Sam's Club CEO Latriece Watkins ties leadership power to mentoring
Watkins, who joined Walmart as an intern and became its first woman chief merchant in 2023, said leaders must create clarity rather than think out loud.
By The Carnegie Standard Staff
· 1 min read
Latriece Watkins, chief executive of Sam's Club, said the clearest measure of her own influence is the advancement of colleagues she has mentored, speaking on October 13, 2026, at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Santa Barbara, California, Fortune reported.
"When I feel most powerful is when I see the people I've invested in make moves," Watkins said in an onstage interview with Fortune Most Powerful Women editor Emma Hinchliffe. She said the combined contributions of a group exceed what any executive can produce alone.
Watkins, 51, has spent about three decades at Walmart, joining as an intern and rising to become the company's first woman and first person of color to serve as chief merchant in 2023. Fortune valued the parent company at $890 billion.
Eight months into the top job at Sam's Club, Watkins said employees look to a chief executive for transparency and a defined vision, and that leaders should not work through unresolved views in public. She said executives must set aside time to reach their own conclusions before communicating them, calling that time one of the hardest things for a leader to find.
This story was first reported by Fortune.
Comments