At Wal-Mart, Clinton didn't upset any carts As a board member, she touted women and the environment

[Omaha Steve]

I posted the Chicago link instead of the LA link because registration is not required for the Chicago story.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/la-na-hillary19may19,0,3146894.story?coll=chi-bizfront-hed

From the Los Angeles Times
At Wal-Mart, Clinton didn't upset any carts
As a board member, she touted women and the environment but didn't fight anti-union efforts.

By Stephen Braun
Times Staff Writer
Published May 19, 2007

BENTONVILLE, ARK. — At a Democratic presidential debate last month, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton described Wal-Mart, the world's largest retail company, as a "mixed blessing." She spoke from experience.

From 1986 to 1992, Clinton was a member of its board of directors, carefully navigating through a spate of internal policy concerns that now weigh on Wal-Mart's corporate image. FOR THE RECORD:
In an earlier version of the caption accompanying the photo of the Wal-Mart board of directors, Robert Rhoads was identified as on the left and S. Robson Walton on the right of Sam Walton. —
Former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board members and executives recall Clinton as a politically nimble insider who cautiously tried to nudge the company toward hiring more female executives and environmentally friendly practices, to limited effect, while remaining silent as Wal-Mart pursued anti-union strategies.

Four times a year, Clinton would leave Little Rock, driven by Arkansas state troopers and sometimes accompanied by her husband, then-Gov. Bill Clinton, for a three-hour ride to Bentonville, the northwest Arkansas company town that sprouted up around Wal-Mart's headquarters.

While her husband tended to state duties, she joined all-day Wal-Mart board meetings chaired by the firm's billionaire patriarch, Sam Walton, and attended by Walton's family members, directors and top executives.

Crowded with the others around metal folding tables in the kitchen of a converted warehouse — a no-frills board room selected by "Mr. Sam" himself — Clinton assumed the role of loyalist reformer, making the case for measured change without rocking the boat.

FULL story at link.