James Carr Walton (born June 7, 1948) is an American businessman, currently the heir to the fortune of

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

, the world's largest retailer. As of October 2022, Walton was the seventeenth-richest person in the world, with a net worth of US$61 billion according to ''

Bloomberg Billionaires Index The ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index'', launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world's 500 richest people based on their net worth. It draws information from "action in the stock market, economic indicators and news reports", features a ...

''. He is the youngest son of

Sam Walton Samuel Moore Walton (March 29, 1918 – April 5, 1992) was an American business magnate best known for founding the retailers Walmart and Sam's Club, which he started in 1962 and 1983 respectively. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. grew to be the world's l ...

Early life and family

Jim Walton was born in Newport, Jackson County, Arkansas, the third child of

co-founder

(1918–1992) and

Helen Walton Helen Robson Walton (December 3, 1919 – April 19, 2007) was an American philanthropist and prominent arts advocate, dedicated to her community in Bentonville, Arkansas where she instituted a committee for a national museum of arts. After 31 yea ...

(1919–2007), with siblings

Rob Walton Samuel Robson “Rob” Walton (born October 28, 1944) is an American billionaire heir to the fortune of Walmart, the world's largest retailer. He is the eldest son of Helen Walton and Sam Walton, and was chairman of Walmart from 1992 to 2015 ...

, Alice Walton, and John Walton (1946 – 2005). After graduating from

Bentonville High School Bentonville High School (BHS) is a public high school in Bentonville, Arkansas, United States. Founded in 1910, the school provides education for students in grades nine through twelve. It is one of two high schools of the Bentonville School Dist ...

in 1965 where he was president of his junior class, played football at all-state level and also learned to fly a plane, Walton received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

Business Administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

from the

University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...

Fayetteville, Arkansas Fayetteville () is the second-largest city in Arkansas, the county seat of Washington County, and the biggest city in Northwest Arkansas. The city is on the outskirts of the Boston Mountains, deep within the Ozarks. Known as Washington until ...

in 1971, where he was also a member of the

Lambda Chi Alpha Lambda Chi Alpha (), commonly known as Lambda Chi, is a college fraternity in North America which was founded at Boston University in 1909. It is one of the largest social fraternities in North America, with more than 300,000 lifetime members a ...

fraternity. In 1972, he joined Walmart and was involved in its real-estate dealings. After serving for four years, he moved to the family owned Walton Enterprises as president in 1975.

Career

On September 28, 2005, Walton replaced his deceased brother, John, on the Wal-Mart

Board of Directors A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...

. He is currently on the Strategic Planning and Finance committees. He was

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of his family owned

Arvest Bank Arvest Bank is a bank headquartered in Bentonville, Arkansas, with branches in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. It is the oldest bank in Arkansas and is on the list of largest banks in the United States. It is almost entirely owned by ...

, until becoming Chairman of Arvest Bank, and Chairman of newspaper firm Community Publishers Inc. (CPI) owned by Jim Walton himself (but founded by his father Sam Walton after acquiring the local newspaper the Benton County Daily Record, both operating in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, and

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

). He has pledged about $2 billion to the

Walton Family Foundation The Walton family is an American family whose collective fortune derived from Walmart makes them the richest family in the United States of America. Overview The three most prominent living members (Jim, Rob, and Alice Walton) have consist ...

along with his siblings from 2008 to 2013. In September 2016, Walton was reported to own over 152 million of Walmart shares worth over $11 billion (US).

Personal life

He and his wife, Lynne McNabb Walton, have four children: Alice A. Proietti (born November 1979),

Steuart Walton Steuart Walton (born 1981) is an American attorney and businessman. Born into the billionaire Walton family, he is a director of Walmart, the world's largest company by revenue, co-founder of private equity firm RZC Investments, which bought Brit ...

(born April 1981), Thomas L. Walton (born September 1983), and James M. Walton (born August 1987). The family resides in

Bentonville, Arkansas Bentonville is the List of cities and towns in Arkansas, tenth-largest city in Arkansas, United States and the county seat of Benton County, Arkansas, Benton County. The city is centrally located in the county with Rogers, Arkansas, Rogers adja ...

. In 2014, he was ranked at #10 on the

Forbes list of billionaires ''The World's Billionaires'' is an annual ranking by documented net worth of the wealthiest billionaires in the world, compiled and published in March annually by the American business magazine ''Forbes''. The list was first published in March ...

with a net worth of $34.7 billion that has increased by $3 billion. On the 2013

Forbes 400 The ''Forbes'' 400 or 400 Richest Americans is a list published by ''Forbes'' magazine of the wealthiest 400 American citizens who own assets in the U.S., ranked by net worth. The 400 was started by Malcolm Forbes in 1982 and the list is publ ...

list of the richest people in America he is ranked at #7. As of March 2019, he was ranked as the 16th-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $45.7 billion.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Jim 1948 births American bankers American billionaires American corporate directors American retail chief executives Businesspeople from Arkansas Directors of Walmart Living people University of Arkansas alumni People from Newport, Arkansas People from Bentonville, Arkansas

Early life and family

Career

Personal life

See also

References