- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady talks to Honest Company CEO Carla Vernón about Walmart’s Doug McMillon.
- The big story: Crypto founder Do Kwon gets 15 years in prison.
- The markets: New all-time high.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Fortune.
Good morning. I’m always fascinated by who CEOs turn to for feedback, and who they choose to mentor outside their companies. Some relationships develop organically through working with people who become friends after you move on. (I feel fortunate to remain connected to former bosses like Norman Pearlstine, as well as numerous colleagues over the years.)
Then there are the leaders whose names come up because they offered advice or made a gesture that was meaningful to another CEO. One of those names is Walmart’s Doug McMillon, who is retiring as CEO next month after 12 years at the helm. A lot will be written about his legacy in transforming the world’s largest retailer into a daunting competitor in the digital realm. But Carla Vernón, CEO of the Honest Company, recently recounted a story about him that stuck with me.
About a year ago, Vernón said, she had an opportunity to meet McMillon for about 30 seconds at an event. Instead of talking about the business that her $383 million-a-year company does with the $704 billion-a-year Walmart, she took a different tack: “I said, ‘I want to be an extraordinary CEO. You are, in my view, one of the best of our time. So, if I could borrow a bit more time from you, I would love to ask you a question or two.”
McMillon shared his email with Vernón, who’d been CEO since 2023, and told her to get in touch. “I thought it would be like a Zoom call, but he invited me to come to Bentonville with one of my leaders and set up an entire day of one-on-ones for us,” she said. “He connected us with everybody who we needed to know strategically, everybody on his executive team who he thought might be able to help me build a strong executive team in the C-Suite. There was no agenda and this was Q4, which is the season for retailers that’s super busy.”
She compares her experience in Bentonville to being in a regional dance company and getting invited to go backstage and watch the New York City Ballet rehearse The Nutcracker. “If I can, for one day, watch what the very best at what they do do, then I’m going to forever realize what’s possible from myself as a leader,” said Vernón, who brought her VP of Sales. “When you meet somebody who you think of as some kind of iconic business brilliant mind, and realize they are just human, trying to have a good life, trying to be good to others, it’s helpful to put in perspective what is possible for you.”
It’s clear she was moved by McMillon’s desire to help her in a meaningful way. “I’m Afro-Latina. I’m female … In these companies that we get to run, the people are changing. They are changing in their generational values. They’re changing in what they look like. The companies that we love will be run by different kinds of people in the next 20 or 30 years,” she said. “I wish that, in our sector of CEOs, we took more time to help coach, grow and build each other, so that maybe we could be a stronger body doing right by businesses, employees, culture and society. We’re in such units of one and we don’t have to be.”
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com
Top news
Do Kwon given 15 years in prison
The founder of Terraform Labs and its algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD, which collapsed in 2022, costing investors $40 billion and triggering a “crypto winter,” was sentenced on fraud charges.
Lululemon CEO ousted for not being cool enough
Despite tripling sales at the athletic-wear company since 2018, Calvin McDonald will leave the company in January. Founder Chip Wilson blamed him for the company’s “loss of cool.” Although the company most recently reported a 7% increase in revenues, its sales in the Americas were down 2%. Finance Chief Meghan Frank and President, Chief Commercial Officer André Maestrini will serve as interim co-CEOs.
Why Trump is targeting Venezuelan oil ships
Ninety percent of Venezuelan exports are oil, the WSJ says, and by threatening Maduro’s ability to export the fuel, it forces Maduro to discount its sales and drain the country’s reserves. It could ultimately destabilize the regime.
HSBC ends 160-year-old management track
HSBC has closed its historic “International Manager” program, founded at the company in the 1800s, which rotated an elite group of generalist executives from country to country. “HSBC employees don’t need this special status,” a source told the FT. “There is this snooty attitude and haughty air attached to being an IM.”
OpenAI releases new model
OpenAI released its new AI model GPT-5.2 on Thursday, less than a month after its predecessor, as competition from rivals like Google and Anthropic heats up. The company claims that the model is particularly apt at coding, mathematical reasoning, and “knowledge work.”
Disney announces partnership with OpenAI
Disney announced a $1 billion investment and three-year licensing deal with OpenAI which allows users on Sora, OpenAI’s video generation platform, to create content featuring Disney’s copyrighted characters. In a statement announcing the agreement, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the partnership will allow the company to “thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI.”
Powell fears K-shaped economy
U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell confirmed that a “K-shaped economy” appeared to be developing in the U.S. and questioned whether it was “sustainable.”
The markets
S&P 500 futures were flat this morning. The last session closed up 0.21% to hit a new record high of 6,901. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.37% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was up 0.38% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 1.37%. China’s CSI 300 was up 0.63%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 1.38%. India’s NIFTY 50 was up 0.51%. Bitcoin went to $92K.
Around the watercooler
Exclusive: YouTube launches option for U.S. creators to receive stablecoin payouts through PayPal by Ben Weiss
Apple’s Steve Jobs told students to never ‘settle’ in their careers: ‘If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking’ by Emma Burleigh
Why Jerome Powell’s latest rate cut still won’t help you get a lower mortgage rate by Sydney Lake
‘We have not seen this rosy picture’: ADP’s chief economist warns the real economy is pretty different from Wall Street’s bullish outlook by Eleanor Pringle
‘We’re not just going to want to be fed AI slop for 16 hours a day’: Analyst sees Disney/OpenAI deal as a dividing line in entertainment history by Nick Lichtenberg
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams, Jim Edwards, and Lee Clifford.
