Latriece Watkins

Latriece Watkins joined Walmart as a real estate intern in 1997. She’s spent the past almost three decades working across the core of Walmart’s business, including as chief merchant for Walmart U.S. In that role, she decided which products Americans would buy and pulled off a major reinvention to attract higher-income shoppers to Walmart stores. This year she became president and CEO of Sam’s Club, the $96 billion membership-based retailer (and Costco competitor). In this position, she manages a business that’s 10 times the size of what some Fortune 500 CEOs run. Her predecessors in the role have gone on to prominent positions at Target and Starbucks—and to run Walmart itself. Read more: As CEO of the $96 billion Sam’s Club, Latriece Watkins is testing her mettle at the warehouse retailer that produced CEOs for Walmart, Target, and Walgreens