Rodolfo Leitón

Director of Sales in Latin America

Rodolfo Leitón has 16 years of international experience in retail. Mr. Leitón began his career at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. doing an MBA internship in 1996. After the same was hired as a buyer in training for the International Division, where his work focused on buying and doing “merchandising” for Wal-Mart stores in Puerto Rico.

He was then promoted to “Global Sourcing Buyer,” or global buyer, where he worked with international buyers on topics such as category management, promotion planning, line reviews, developing new categories by market, leveraging global purchasing power locally, and supporting the development of floor plans for new stores. During this time Mr. Leitón worked closely with Wal-Mart buyers in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, and Mexico

In 2003, he became the Commercial Manager for Latin America, within the “Global Procurement” Division. In his capacity as general merchandise manager, Mr. Leitón was responsible for working with international Wal-Mart buyers (including those in the United States) with the objective of developing direct import programs for Latin American products. His responsibilities included the definition and implementation of business development strategies, exceeding volume budgets and service levels, and coordinating among the following operational areas for each project: product managers in China, suppliers in Latin America, and equipment in central offices of the USA of quality control, logistics, product development, imports, refills, and the buyers of each country.

He studied his MBA at the “Sam M. Walton College of Business”, at the University of Arkansas (where he later served as a member of the alumni advisory board), and the University of Costa Rica (where he taught marketing lessons). He also received detailed training at the “University” of Wal-Mart, the Walton Development Complex. This training included topics such as negotiation, leadership, personal development (Birkman & PDI) within others.