William C. Rhodes III is

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

Chief Executive Officer 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 AutoZone, Inc. Rhodes is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin with an accounting degree. He also earned a master of business administration degree from the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering ...

Education

Rhodes graduated from

Craigmont High School Craigmont High School is a public high school (grades 9–12) located in Memphis, Tennessee, in the Raleigh community. It was part of the Memphis City Schools district before consolidation with the Shelby County Schools district, beginning with ...

, Memphis, TN and the University of Tennessee at Martin where he was on the Golf team.

Career

AutoZone

William C. Rhodes III began his career at AutoZone in 1994. Before this, he was a manager at Ernst & Young LLP. He is

and

of AutoZone, Inc., a

Fortune 300 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by '' Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

company. He was named to those positions on March 13, 2005, following more than 12 years with the company where he served in a variety of executive-level roles. In 2007, he was named chairman of the company. According to annual

proxy Proxy may refer to: * Proxy or agent (law), a substitute authorized to act for another entity or a document which authorizes the agent so to act * Proxy (climate), a measured variable used to infer the value of a variable of interest in climate re ...

filings with the

United States Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

, his 2005 compensation from AutoZone totaled over US$8.5M. While CEO of AutoZone in 2009, William C. Rhodes III earned a total compensation of $3,052,765, which included a base salary of $752,385, a cash bonus of $1,017,977, stocks granted of $21,270, options granted of $1,138,717, and other compensation totaling $122,416. Business Insider listed him as one of the 25 most underpaid CEOs in 2010. He was among the best-performing CEOs in 2014 and among the highest-paid CEOs in 2016.

Other work

Rhodes is a director and chairman of

Dollar General Dollar General Corporation is an American chain of variety stores headquartered in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. As of April 11, 2022, Dollar General operates 18,216 stores in the continental United States. The company began in 1939 as a family-own ...

. He is also a director at the

Retail Industry Leaders Association Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

. Tennessee Governor

Bill Haslam William Edward Haslam (; born August 23, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman and politician who served as the 49th governor of Tennessee from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Haslam previously served as the 67th mayor of ...

nominated Rhodes among others to the University of Tennessee's Board of Trustees, who was eventually approved. Acting as a representative for other CEOs during a meeting between these CEOs, Rhodes, and President

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, Rhodes expressed concern over whether specific policy shifts would affect "our industry, our employees and American working families." He also expressed concern that tariffs enacted by Trump did not "shock" customers. Rhodes is politically active and contributes to political races, including the reelection campaign for Governor Charlie Baker of Massachusetts in 2018 and George Flinn in West Tennessee's Eighth District in 2016.

References

External links

Official Corporate Bio
at Autozone website {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhodes, William C. American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies University of Tennessee at Martin alumni Living people University of Memphis alumni Year of birth missing (living people)