh will set our technical strategy, combining advances in computing with Walmart’s strengths to deliver the best customer experiences,” said Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon in an email to employees. “As the global CDO, he will lead the team in building tools and systems to digitally transform our business operations, using the scale and power of our data to deliver a competitive advantage while improving the productivity of our associates and their experience of being part of Walmart.”
   McMillon said Kumar “has a unique understanding of the intersection of technology and retail, including supply chain, and has deep experience in cloud, advertising and machine learning. And he has a track record of working in partnership with business teams to drive results.”

   Transplace has announced the appointment of Karen Sage as chief marketing officer.
   Sage will lead the sales operations, corporate communications and all marketing strategies and functions and will be based out of the company’s Frisco, Texas, headquarters.
   “Karen is a dynamic and deeply experienced marketing executive whose leadership, insights, market expertise and creative approach will be invaluable as we move into this next stage of development for the Transplace brand,” said CEO Frank McGuigan. “The company is in hyper-growth mode and having a leader of Karen’s caliber ensures we continue to put our customer experience first and are able to grow and scale rapidly.”
   Sage brings more than two decades of global marketing, sales operations, product management and product marketing experience. Most recently, she was the CMO for MercuryGate International. She also has held leadership positions at SciQuest, CA Technologies and Cisco Systems Inc.