Report: Wal-Mart names new head of corporate foundation

New York City -- Wal-Mart Stores on Friday will appoint Sylvia Mathews Burwell, a former senior executive of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to head its corporate foundation, according to the New York Times. She also will oversee the retail giant’s social, environmental and economic development programs in Africa.



Burwell replaces Margaret A. McKenna, who became the company foundation’s president in 2007.



Burwell joined the Gates foundation in 2001 after working in the Clinton administration as deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, deputy chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to Robert E. Rubin when he was Treasury secretary, the report said. The Gates Foundation is the largest in the country with some $36.3 billion in assets.