Penner served as the board’s vice chairman previously. Now, he will take over from Rob Walton, who served as chairman of the board since 1992.

Wal-Mart has appointed Greg Penner as a new chairman. He will replace Rob Walton who served as chairman of the board since 1992.

Penner began his career at Goldman Sachs & Co. as an analyst specializing in corporate finance. He then joined Walmart as a management trainee and held a number of positions throughout the company.

He had been senior vice president of finance and strategy for walmart.com and senior vice president and CFO–Japan. He has been a general partner of investment management firm Madrone Capital Partners since 2005.

Walton said, “This transition demonstrates Wal-Mart’s commitment to long-term succession planning and keeping high-caliber, capable leaders at the head of our company”.

He mentioned that Greg has done an outstanding job as the company’s vice chairman over the past year. He has provided strong leadership and guidance as the chairman of Wal-Mart’s technology and ecommerce committee since it was formed in 2011.

Walton added that Penner will bring an ideal blend of finance, technology and international business expertise as well as a deep knowledge and love of Wal-Mart to this role.

In addition to the board’s leadership changes, Wal-Mart will also realign the composition of its board committees. The company is doing this to make sure that most of the independent directors can serve on at least two board committees, which are governance committees and strategy committees.