Cortes named to run Walmart’s US transportation business

Executive comes from top supply chain job at Keurig Dr. Pepper

· Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Fernando Cortes joins Walmart to run its transport business (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Walmart Inc. has named Fernando Cortes, the chief supply chain officer at Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc., to head its U.S. transportation business, its chief supply chain officer, Joe Metzger, said late Tuesday.

Cortes, who spent 18 years at the Plano, Texas-based consumer packaged goods company (NASDAQ:KDP), will report to Metzger, according to Metzger’s LinkedIn post announcing the decision. Cortes’ official title at Walmart is senior vice president-transportation.

In May, Walmart selected Metzger to fill the new role of executive vice president of supply chain operations. Since the appointment, Metzger has been responsible for leading the company’s U.S. transport business, as well as its more than 150 distribution centers and its fulfillment centers.

Cortes will oversee a network of 6,100 tractors, 61,000 trailers and more than 7,800 drivers. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart (NYSE:WMT) has one of the nation’s largest private fleets.

Mark Solomon

Formerly the Executive Editor at DC Velocity, Mark Solomon joined FreightWaves as Managing Editor of Freight Markets. Solomon began his journalistic career in 1982 at Traffic World magazine, ran his own public relations firm (Media Based Solutions) from 1994 to 2008, and has been at DC Velocity since then. Over the course of his career, Solomon has covered nearly the whole gamut of the transportation and logistics industry, including trucking, railroads, maritime, 3PLs, and regulatory issues. Solomon witnessed and narrated the rise of Amazon and XPO Logistics and the shift of the U.S. Postal Service from a mail-focused service to parcel, as well as the exponential, e-commerce-driven growth of warehouse square footage and omnichannel fulfillment.