Fresh start for Wal-Mart's black sheep
Wal-Mart fired Julie Roehm and Sean Womack and alleged they had an affair. Now she's looking forward to reality TV fame.
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| Julie Roehm now has a marketing consulting business. |
NEW YORK (Fortune) -- Julie Roehm and Sean Womack gained infamy when Wal-Mart fired the pair from their Bentonville marketing posts and linked the two in an alleged affair. Roehm was cast as Wal-Mart's femme fatale, the marketing star brought to Bentonville from Chrysler, only to be fired ten months later. Lawsuits flew when Roehm claimed wrongful termination and steamy e-mails were leaked. But what's happened since?
Last November, Roehm and Wal-Mart (WMT, Fortune 500) dropped their suits as part of a confidential settlement. Roehm (pronounced "raym") has opened a marketing consulting shop with a curious name, /Meta. Her clients include Credit Suisse and a tech startup called Biap. She has also been taking speaking engagements here and there. She has also been cast as a judge on "Jingles," an upcoming CBS reality show where players compete to write catchy ad tunes. She says the show is likely to air towards the end of this year.
"Last year was a hard year, but I think I'm stronger for it," says the marketer, reached on her cellphone in Los Angeles, where she was meeting with a client. "The upside of scandal is that a lot of people reach out to you." Indeed, Roehm says she has become a big fan of LinkedIn and Facebook.
In early 2006, the Wal-Mart's stock price was stagnant and same-store sales were trailing Target's. To fire up sales, Wal-Mart decided to try something new for its ad strategy, then dominated by yellow smiley faces promising low prices, and so they lured Roehm from Detroit, where she had been crafting provocative marketing campaigns for Chrysler. Ten months later, though, she was gone, accused of having an affair with her subordinate, Womack, and of showing favoritism towards one of the agencies vying for a share of Wal-Mart's ad budget.
These days, Roehm isn't totally unlinked from Wal-Mart, though. She, her husband, Michael, and their two sons still live in Bentonville ("unfortunately"), stuck with a house that's been sitting unsold for 19 months. As for what Womack might be up to, Roehm says, "I have no idea. But whatever it is, I'm sure he's doing it well."
Well, Fortune tracked down Womack, who, like Roehm is living in Bentonville and doing marketing consulting work. When contacted, Womack declined to do a phone interview but did send an e-mail describing how his experience at Wal-Mart had changed his life.
Womack expressed gratitude towards his wife ("I literally put her through hell"), his children and friends. And he says he wants to pay more attention to his character than his resume, by dedicating his work to serving others. "Being fired from Wal-Mart was one of the most difficult gifts I've ever received in my life...The truth is that I was a jerk - a self-centered jerk," wrote Womack. "When you are in this place, it takes a two-by-four to get your attention. And I got one." 
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