Wal-Mart Picks Gulf Coast Pharmacist as District Manager of the Year

It was with greatpleasure that Wal-Mart Stores Incannounced the selectionof Ron Franklin as districtmanager of the year forthe Pharmacy Division atthe year-beginning meetingin Kansas City, Mo, inFebruary 2006.

"Ron has always been passionate aboutour company and is a great leader by example,"said Ken Murray, pharmacy manager inGulfport, Miss. "He is knowledgeable abouthis position and brings out the best in thosehe represents. He is very concerned abouthis associates and always makes it a point toshow his appreciation for jobs well done."

"Wal-Mart's core beliefs of service, respect,and excellence are characteristicsthat Ron demonstrates daily," Murray continued."He provides leadership by observing,listening, and developing the skills of theassociates in order to build leadership at the store level. Alongwith that, he develops detailed action plans and implementsthem to meet customer needs."

None of this leadership was more apparent than whenHurricane Katrina unleashed her fury on the Gulf Coast region inAugust 2005. Franklin organized temporary pharmacies in 2 differentlocations. He kept his associates focused on the customerand worked diligently,coordinating theefforts of visiting pharmaciststo and from storeswhile maintaining a clean,safe work environmentfor everyone. His ability tocommunicate clearly andstay organized and hisstrong work ethic wereinvaluable to Wal-Mart'sbeing able to provideexcellent customer service from the Pharmacy Division in thewake of a major natural disaster—all this while dealing withdamage he incurred to his personal residence.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc is a global company with more than 1.3million associates worldwide and nearly 5000 stores across 15countries. What makes Wal-Mart Pharmacy so successful is onecore value: its people make the difference. Franklin's leadershipprovided thousands of Katrina victims with pharmacy servicesthroughout the Mississippi Gulf Coast region.

Franklin recalls a pharmacy associate who came to workafter he had lost his residence to the storm surge and was livingin a tent. Franklin asked, "Shouldn't you be taking care ofyour home?" The associate replied, "Wal-Mart is the best placeI can be right now."

"Wal-Mart encourages a passion for excellence at every levelof our business, and we're always striving to improve our customers'ability to manage their health through access to ourintegrated health care offerings," said Art Alderson, vice president,Wal-Mart Pharmacy. "Ron is an exemplary district managerwho made a difference by putting the needs of others in frontof his own."

Franklin and his wife, Suzanne, live in Ocean Springs, Miss,where he is a district manager in the Gulf Coast region. He is anative of Shreveport, La, but grew up in Lafayette, La. He graduatedfrom pharmacy school at the University of Louisiana atMonroe in 1981 and has been with Wal-Mart Stores Inc since1985. He has 3 children: Matthew, 22; Jennifer, 18; and Tyler, 13.He enjoys traveling, but his favorite sport is baseball, and hecoaches his younger son's baseball team.