• by Tom Siebert , December 12, 2006

Julie Roehm, Wal-Mart's recently deposed senior vice president of marketing communications, is already in conversation with "people who are interested in talking to me."

"I don't have any regrets," said an upbeat-sounding Roehm, who continued a charm offensive Monday as the media maelstrom surrounding her Wal-Mart departure and the ad agency she chose, DraftFCB, climaxed with a front-page story in The Wall Street Journal and no less than eight stories (plus sidebars and graphics) in Advertising Age.

"I'm taking 60 days to find out exactly what I want to do and take advantage that people want to talk with me," Roehm said. "I want to find out who has the most interesting job for me, where I have the most value, as well as where I'm the most comfortable."

She is also considering "maybe opening my own gig."

Roehm said that through her work at Wal-Mart, she realized that "culture plays a bigger role than I originally anticipated." While she experienced "trepidation" before moving from the freewheeling Detroit automotive world to the conservative corporate environs of Wal-Mart--"that's the opposite of who I am"--she also welcomed the challenge.

Roehm also addressed the dinner for DraftFCB at elite New York restaurant Nobu. She recently defended the dinner, saying she expected her bill from the event to be charged back to "the client." She said the proper terminology should have been "potential client."

She also said she had "no idea" why Wal-Mart terminated her in tandem with Sean Womack, vice president of communications architecture, and denied that they were romantically involved.

"That is gossip. If there were any credibility to it, there would be real sources," she said. "Clearly, [Wal-Mart] decided to change the agency three days later--why would they fire an agency based on gossip?"

When asked if she was being held to a double standard because she is a woman, Roehm said she would "take the high road. Having been a woman in male-dominated industries my whole life, there's going to be normal challenges. That's going to be expected. I have gotten a lot of calls from women contacts who say that they thought there was a more level playing field than it turns out there is."