Ryan L. Bell
Buyer
Walmart Stores, Inc.
Professional Biography
Ryan Bell graduated in 2009 with his Bachelors of Science in Economics. While his passion was
and is data driven analytics he also greatly enjoyed the classes he took in Business Marketing (his
minor). His love for numbers and marketing had him thinking that he was going to go into the
market research industry to hopefully work for a company like Nielsen or IRI (Two of the largest
data analytic suppliers in the retail industry). However, relying upon the spirit and the tender
mercies of the Lord, he ended up at Walmart.
Ryan began Walmart in the Fall of 2009 in what is called the Merchant Leadership Program. A 42 week training program that
exposes recent graduates and others on the essential merchandising functions of the Fortune 1 Company’s core operations. This
program introduced him to the essential roles in retail including Store Operations, Financial Planning, Replenishment, Pricing,
Modular Development and finally Buying. His time in this program was spent in the Sporting Goods Department where he
worked hand in hand with assigned mentors and presented a number of sales and profit enhancing concepts to executive
leadership.
After the 42 weeks of training he was promoted to a financial planning analyst in the Automotive Department where he was
assigned to work on one of Walmart’s largest General Merchandise categories: Motor Oil. His development of data driven tools
enabled his team to better negotiate with some of the largest companies in the world (Participating in negotiations between
Fortune 1Walmart and Fortune 2 Exxon is an interesting experience). His focus on analytics got him quickly promoted to
Financial Planner on the Car Care team where he managed another Billion Dollar desk including categories of Auto
Appearance, Wiper Blades, Automotive Accessories, and Winter/Summer Seasonal businesses of Ice Melt, Ice scrapers,
Washer Fluid and Sunshades. His work on this team was recognized as his team was awarded the category team of the year in
2011. Ryan was an integral part of a category that grew over $80 million and grew market share by about 200 basis points in
one year. This was significant growth in a category that was so complex. The complexities of this SKU (Stock Keeping
Unit)/Supplier intense category included highly seasonal and weather driven demand, direct imports and significant “Store of
the Community” opportunities. As you can imagine the difficulties of forecasting sales, profit, and inventory for 4,000 Walmart
US stores was certainly challenging. Ryan, however, used many of the skills he learned at BYU-Idaho to be rewarded for his
forecast accuracy as the Planner of the year for the Hardlines division in 2011 (he won the award 6/12 months of the year). He
was also recognized for his work in introducing NFL/Collegiate automotive accessories an idea that generated over $10 million
of incremental business.
Eight months ago Ryan was promoted to Buyer on one of Walmart’s highest visibility divisions - Dry Grocery. He currently is
the strategy developer, final decision maker and owner of a $1.4 Billion dollar business that includes Rice, Beans, Canned
Tomatoes, Dry Potatoes and Stuffing. Each day he collaborates and negotiates with over 80 suppliers. He leads a cross
functional team that is responsible for the marketing, product development, pricing, promotion and inventory management that
has led to significant financial success. Ryan’s comp sales numbers have significantly out paced his peers for the entire time he
has been in Dry Grocery. His use of syndicated data from Nielsen has enabled him to grow significant market share in all of his
categories, specifically his Rice business has been selected by leadership to be presented by the Chief Merchandising Officer to
the Walmart Board of Directors for successfully utilizing POS (Point of Sale) Scan Data to develop successful localized
assortment strategies.
This Fall Ryan will begin his MBA in the Executive MBA program at the Walton school of Business at the University of
Arkansas. Ryan is so grateful for his undergraduate education that he received at BYU-Idaho and specifically the Economics
department. His love for analytics and numbers which was developed at BYUI has enabled him to be a successful data driven
decision maker in business. Not a day goes by that he doesn’t ponder how lucky he was to get such a wonderful education at a
great University.
Personal Biography
Ryan grew up in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago, the youngest of five children. He served a mission in the Santa Rosa
California Mission in Northern California. He has a beautiful wife (Abby) that he met at BYU I and three wonderful children
(Harper 5, Rigley 3, and Turner 4 months). In his free time sports are his passion especially basketball, tennis and golf. He
volunteers on the Will Golf 4 Kids – Arkansas Children’s Hospital annual golf tournament committee that donates close to $1M
annually to ACH and serves as the first counselor in the bishopric of his ward.