At the centre of the lawsuit is Roehm's allegation that Wal-Mart has not honoured its side of the deal struck between the two. When joining the company, Roehm signed a compensation deal including $325,000, a signing bonus of $250,000, and stock worth $300,000. The amount Roehm is looking for in compensation is undisclosed.
Roehm was dismissed alongside Sean Womack, vice-president of communications architecture. No details were officially announced at the time but executives close to the company said the reasons were related to ethical matters and an alleged "inappropriate relationship" between the two. They have vehemently denied the allegations.
In addition to financial compensation, Roehm is looking to recover materials still left in her office. Roehm was sacked after shortly after running the pitch to appoint Interpublic agency DraftFCB to Wal-Mart's $580m advertising account. Aegis-owned Carat was appointed to the media account.
After she left, DraftFCB and Carat were dropped and the pitch was re-run. The second time around, DraftFCB was replaced by Interpublic's The Martin Agency and Carat was replaced by Publicis Groupe's MediaVest.
Wal-Mart is to reorganise its marketing department and is to promote two of its top marketing executives, John Fleming and Stephen Quinn, to new roles. Fleming, previously chief marketing officer, will become chief merchandising officer and oversee four of the retailer's five merchandising divisions.
He will be replaced in the top marketing role by Quinn, who will take on the role of executive vice-president and chief marketing officer. Quinn was formerly senior vice-president of marketing. Before coming to Wal-Mart, he spent 13 years at the Frito-Lay division of PepsiCo, including a stint as chief marketing officer.
Quinn and Eduardo Castro-Wright, Wal-Mart's US president, ran the second creative and media review, in which Fleming took a lesser role.
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