Three years ago, Jill Hong took a leap of faith. After a 21-year career focused on customer insights and analytics, including seven years at Walmart Canada, she accepted a merchandising role with no prior experience in the function.
Jill became the Senior Director and Divisional Merchandise Manager for OTC Health, approaching the new role with the same curiosity, tenacity and collaboration that helped her to succeed in her previous role as Vice President, Insights and Analytics.
And in March, at Walmart’s Year Beginning Meeting, Jill was named the 2025 Divisional Merchandise Manager of the Year. When Russ Mounce, Chief Merchandising Officer at Walmart Canada, began introducing the winner of the award on stage she wasn’t paying close attention because she genuinely didn’t think she was going to win.
“And then Russ mentioned the New Year, New You event I led - and I blacked out,” she says. “My peers were hugging me and I was just like, what?”
She still can’t quite believe it.
“I still feel undeserving,” she says. “This has been such a phenomenal journey and the most humbling experience. I went from a place of deep knowledge - of being the expert - to a place of knowing nothing. I had to ask really basic questions about things people had been doing their entire careers.”
Her colleagues rallied behind her in her new role, with associates who had relied on her as an insights partner spending hours helping her understand P&L mechanics, retail math and the tools of her new role. “I had so many people in this organization proactively offer to spend time with me,” said Jill. “And that in itself is what it means to work at Walmart.”
These were associates like Grant Hennig and Azadeh Salehpour, two senior merchants on her team who worked closely with Jill to help her learn the functions that are core to being a great merchant at Walmart: nurturing a brand and understanding the rigours of finance.
Beyond her immediate team, another community kept her grounded. Two years ago, Jill became Chair of Women of Walmart (WOW). Her WOW leadership team, along with the events and community they built together, became a source of resilience and purpose that carried her through the uncertainty of her transition.
In her second year, Jill began challenging the conventions of how her category was run, pushing for bold floor changes and high-movement product placements that disrupted the way things had always been done. The early months were uncomfortable, with results lagging before the strategy paid off.
“Results are the outcome of doing really hard stuff that you’re scared of doing,” she says. “You need the confidence to stand up, meeting after meeting, and say: stay the course. We’re not changing strategy.”
The results came. And so did a strong team that had grown through the experience alongside her.
What moved her most wasn’t winning the award itself. It was what a more experienced merchant said to her afterward: “Jill, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you are a true merchant now.”
“Funnily enough, I wasn’t trying to be,” she laughs. “I spent the whole first year struggling because I was trying to be like someone else. And then the best advice I got was, just be yourself. Take all your curiosity, your problem-solving energy and shine.”
It’s a message Jill hopes resonates with others, and she offers three things she wants associates and customers to carry with them:
- Lean into fear. “If something really scares you, it means you have something incredible to gain. Bravery and fear are the same thing, and there’s always something worth accomplishing on the other side.”
- Stay curious and keep growing. “When things get really hard, that’s when you’re learning. Get excited about what’s coming.”
- Embrace change. “The customer is changing. The competition is changing. The world is changing. And so are you.”
Shortly after the award was announced, Jill’s scope was expanded to include two additional departments: Pharmacy and Prescription Services, and Optical Vision.
Another new challenge. Another reason to lean in.
Congratulations, Jill! Your team, your customers and this company are better for your exceptional work and leadership.
