Ashley Buchanan (born 1974) is an American

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations g ...

. He is

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

The Michaels Companies The Michaels Companies is an American retail holding company, headquartered in Irving, Texas. It was formed as a parent company of Michaels in 2014, , The Michaels Companies operates its flagship brand, Michaels (in the United States and Canad ...

, former

chief merchandising officer The chief merchandising officer (CMO) is a top-level executive employee who controls the merchandising in a company or other organization. Responsibilities A Chief Merchandising Officer has the responsibility of overseeing a company or other or ...

and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the "C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if t ...

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

's e-commerce business and a member of The Michaels Companies board of directors.

Early life and education

Buchanan was born in 1974 in

Mount Pleasant, Texas Mount Pleasant is the county seat of and largest city in Titus County, in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, Mount Pleasant's population was 16,047; it is situated in Northeast Texas. History Mount Pleasant was founded May 11, 184 ...

. He is the eldest of three children born to Patricia (Patti) and James Buchanan, a businessman. He attended college at

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

where he studied business and played tennis on the university's NCAA Division I tennis team. Buchanan graduated from the Hankamer School of Business in 1996 with a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

in finance and real estate. Buchanan received an

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from Hankamer School of Business in 1998.

Career

Early career

Buchanan started his career in banking at

Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. The bank w ...

in 1996. After receiving his Master of Business Administration degree, Buchanan worked as a retail consultant at

Accenture Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...

from 1996 to 2004. He worked at

Dell Computers Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

from 2004 to 2007 as a finance manager.

Walmart

From 2007 to 2020, Buchanan worked at Walmart, starting with the first ten years at Walmart US leading several business units. In February 2017, Buchanan was named chief merchant of Walmart's

Sam's Club Sam's West, Inc. (doing business as Sam's Club) is an American chain of membership-only retail warehouse clubs owned and operated by Walmart Inc., founded in 1983 and named after Walmart founder Sam Walton as Sam’s Wholesale Club. , Sam's Cl ...

business unit. In 2019, Buchanan was named executive vice president and chief merchandising officer of Walmart.com, where he was part of the effort to invest in Walmart's digital shopping experience, to compete with online giant

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

Michaels

In 2020, Buchanan joined

as the

and a member of the

board of directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. In March 2021, it was announced that The Michaels Companies was being acquired by private equity firm

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

, and would be going private.

Other professional activities

Buchanan is also an

independent director An independent director (also sometimes known as an outside director) is a member of a board of directors who does not have a material or pecuniary relationship with company or related persons, except sitting fees. In the United States, indepe ...

on the board of directors of private label packaged foods company

TreeHouse Foods TreeHouse Foods Inc. is a multinational food processing company specializing in producing private label packaged foods headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois. Created in 2005 and consisting entirely of acquisitions, in 2010 the company had sales ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan, Ashley 1974 births Living people Baylor University alumni American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies