When Ravi Pandya first joined Walmart 15 years ago, it was supposed to be a short stop along the way to a career in business accounting. With a Bachelor of Commerce and taking courses in business accounting at Humber College, he was looking for a part-time job to help pay his bills.
“I started my journey with Walmart in 2010 at the Perishable Distribution Centre (PDC) 7087 in Mississauga as a part-time associate,” Ravi recalls. “I was part of the first batch of part-time hires at the PDC. I thought it would be temporary, but I never left. I enjoyed the culture, the environment, and the team so much I just kept going.”
That sense of belonging has carried Ravi through more than a decade of steady growth, eventually leading him to his current role as Assistant General Manager of the Vaughan Ambient Distribution Centre (ADC), Walmart Canada’s next generation automated 550,000 square-foot facility.
Transferring from a conventional warehouse to the automated Vaughan ADC brought new challenges. “Automation was brand new to me, and I needed to build a strong team,” Ravi recalls. “I asked so many questions!” But the support from his General Manager, Ken Illingworth, and mentor, Director of Supply Chain Alice Lo, was amazing. “They made me feel at home. They also gave me the confidence to keep asking questions and keep learning - and that made all the difference.”
As Ravi got up to speed, he realized automation isn’t something you can rush. “Automation is powerful. If you keep feeding it, it keeps producing,” he explains. “But you can’t take shortcuts. You have to work smarter, follow every step—from receiving to shipping—because one wrong input can create a wrong pallet for the store.”
That experience didn’t just teach Ravi about technology. It shaped how he leads. “I tell my team: don’t stress about automation. Just focus on doing great work. Everything else will fall into place. Like Sam Walton said, ‘Take care of your people and they’ll take care of your business.’”
Today, Ravi is paying that support forward. He mentors managers and emerging leaders, with lessons learned from his own journey. “I love sharing my experience. Even if they take 20, 30, 40% of what I share and grow from it, I’ll be happy.”
For Ravi, the October 16 grand opening is more than just a milestone, it’s a celebration of teamwork, growth, and the culture that make Walmart special and a great place to work.
