Mony Iyer.

BENTONVILLE, Ark.—Walmart Inc., the third-largest optical retailer in the U.S., has named former OneSight executive Mony Iyer as vice president, Walmart U.S. Optical. Iyer will assume his new role with the retailer on July 23, according to an internal memo that Walmart issued earlier this week. Iyer previously was president of Cincinnati-based OneSight, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to expanded access to eye exams and eyeglasses. Katherine “K-T” Overbey succeeded him at OneSight earlier this month, as VMAIL reported. 

In Walmart’s internal announcement, the company said Iyer will be responsible for developing a “long-term strategy for our Vision Centers, and will lead the newly consolidated team focused on our optical business.” (The retailer provided VMAIL with a copy of the internal announcement.) The announcement added, “We will bring together parts of the optical business that currently sit across various teams in merchandising, contracting and optical labs to better achieve our goals in this space.”

Iyer has held executive positions with the Luxottica units Sunglass Hut and LensCrafters, and with The Hershey Company and Boston Consulting Group. He received an MBA degree from Duke University’s The Fuqua School of Business. At Walmart, he reports to Sean Slovenski, who this week was named senior vice president of health and wellness for the Walmart U.S. business unit.

Walmart ranked as the No. 3 optical retailer in the U.S. in 2017, according to the VM Top 50 U.S. Optical Retailers Report, which was published in May.

The company operates roughly 2,900 of its own Walmart Vision Centers as well as about 550 Sam’s Club optical centers. An additional 225 Walmart Vision locations are operated by National Vision Holdings under an arrangement with Walmart. Overall, the estimated 3,125 vision center locations within Walmart generated an estimated $1.7 billion in sales in calendar 2017 year, according to the VM Top 50 report.