Chief Diversity Officer
Wal-Mart
Charlyn Jarrells Porter has been named chief diversity officer at Wal-Mart. In this position, she will head Wal- Mart’s new Office of Diversity. The office, reporting to Wal-Mart Vice Chairman Tom Coughlin, will serve as a focal point for all of Wal-Mart’s diversity initiatives, including employment practices, supplier relations, and community outreach.
Porter, an 11-year company veteran, is an attorney who began her career prosecuting crimes against women and children. At Wal-Mart, she has managed a wide variety of labor and employment cases, most recently leading the People Division (human resources) for all U. S. Wal-Mart stores. Here she initiated structures and programs that greatly strengthened that business’s ability to identify and develop talent through recruiting, training programs, and formal mentoring.
Porter serves on the board of directors for the Northwest Arkansas Rape Crisis Center. She graduated from Drury College in Springfield, Mo., and earned her J.D. at the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, Ark.