Jay Jorgensen, the former executive vice president and global chief ethics and compliance officer of Walmart Inc., is the new general counsel of Coupang, the largest and fastest growing e-commerce company in South Korea.

Privately held Coupang, the South Korean equivalent of Amazon.com, announced the hire Thursday.

Bom Kim, CEO of Coupang, said in a statement, “Coupang is relentless in its pursuit of excellence, and Jay shares that commitment. His standards are remarkably high, and he has a tremendous track record.”

Jorgensen, who is now based in Seoul, told Corporate Counsel he actually started work Monday and is truly excited by the new job. “The reason they seem like a good fit to me is I had this great experience with Walmart learning the retail space. Now Coupang is revolutionizing the retail industry in this part of the world.”

The new general counsel said the company really feels like a startup because it is growing so quickly—its revenue more than doubled in the last two years to nearly $5 billion in 2018.

“I've done big law; I've done big business,” Jorgensen said. “Now it is a great time for my wife and me to have this experience of a different culture, and of a company at a different stage in its growth.”

Jorgensen joined Walmart in Bentonville, Arkansas, in October 2012 as chief ethics and compliance officer, with marching orders to build a world-class compliance program. The timing was shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice opened its investigation into allegations of bribery at Walmart's Mexican subsidiary. The company is expected to settle the case this year.

Jorgensen also served as a member of Walmart Foundation's board of directors and executive committee, helping direct the foundation's activities and establish strategies to improve sustainability and create jobs. He left the giant retailer in December.

Prior to joining Walmart, Jorgensen was a partner at Sidley Austin. He also had served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Coupang said Jorgensen brings a wealth of international experience. This includes:

• His work building and leading a world-class compliance program.
• His knowledge of legal and retail business issues in growing an e-commerce platform. Since 2018, Walmart's e-commerce unit has increased online sales by over 40 percent.
• His understanding of what it takes to become a public company. It has been widely reported that Coupang is expected to make an initial public stock offering in 2019 or 2020.
• Coupang is one of the largest and fastest growing e-commerce platforms in the world, according to its profile on Crunchbase.com.

The company prides itself on employing the newest technology to keep an obsessive focus on end-to-end customer service. For example, it delivers 99 percent of all purchases within one day. And if a customer doesn't like a product, she can simply click an app and place the product outside her door for a driver to pick up within hours. There is no need for a box, invoice or printed label.

Besides its base in Seoul, the company offers international brands and is expanding beyond Korea. It already has offices in Beijing, Los Angeles, Seattle, Shanghai and Silicon Valley in California.

Korea is already in the global top five e-commerce markets and expected to take over third place in a few years, right behind the U.S. and China.