University of Arkansas Holds Alumni Day for Walmart Associates and Supplier Community

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A crowd of nearly 600 participants gathered at the Sam’s Club Home Office in Bentonville on Thursday, Sept. 4, for University of Arkansas Alumni Day. The event, which was open to U of A alumni and friends who are Walmart associates or members of the Northwest Arkansas supplier community, was coordinated by the office of corporate and foundation relations. Featured speakers included U of A alumni Doug McMillon, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Charles Redfield, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer of Sam’s Club, in addition to university leadership.

Doug McMillon, University of Arkansas alumnus and president and C.E.O. of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., encourages attendees to call the hogs at the recent U of A Alumni Day.

“We had three primary objectives for this event,” said Greg Lewis, director of the university’s office of corporate and foundation relations. “We wanted to engage with our alumni, provide information about recruiting our students and educate the vendor community about opportunities to partner with the University of Arkansas to solve corporate challenges. We have many resources available to the corporate community, such as our centers of excellence and research and outreach centers, and we wanted to make these services more widely known to our corporate partners.”

In addition to McMillon and Redfield, University of Arkansas Chancellor G. David Gearhart was on hand for the event and was joined by Chris Wyrick, vice chancellor for university advancement; Jeff Long, vice chancellor and director of athletics; Brandy Cox, associate vice chancellor for alumni and executive director of the Arkansas Alumni Association; and Eli Jones, dean of the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

Ellen Sloneker, manager-campus relations at Walmart, and Angela Williams, director of career services for the university, also gave a brief presentation on recruiting students from the university.

Before and after the program, attendees were given the opportunity to interact with representatives from each of the academic units on campus, as well as student affairs, the global campus, athletics, admissions and the Arkansas Alumni Association.