Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
The forest, not the trees
For Wal-Mart executive Davis, transparency is his nature.
“I’m very modest about certain things. Someone told me one time I don’t receive very well, and often when something like that happens … I forget to say ‘thank you.’ I should always lead with thank you.”
— The first time Jeff Davis was a chief financial officer, he was dismissed after just 10 months.
In 1998, Davis became the CFO of McKesson General Medical. He accepted the position eagerly, even though it meant moving his family from Pittsburgh, where he had spent nearly his entire life, to Virginia.
Davis was 35 years old at the time, and while he had the business aptitude to handle being McKesson’s CFO, he lacked corporate savvy.
“I make no bones about it: I was asked to leave that business,” Davis says. “I wasn’t professionally mature enough to be the CFO of a $2 billion business, with the level of corporate politics that is in every business. I had the technical abilities, but I didn’t have the experience and the exposure at the level I needed.”
Davis has recovered from the setback quite well. Today, he’s the executive vice president and treasurer at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he has responsibilities for five areas: investor relations, capital markets, treasury operations, mergers and acquisitions and risk management.
The current title represents Davis’ fourth promotion since he joined the company in 2006. During that time, he’s been named one of the Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America ( Savoy) and given a National Achievement in Industry award from the National Association of Black Accountants.
Yet he’s not entirely comfortable discussing such achievements. Certainly, Davis seems much more at ease discussing his dismissal than most of the awards he’s been given.
“I’m very modest about certain things,” he explains. “Someone told me one time I don’t receive very well, and often when something like that happens … I forget to say ‘thank you.’ I should always lead with thank you. I also think about how much more I have yet to do.”
Davis tells the story of what happened at McKesson not because he’s bragging about the setback he overcame, but because such transparency is in his nature.
Similarly, when he talks about his rise toward the top of the business world, the first thing he does is stress that it was not his doing alone — that it never would have been accomplished without encouraging parents, a supportive wife, and a series of mentors and sponsors.
This is why Davis, who looks younger than his 50 years, is so determined to “pay it forward.” Despite the demands on his time, he strives to
“My grandfather told me it was important to understand different religions, and that the more you understood different religions, the more you had a better understanding of people, and what motivated them. That which makes us different, we often find there’s a commonality.”
be available to junior colleagues at Wal- Mart who want to one day get where he is — whether it’s in their careers or their lives.
“He’s a great, great guy. I’ve got a number of people on my team he mentors,” says Rick Webb of Rogers, a senior vice president of global business processes for Wal-Mart. “[He thinks about] how can he personally help people improve their lives, whether it’s helping with an investment tip all the way to helping with a PowerPoint presentation.
“I’ve seen him relate to people across the the WalMart spectrum, from [Chief Executive Officer] Mike Duke and the board of directors, down to people on his team who are looking for direction.”
Davis feels that his obligation to “pay it forward” extends beyond Wal-Mart’s corporate walls. He’s on the board of the University of Pittsburgh Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, and with a pair of local organizations: First Tee of Northwest Arkansas and Washington Regional Foundation.
It’s not just making a financial contribution. Davis believes that the way he can best contribute is by giving his time — by sitting down with members of an organization, figuring out where they are, what they want to accomplish, and then using what he’s learned to assist them in getting there.
In other words, by paying it forward.
“He’s a real gentleman,” says friend Wayne Callahan of Rogers. “He’s a sincere person and a good listener, and [because of that], he can formulate ideas for both the business and the nonprofit sectors.”
GIVING IT ALL
Barbara Jean Davis wanted a lot of information from the manager of the local Pizza Hut.
She was there to pick up Jeff, who was working there that summer as a dishwasher, but before she would let her 16-year-old son in the car, she peppered his boss with questions.
“She asked my boss how was I doing, was I doing my job well, was I putting forth the effort,” Davis recalls. “In her mind, whether you were the dishwasher, the cook or the manager, the expectation was you do it to the best of your ability.”
Barbara Jean and Donald Davis stressed this often to their two boys, that no matter what they were doing, they needed to achieve to the highest of their capabilities.
They impressed the value of education on them, that it was something no one could ever take away from them, and they stressed that learning extended beyond the classroom and into one’s personal life.
The Davis household was a religious one, but Jeff was encouraged to go to other churches and synagogues around Pittsburgh, to attend Catholic Masses and bar mitzvahs whenever the offer was extended.
“My grandfather told me it was important to understand different religions, and that the more you understood different religions, the more you had a better understanding of people, and what motivated them,” Davis says. “That which makes us different, we often find there’s a commonality.”
It was advice Davis was eager to follow. He has always been extremely curious about other people, someone who has savored the extensive foreign travel of his jobs and is eager to make the acquaintance of strangers.
This made him a perfect fit for his hometown of Monroeville, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh. George Sefer, a friend since third grade, describes Monroeville as a middle-class community that was “unusually integrated” for a suburb of the 1970s.
“We had people from literally all over the world,” says Sefer, who now lives in Elmhurst, Ill. “There was a nice mixture of children from different backgrounds, a lot of activities and opportunities to participate in sports, and very good schools. It gave you a view that there were different people, and that served you very well.”
Davis was a good student, winding up in the top 10 percent of his high school graduating class of around 800 students. He played whatever sport was in season, faring best at basketball after he shot up to his current height of 6 feet 5 inches.
“Going back to when we were children, he was always thoughtful, and considerate, never mean-spirited,” Sefer says. “He was very popular, and that stemmed from the fact that he just treated people very, very well. If you have a son or daughter, you want them to be like Jeff.”
QUITE THE HOST
Davis’ house is stylish, comfortable and has a ceramic, mosaic dome.
The dome is hard to miss; you just walk in the front door and look up. It, along with the open kitchen that’s perfect for entertaining, were what attracted Davis and his wife, Eloise, to the house when the family was looking to move to Northwest Arkansas.
Jeff loves to cook and bake, preferring to make “anything that has multiple steps to it.” It can be just for Eloise and their daughter, Elisse, or for a gathering of friends.
“Jeff is amazing, like a chef,” says Davis’ sister-inlaw, Diane Walker of Pasadena, Calif. “He embraces [the role]. He cooks, bakes, puts on a whole setup, and then serves you.”
When the Davises purchased the house, it was just drywall, affording Jeff the opportunity to weigh in on its ultimate design. It’s a tribute to the career path he didn’t take.
Davis enrolled at Penn State University in 1980 as an architecture major. He did reasonably well in his courses, but struggled with the long hours, and wound up switching to the college of business after his sophomore year.
The suggestion to major in accounting came from the father of his next-door neighbor, a regional partner in a public accounting firm.
“I remember one time him saying, ‘ You can never go wrong with an accounting or finance degree. Maybe that’s something you should pursue,’” Davis recalls. “A lot of the instruction was right up my alley. I was someone who enjoyed math and science, and that just really fit for me.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 1984, Davis returned to Pittsburgh and got a job as an accountant with Peat Marwick. Three years later, he joined The Hillman Co., which managed the wealth of Pittsburgh billionaire Henry Hillman.
Davis was with the company for 11 years, in positions of increasing responsibility. The Hillman Co. bought and sold companies all over the world, and Davis started out as part of its due diligence team, analyzing businesses before they were purchased, sold or taken public.
He gained exposure to treasury matters, and ultimately wound up as the assistant treasurer, where he was responsible for the company’s relationship with five European private-equity funds.
“He sees the bigger picture before we even get into the details, and he sees it from a [profit and loss] point of view,” Webb says. “He sees the dollar impact of the work we do around Wal-Mart.
“He’s great to have as a partner, because he keeps us looking at the forest instead of the trees.”
A BETTER MAN
A decade and a half after his dismissal, Davis understands that joining McKesson was the best and worst decision of his professional career.
Being let go was a traumatic experience, and he wondered if he would ever have such an opportunity again. But in taking the job, Davis had left his “safe zone,” his life in Pittsburgh and his successful career with The Hillman Co.
The dismissal also steeled him, made him vow that he would never be so unprepared again.
“Jeff is the kind of guy that you want in your business meetings, because he adds value to your discussions about business,” Webb says. “And he and his wife are people that you love going to dinner with on Friday night.”
After stepping down as McKesson’s CFO, Davis spent three months in a consulting role, during which time he landed a job with Lakeland Tours LLC. At the time, Lakeland was less than a tenth the size of McKesson, and it was an hour away from the family’s home, so for seven years Davis commuted two hours each day.
Although his title, CFO and senior vice president, never changed at Lakeland, Davis’ role quickly expanded. At first it was just “typical accounting functions,” but he soon added risk management, legal, operations and information technology.
By the time Davis joined Wal-Mart as a vice president of its finance specialty division in 2006, he was ready to work at a large company again. He admits being a bit apprehensive about the jump, but says his nerves were calmed when he came to Northwest Arkansas during the interview process.
He liked what he heard about the company’s culture and leadership, and the opportunities to get involved in the community.
“That same level of due diligence, I didn’t do when it came to McKesson,” he says. “I was being much too impetuous. It was like, ‘Hey, this is my ticket!,’ versus really taking the time to evaluate it on more than just the job itself, and how does Wal-Mart stand in the community.”
Within a year of coming to Wal-Mart, Davis was involved with what may still be the largest project of his career: Wal- Mart’s much-publicized $4 generic prescription drug program. The program was like “moving heaven and earth,” Davis says, but ultimately was successful.
The team that worked on the project won the Sam Walton Entrepreneurial Award, given once a year by the company. Davis calls it the most meaningful of his career, which makes sense — it was an honor bestowed not just upon him, but upon the people around him, the people he worked with and who supported him.
“He really is quite a guy,” Sefer says. “He’s one of those souls that’s just a good person, through and through. He’s sincere, not pretentious, and that’s why he’s risen to the heights he has.