Rich Lehrfeld — SVP & General Manager at Walmart Connect

Rich Lehrfeld serves as Senior Vice President and General Manager at Walmart Connect, the retail media network arm of Walmart. In this role, he leads the strategic direction and operations of one of the largest and fastest-growing retail media networks in the United States. Lehrfeld has been instrumental in positioning Walmart Connect as a formidable competitor in the retail media space, leveraging Walmart's massive first-party data from both in-store and online shopping behaviors across millions of customers. His leadership has focused on expanding Walmart Connect's advertising products, deepening brand partnerships, and building out self-serve and managed-service capabilities for advertisers of all sizes. Under his guidance, Walmart Connect has worked to differentiate itself by offering closed-loop measurement that connects ad exposure directly to purchase outcomes, a key value proposition in the retail media landscape. The significance of this leadership role extends beyond Walmart itself, as Lehrfeld has become a prominent voice in the retail media industry, frequently speaking at major industry events and helping to define best practices and standards for the broader retail media ecosystem.

Lehrfeld's leadership at Walmart Connect carries substantial implications for the broader AdTech and retail media landscape. Walmart Connect competes directly with Amazon Advertising, Kroger Precision Marketing, Target's Roundel, and a growing number of other retail media networks, and his strategic direction influences how the entire sector evolves. His emphasis on first-party data utilization, closed-loop measurement, and omnichannel advertising solutions reflects and reinforces industry-wide trends away from third-party cookies and toward retailer-owned data assets. Walmart Connect's scale — backed by Walmart's position as the world's largest retailer — gives Lehrfeld's initiatives outsized influence on advertiser expectations and industry benchmarks. His public advocacy for retail media standardization also contributes to ongoing IAB and industry working group efforts to create common measurement frameworks. The competitive pressure Walmart Connect exerts under his leadership accelerates innovation across rival retail media networks and pushes traditional digital platforms like Google and Meta to better articulate their own commerce and retail media offerings.