Ex-nun hired to guide Wal-Mart policy

BENTONVILLE, Ark., July 18 (UPI) -- A 65-year-old former nun has been hired by Wal-Mart to help shape the company's policies on labor relations, healthcare and the environment.

Harriet Hentges, who was a nun in the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet from 1958-72, will assume the newly created position of "senior director of stakeholder engagement," The Washington Post reported.

Hentges, who also has a doctorate in international economics from Johns Hopkins University, has worked as chief operating officer of the League of Women Voters before joining the United States Institute of Peace, where she worked as a foreign conflict mediator in Iraq and the Balkans.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said Hentges was hired for her "understanding of complex issues" rather than her religious background, which Clark said "had nothing to do with it," the Post said.