American retail giant Walmart – or Wal-Mart Stores (the legal name of the corporation) – this morning revealed that its board of directors has nominated Marissa Mayer, VP of Location and Local Services at Google and one of the most notable women in tech, for election as a new member of the company’s board.
The election is set to happen at Walmart’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting on June 1, 2012. If she gets elected, Mayer would become the sixteenth member of the board.
Mayer is 36 years old and currently Google’s vice president of Local and Maps, a position she has held since 2010 (she was previously the company’s VP of Search Products and User Experience). She’s an occasional angel investor, too.
Having joined the company in 1999 when it was still tiny, Mayer has become a powerful senior executive and one of the public faces of Google over the years, frequently speaking on behalf of the company to press and at events worldwide.
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Ironically, Mayer does not have a seat on Google’s board of directors.
She does, however, serve on the boards of institutions like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Ballet, the New York City Ballet and the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
Says Mayer on her Walmart board seat election, in a canned statement:
“I have long been a customer and admirer of the company. Walmart is an amazing story of entrepreneurship and, as one of the world’s most powerful brands, touches millions of lives every day.
I look forward to contributing to Walmart’s continued growth, success, and innovation in the years to come.”
Founded nearly 50 years ago, Walmart today operates more than 10,100 retail units under 69 different banners in 27 countries.
Last year, Walmart reported net sales of $444 billion.
Another familiar name that sits on the retail juggernaut’s board of directors is Jim Breyer, a managing partner of Accel Partners who also holds seats on the boards of companies like Facebook, Dell, News Corp, Brightcove and Etsy.
Walmart keeps a close eye on Internet businesses, and has also acquired a few startups in the past, including OneRiot, Grabble, Small Society and Social Calendar.
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