Inside the career of Brian Cornell, who ran Sam's Club before becoming Target's first-ever outsider CEO

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As a kid, Target CEO Brian Cornell had a job washing Tropicana trucks.

• Target CEO Brian Cornell had decades of retail experience under his belt by the time he took the reins at the Minneapolis-based retailer.
• In 2014, he became the first outside hire ever appointed as Target's CEO.
• Before that, the Queens native worked at companies like PepsiCo, Sam's Club, and Michaels.

Target CEO Brian Cornell is unique among chief executives of the Minneapolis-based retailer.

In 2014, he became the first outside hire to take on the role as CEO of Target. Today, he leads Target's 323,000 or so employees spread across about 1,800 US stores, according to the company's website.

Read more: How Doug McMillon went from a high schooler working at Walmart for $6.50 an hour to a millionaire CEO running one of the world's most powerful companies

Long before he became a major retail executive, Cornell spent his youth working odd jobs and low-paying retail gigs in order to put himself through college. He then embarked on a decades-long career in the business, during which he held down roles at a number of prominent companies like Safeway, PepsiCo, and Walmart.

Here's a look back at Cornell's life and career: