The company, the nation’s largest retailer, announced on Wednesday that Dan Bartlett, an adviser to President George W. Bush, would be its new executive vice president for corporate affairs, starting in late June.

The vague-sounding role in fact has a wide mandate, overseeing corporate communications, government relations, sustainability and the Wal-Mart Foundation. It is in essence Wal-Mart’s chief image maker.

Mr. Bartlett replaces Leslie Dach, who announced his resignation in March. Mr. Dach, an ex-Clinton aide, helped create Wal-Mart’s sustainability effort, its $4 generic drug program and its healthy food program after years in which Wal-Mart had been battered by politicians and the media.

“What’s happened over the last several years, clearly here in the United States and around the world, it’s become easier to site a Walmart and we have become more accepted by the community,” Mr. Dach said last year, describing the effects of those programs on Wal-Mart’s business.

Under President Bush, Mr. Bartlett oversaw the White House press office and was an adviser on his campaigns for governor and president. More recently, Mr. Bartlett was chief executive of the United States division of Hill Knowlton Strategies, a communications firm.

Nicolle Wallace, a Republican strategist who was White House communications director under Mr. Bartlett, described him as “low-key, very unflappable, he’s the ultimate team player.”

“He was just really excited about being part of a company that, while it has an image and an identity as just a giant corporate leader, it’s also very important in all the communities in which it exists,” she said. At the White House, “he operated at that intersection of public policy and communication and really confidential counsel to the executives.”

While his work in the White House, obviously, focused on a Republican agenda, “in the private sector he’s given advice to people of all political persuasions,” she said.

Today, Wal-Mart is facing several reputational issues. It was linked to garments produced at the building in Bangladesh that collapsed last month, killing more than 1,100 workers. Wal-Mart has declined to join other large retailers like HM in a pact to improve safety standards in Bangladesh, instead saying it would pursue its own safety program.

Wal-Mart is being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department on potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and is also conducting an internal inquiry and compliance review. The New York Times reported last year that executives at the company’s Mexican subsidiary had bribed officials to smooth expansion, and that executives at the company’s headquarters had known about the bribes and declined to take action. In the most recent quarter, Wal-Mart spent $73 million on costs related to those reviews, much higher than the $40 million to $45 million it had expected to spend.

And Wal-Mart has faced issues in its stores, including slower-than-expected sales, problems in keeping shelves stocked and complaints from unions about how it treats workers.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/business/wal-mart-hires-a-new-chief-image-maker.html?partner=rss&emc=rss