Wal-Mart says marketing head Stephen Quinn to retire in January

(Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (NYSE: WMT) marketing head, Stephen Quinn, will retire in January, the company said in a statement on Thursday.

At the same time, Wal-Mart announced it will hire former Target Corp (NYSE: TGT) marketing chief, Michael Francis, as a consultant starting January 1, 2016.

Francis will initiate a broad revamp of Wal-Mart's marketing department and will likely work closely with Quinn's eventual successor, the Wall Street Journal which first reported the news said.

Quinn, who joined Wal-Mart in 2005 as senior vice president of marketing, has been the chief marketing officer of the world's biggest retailer since 2007. He led the company's rebranding effort in 2008 and was responsible for the tagline- 'Save money. Live Better."

He will retire from the company on January 31, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Deisha Barnett said.

Francis spent more than 26 years with Target before joining DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc (NASDAQ: DWA) in 2013 where he served as the company's Chief Marketing Officer. Francis said in August that he would step down from his role at DreamWorks in December.

Francis has also previously worked at J.C. Penney Co Inc (NYSE: JCP), where he oversaw the retailer's marketing, merchandising, design and global sourcing.

Wal-Mart's shares closed up about 1 percent at $59.56 on Thursday.

(Reporting by Ramkumar Iyer in Bengaluru and Nandita Bose in Chicago; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Diane Craft)

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