Lori Flees is Senior Vice President and General Merchandising Manager for Health & Wellness at Sam’s Club. In this role, Lori leads the pharmacy, optical and hearing business (merchandising and operations) within Sam’s Club’s 589 locations in the US. Lori is also the lead Principal for Store No. 8 which is Walmart’s captive incubator that leverages emerging technologies to create capabilities that will help the company define and win the next generation of retail.
Lori joined Sam’s Club after spending over a year in the US eCommerce team where she was responsible for the integration of Jet.com, Shoes.com, Moosejaw, ModCloth and Bonobos; led Store No. 8 and started three of its portfolio companies; set up our enterprise strategic partnerships organization and framework (including Google and Microsoft relationships); and launched our digital entertainment strategy in partnership with Walmart US stores and leveraging the VUDU team and capabilities.
Lori started at Walmart in 2014 as SVP, Corporate Strategy with responsibility for Corporate Strategy, Corporate Financial Planning & Analysis, and Mergers & Acquisitions. In this role, Lori worked with Walmart’s senior leadership to define the company’s priorities which included a comprehensive corporate development agenda that led to the acquisition of Jet.com, several additional eCom acquisitions, International portfolio divestitures as well as key strategic or joint-venture partnership agreements in healthcare (ClarusOne, HealthCheck) and supply chain.
Prior to joining Walmart, Lori spent 17 years at Bain & Company where she was a partner in the global strategy consulting firm. While at Bain, Lori worked with clients to develop growth strategies (organic and acquisitive) and to drive performance, improvement & organizational alignment. Prior to Bain, Lori held roles at Intel Corporation and General Motors. Lori has a bachelor’s degree in management systems from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.