Walmart CEO visits with students

Doug McMillion, Walmart CEO and University of Tulsa Collins College of Business alumnus, will join university President Brad Carson to speak with student-athletes and currents students on topics including leadership, AI, sustainability, among other topics. With an introduction from Justin Moore, university athletic director, current University of Tulsa students interested in attending the conversation are invited to rsvp to news@utulsa.edu. Doors close promptly at 10:30 a.m.; please plan to arrive no later than 10:15 a.m.

About the speakers:

Doug McMillon is a lifelong merchant. He began his Walmart career in 1984 as an hourly associate, picking orders and unloading trailers in a warehouse. He has since served in senior leadership roles across each business segment.

During his tenure as CEO, which began in 2014, Walmart associates have transformed the company into a people-led, tech-powered omnichannel retailer dedicated to helping people save money and live better. It has invested heavily in its people by increasing wages, expanding parental leave and paying for certificates or degrees for associates seeking education opportunities. Walmart has lowered its prices and embraced technology to improve customer and associate experiences. The company also launched Project Gigaton, a supplier collaboration that’s expected to reduce, avoid or sequester 1 billion metric tons of emissions worldwide by 2030. It met the initial goal years ahead of schedule.

Doug serves on the boards of directors of Business Roundtable, the Consumer Goods Forum and the U.S.-China Business Council. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Arkansas and an MBA from the University of Tulsa.

Brad Carson is The University of Tulsa’s 21st president. Having built a distinguished career in public service, law and education, before becoming president of TU, Carson was a professor at the University of Virginia, teaching courses related to national security and public sector innovation. He also served as a senior advisor at Boston Consulting Group. In 2015, President Barack Obama appointed Carson acting under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness at the U.S. Department of Defense. There, he oversaw the human resources, military readiness, education, training and health care of the nearly 5 million service members, civilian employees and their dependents within the Department of Defense and managed an internal organization of 30,000 employees.

Prior to that, Carson served as the under secretary of the U.S. Army, where he managed the daily operations of the largest military service, and as general counsel of the U.S. Army, where he oversaw the service’s worldwide legal operations. Carson is widely published and is a noted authority on national security, energy policy and American politics. From 2001 to 2005, Carson served two terms as a U.S. congressman, representing Oklahoma’s 2nd District. Later, he was appointed to the faculty of TU’s Collins College of Business and College of Law, where he taught courses on energy policy, property law, negotiation and game theory, globalization and law and literature. In 2008, Carson deployed during Operation Iraqi Freedom as an intelligence officer and was awarded the Bronze Star for his service.

Carson brings to TU a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, having spent most of his career working, directly or indirectly, in this area. This interest arises naturally from his childhood growing up on Indian reservations around the country and, later, representing the congressional district that is home to the Cherokee Nation. Carson served as president and chief executive officer of Cherokee Nation Businesses, where he refocused the organization’s corporate strategy and governance and significantly increased revenues. Raised in Oklahoma, Carson received his B.A. from Baylor University and was a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford. He then went on to earn a J.D. at the University of Oklahoma.