Wal-Mart's spokesman, 40-year-old David Tovar, is leaving the company at the end of the month after the world's largest retailer discovered he falsely listed a bachelor's degree on his resume.
Tovar said Tuesday that it wasn't until after he walked the graduation line from college in 1996 that he found out he didn't have enough credits to get a diploma.
He was up for a promotion from vice president of corporate communications to senior vice president and facing increased scrutiny when the discrepancy was discovered. Tovar announced his resignation in an email to the news media and others on Friday, but did not disclose his reason for leaving Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Diane O'Brien, media relations coordinator for the University of Delaware, confirmed that Tovar attended the school from 1992-1996 but said he didn't graduate. He was an art major at the university, she said. The degree also was mentioned in a biography of Tovar when he was a featured speaker at The Holmes Report's second Global Public Relations Summit last year.
"I have no one to blame but myself," Tovar said Tuesday. "It was a mistake I made many, many years ago ... and I have to deal with it."
Though he participated in 1996 graduation ceremonies wearing a cap and gown and posed for pictures with family and friends, he was informed by the university several months later that he was short on credits. By then, he had moved back to his home state of New York.
"I moved forward and I never looked back and dealt with it," he said. "I didn't think that I needed to have an art degree to further my communications career."
Tovar said Dan Bartlett, the company's executive vice president of corporate affairs, approached him about two weeks ago about the promotion, and part of that process was "a more comprehensive background check than they would typically do for somebody just getting hired to the company."
After the discrepancy came to light, Tovar said both he and the company decided it would be best for him to leave.
"Ultimately it was my decision," he said. "[The promotion to senior vice president] was a job I very much wanted, and when Wal-Mart decided that was a job I wasn't going to get, I just felt like I should go somewhere and try to get that job somewhere else."
Tovar joined Wal-Mart in 2006 as director of media relations and digital communications and was promoted to his current job in 2011. As such, he led the communications efforts on initiatives such as hiring veterans, manufacturing in the U.S. and opportunities for associates, Bartlett said in a memo Friday to leaders of Wal-Mart U.S.
"Many of you know Dave because he has been on the media front lines, acting as the lead spokesperson for many high-profile topics," Bartlett told executives. Tovar was quoted in the national press on a range of sensitive subjects, such as the changes in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the investigation of Wal-Mart for suspected violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
Tovar managed about 45 people in his job as vice president and that number would have doubled if his promotion hadn't fallen through.
He said he is weighing his options and that his family will remain in Northwest Arkansas, at least for the short term.
"I'm not exactly sure what I want to do or where I want to do it," he said.
Tovar said he has been in contact with the University of Delaware and is pursuing other avenues to try to get the credits he needs to graduate.
"I can't change the past," he said. "Hopefully people will judge me by how I'm handling it today."
Cammie Scott, owner and president of C.K. Harp & Associates in Springdale, said falsehoods on resumes are not as prevalent as dishonesty about job history, particularly with the business-oriented business networking website LinkedIn. Her firm helps companies with human resources issues, among other things.
"I really put more stock into 'Is the person really getting the job done,'" Scott said. "Sometimes you can have the best-educated person, and they can't get the job done. It comes down to the skill set of the person."
Before coming to Wal-Mart, Tovar was director of corporate and government affairs for Kraft Foods Inc. in Northfield, Ill., and was district director of state government affairs for Altria Corporate Services Inc., the parent company of Kraft and Philip Morris in Sacramento.
Business on 09/17/2014