As President and CEO of retail giant Walmart Canada, Gonzalo Gebara likes to spend time outside the ‘corporate offices’ and where the work is done in more than 400 stores across Canada as well as in the company’s distribution centres.
Gebara leads a retailer that has more than 100,000 employees and he’s often seen in the trenches listening to what they have to say about the business as well as experiencing it first hand.
“This job is awesome. It gives me a chance to learn a lot from the teams. We were touring this fulfillment centre today and we keep learning on different ways to serve our customers and the teams here. The thing that I like about coming to a facility like this one is that this is where the magic happens, right?,” said Gebara in a recent exclusive interview with Retail Insider while he was touring one of the retailer’s distribution centres in Balzac, just north of Calgary’s city limits.
“And so, this is where they implement a new process, this is where they bring a new technology and they put it in place and now we can serve customers better. We can bring a better associate experience by providing them better tools and this is where it all happens. So I get the chance to learn from these experiences all the time.
“I get a chance also to work with a very, very high calibre team, that we’re all converging towards this ambition to bring Walmart Canada, to make Walmart Canada, the number one omni-channel retailer. And we’re working on it. We want to stay relevant for our customers, however they want to show up. It’s great to have the opportunity to wake up every morning and have challenges and be part of a team that wants to take charge and wants to find ways in which we can support customers, associates and communities better.
“We work in an industry that’s highly, highly, dynamic. Everything’s happening in this industry. So it’s new developments every day, the construction of ecosystems. All that is very, very interesting to do. I think I’m being kept busy every day.”
Prior to joining Walmart Canada, Gebara was President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart Chile.
Gonzalo joined Walmart in 2000, as a member of the Finance, Strategy, and Commercial teams. In 2004, he moved to Bentonville, Arkansas, where he assumed the role of Senior Director of International Integration, leading these company processes in Brazil, Central America, Japan, and China.
Later, in 2009, he arrived in Chile to lead the D&S-Walmart integration process. His responsibilities included the implementation of a new corporate culture and the development of a series of value-creating initiatives. In 2013, he became Director of Operations for Walmart Chile.
In 2016, he assumed the position of Commercial Vice President of Walmart Chile, in charge of developing the strategy and overall management of all commercial initiatives, for both brick-and-mortar stores and the digital channel and led the Company’s agro-industrial division in the country. During his 10 years in Chile, he also developed and launched the Business Intelligence and Data Analytics division.
In January 2019, he was appointed Chief Administration Officer for Walmart in Chile and Argentina, where he was responsible for implementing the company’s real estate strategy in both countries, fostering the construction of new stores and remodeling of some existing locations.
Gebara joined Walmart Canada in his current role in February 2023.
Gebara loves the intensity that is part of the retail industry.
“We’re open seven days a week, all day long. We check sales, this time of the year, probably by the hour. It’s intense and the other thing that I love is this is a people business. It’s where people make the difference. We learn by working together, by leaning in, by supporting each other. The human connections that we have in our, in our stores, in our DCs, in our fulfillment centres, and how our teams support each other and bring this whole company to life, it’s something that makes me very proud. We’re a group of committed individuals that we all love our culture, love the purpose that we work for, and we just want to do it a little bit better every day to support customers, associates, and community,” said Gebara, who loves to regularly visit the places where the company operates.
“Every week I’m out there and in different ways. When I drive back home, I stop in the store, I just walk around, just connect with associates.
“Sometimes I walk on my own. You have to be on the ground. You have to be there. Mainly to support the teams. Not to check, to support. We have a strong team, strong leadership. You have to have a very well oiled system to manage 400 and some stores across all of Canada, coast to coast to coast, all over the place.
“I don’t take any credit for it because this whole system was created before my time, but I think I like the way in which we manage the business, we have feet on the ground and deploying all of our resources to stores and DCs.”
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