Steven Welch
Steven graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering and Management in 2005. Upon graduation, he joined Walmart and started a varied career development arc spanning a variety of core functions in retail. Steven currently serves as Senior Director for Merchandising Operations in the US Food division. Responsible for merchandise replenishment, financial planning, and business analytics, his team ensures Walmart is able to deliver for customers every day across Walmart’s $12B candy and front-end impulse portfolio. Critical buy commitment and allocation planning for key candy moments like Halloween, Christmas, and other seasons sits with Steven’s team.
Prior to Merchandising, Steven had the opportunity to diversify and apply his engineering skillset across Walmart’s US business. He led customer service operations for Walmart’s customer-facing and associate-facing call centers during COVID; a critical period of change for customer’s experience in stores and growth of omni-retail services and teams. For the 13 years preceding, Steven served in a variety of roles ranging from workforce planning & scheduling, store process innovation design & deployment, and supply chain engineering & automation.
Steven is passionate about developing people and mentoring. He currently leads core programming for MBA interns and full-time associates onboarding to Merchandising at Walmart. His range of experience and relationships help inform a series experiences that deliver global exposure and understanding to new, bright talent.
At home in Bentonville, AR, Steven and his wife Rachel (2005 OSU Grad) enjoy life together with their 2 boys (Parker, Paxton). As a family, they devote most weeknights and weekends to baseball, football, and soccer events. Steven enjoys biking, hiking, and exploring the beautiful ”Natural State” with his family as well as volunteering his time to coach youth sports.