- Two top Wal-Mart execs, Julie Roehm (SVP-Marketing Communications) and Sean Womack (VP, Communications Architecture) are gone. Here's an Adweek article on it, and here's a piece from Media Post that offers some speculation on why Roehm is gone.
- Also, at Chrysler, Joe Eberhardt (EVP, Global Sales, Marketing and Service) is out. According to Media Post, it's in part because he "was at the heart of a dealer insurrection."
The Times says that Roehm and Womack were fired for having "a personal relationship that violated the company’s strict ethics policy", accepting gratuities, such as meals, forbidden by the company, and showing favoritism toward some vendors.
Apparently Draft FCB must have been one of the favored vendors, since Wal-Mart is putting the account up for review again and not permitting the incumbent to compete.
Roehm and Womack deny an inappropriate relationship and the other allegations, and Roehm says culture was more the problem:
Ms. Roehm acknowledged that her style and ideas did raise eyebrows at Wal-Mart. “I think part of my persona is that I am an envelope pusher,” she said last night. “The idea of change in general can be uncomfortable for many people, and my persona as an agent of change can prompt that feeling.”In one of her first assignments at the retailer, Ms. Roehm transformed Wal-Mart’s traditionally stodgy shareholder meeting into a three-hour Broadway extravaganza, hiring a troupe of New York actors who sang songs like “The Day That I Met Sam,” the company’s revered founder.
The show elicited groans from longtime company executives.
Several weeks ago, Ms. Roehm courted controversy again when she oversaw production of a holiday TV ad, known inside the company as “Sexy,” that portrayed a husband and wife discussing racy lingerie in front of their extended family. The ad drew customer complaints and was immediately taken off the air, a person involved in the matter said.
Nothing like a good scandal -- especially when it involves both sex and money.
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