Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer of Microsoft was the featured speaker at ACU's College of Business Distinguished Speaker Series on December 8, 2006. Turner addressed a crowd of about 450 faculty, staff, students and business community leaders in the Teague Special Events Center on ACU's campus. The series is designed to bring national business leaders of integrity to Abilene to share their keys to success and how they have integrated faith and Biblical principles into their work.
He was introduced by Jeff Knight, Director of Real Estate Planning at Sam's Club and current ACU board member. Turner commented on the unique fact that he is one of very few people to have worked closely with both Sam Walton and Bill Gates. Following the luncheon, Turner spoke at a mentoring session for students.
As COO, Turner is responsible for the strategic and operational leadership of Microsoft's worldwide sales, marketing, and services organization. Turner leads a global organization of over 32,000 employees, including field sales and marketing professionals who delivered over $40 billion USD in revenue during fiscal 2005. In addition to driving sales and marketing programs, Turner manages corporate support organizations, including product and customer support services, branding, advertising, public relations, marketing research, relationship marketing and Turner also oversees corporate operations and internal Information Technology that support the work of Microsoft’s over 64,000 employees around the world.
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Prior to Microsoft, Turner worked nearly 20 years at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where he started as a cashier while going to college. Upon graduating from college he held various leadership positions within Wal-Mart including most recently as president and chief executive officer of SAM'S CLUB, with over 46 million members and over $37.1 billion USD in annual sales. Before this role, Turner worked 13 years in the IT department where achieved the level of executive vice president and chief information officer for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., in which he oversaw all information systems and IT operations for the company worldwide.
In 1995 at the age of 29, Turner became the youngest corporate officer ever named at Wal-Mart and in 1997 while having worldwide responsibility for all Application Development and Support at Wal-Mart, Turner became the recipient of the first "Sam M. Walton - Entrepreneur Of The Year" Award, which is the highest honor given at Wal-Mart and is voted on the Walton Family.
Turner has also received various selected honors including; TIME Magazine - People To Watch In International Business, FORTUNE Magazine - #4 Top 10 Most Influential on 40 Under 40, Business 2.0 - The 20 Young Exec's You Need To Know, 20/20 Vision Award and CIO 100 Award - CIO Magazine.
