Judith McKenna has had one of the most storied careers in U.S. retail. The Brit was the operations guru behind Walmart's overhaul of its U.S. 4,000-store fleet, and she ushered the big-box chain into the e-commerce era. More recently, she oversaw the modernization of the company's $100 billion-a-year international business, exiting some markets, like Britain, and doubling down on others, like India, where Walmart operates on e-commerce business but not physical stores.
Taking on such massive assignments made McKenna a fixture on the upper echelon of Fortune's Most Powerful Women ranking for years. The 57-year-old would have certainly been near the top of this year's list, published on Thursday, had she not surprised the retail world with her retirement announcement in August. Her successor, Kath McLay, previously at Walmart's Sam's Club chain, rose to No. 14 from No. 28 last year in part because of Walmart International's size.
