INDIA – Devendra Chawla, Chief Operating Officer of Walmart India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the America retail giant Walmart has resigned after serving the company for almost 15 months.

According to people familiar with the matter, mentioned by ET Retail, Devendra who was put to the task last year is currently serving the notice period after presenting his resignation papers.

The report indicates that the outgoing officer is likely to be succeeded by Sameer Aggarwal, executive vice president, chief strategy and administrative officer of Walmart India.

Chawla was executive vice president and chief operating officer, leading merchandising,marketing, and omni-channel functions for Walmart India’s cash and carry business.

He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and in his role, he reported to KrishIyer, president and chief executive officer, Walmart India.

Before joining Walmart, he was CEO of the Future Consumer Limited (FCL) and group president – Food, FMCG, Brands Future Group.

He was also CEO – food and business head for Private Brands.

Prior to that, Chawla worked as the concept head – super market for Reliance Retail and previously held positions including area operations director, director customer service/ route to market with Coca-Cola.

Chawla did his Bachelor of Engineering in Production from Pune University and holds an MBA degree from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.

At Walmart, Sameer is in-charge of finance, technology, legal, audit and strategy functions.

With an MBA from London Business School, he was earlier chief finance, development and supply chain officer at KFC Thailand and had worked with Sainsbury’s in UK and China.

Walmart India owns and operates 23 Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in 9 states across India and also operates 2 Fulfillment Centres in India, according to the company website.

The company recently unveiled plans to invest US$500 million to open another 47 stores by 2022 to take the total number of outlets to 70 in the country.

One of its biggest investments include the US$16 billion deal for India’s largest e-commerce firm Flipkart, that has since been closed.