Walmart’s commitment earlier this year to hire 100,000 veterans over the next five years prompted the USO to award Walmart U.S. COO Gisel Ruiz its 2013 Woman of the Year Distinguished Service Award.

Children's Place CFO Michael Scarpa has added COO to his credentials. Scarpa, who oversees finance, information technology, distribution, logistics and wholesale, will add store operations, store development and international to his responsibilities.

J.C. Penney late Thursday announced that chief operating officer Michael W. Kramer had left the company.

Senior executives from Yahoo! and Ecolab are the newest members of the board of directors at Target.

Albertsons named the division presidents who will lead the 877 stores it will acquire from Supervalu after the purchase agreement closes next month, the company said.

Lowe’s has named Stephen Szilagyi to the post of supply chain executive, reporting to Rick Damron, COO.

Tuesday Morning reported that for the second quarter, the company's net sales increased 4.5% to $285.3 million, from $273.1 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2012.

Global freight management firm Geodis Wilson named Eric Martin-Neuville as chief operating officer and a board member.

Wanderful Media, a new Silicon Valley company that helps retailers bring consumers into local stores and facilitates ways for consumers to discover local merchandise, has appointed Doug Kilponen as its new COO.

REI has promoted Brian Unmacht to chief operating officer, expanding his role to oversee eetail, e-commerce, merchandising, private brands, information technology and supply chain.

William Kenneth Butler, COO of the 1,985 unit Aaron’s rent-to-own retail chain, received a lifetime achievement award from the Association of Progressive Rental Organizations (APRO).