Willis J. Johnson (born 1947) is an American
billionaire
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
businessman.
He is the founder and former chief executive of
Copart
Copart, Inc. or simply Copart is a global provider of online vehicle auction and remarketing services to automotive resellers such as insurance, rental car, fleet and finance companies in 11 countries; the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, ...
, a vehicle salvage and auction company, founded in 1982.
Biography
Born in 1947, Johnson grew up on a dairy farm in the vicinity of
Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Siloam Springs is a city in Benton County, Arkansas, United States. The city shares a border on the Arkansas-Oklahoma state line with the city of West Siloam Springs, Oklahoma, which is within the Cherokee Nation territory. The town was founded i ...
.
He received his early education from a high school in California.
Johnson then joined the Army and served a year-long tour in Vietnam which earned him a
Purple Heart
The Purple Heart (PH) is a United States military decoration awarded in the name of the President to those wounded or killed while serving, on or after 5 April 1917, with the U.S. military. With its forerunner, the Badge of Military Merit, w ...
. In 1972, he bought his own junkyard in
Sacramento, California
)
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, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento C ...
,
and moved his family into a trailer to fund his purchase.
He took Copart public in 1994.
He launched an online bidding platform for wrecked cars in 1998
(or 2002
).
Willis Johnson retired from his position of CEO of Copart in 2010 and moved to
Nashville, Tennessee.
In 2015, he co-founded now defunct on-demand household chore app, Takl.
Political contributions
Johnson is politically conservative and supports the
Republican Party
Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party.
Republican Party may also refer to:
Africa
*Republican Party (Liberia)
* Republican Part ...
.
Since 2001, he has contributed at least $1.5 million to different conservative causes.
In 2019, he contributed $50,000 to the
Trump Victory Committee, a
political action committee.
Together with his spouse, Johnson contributed a total of $700,000 to
Donald Trump's
2020 presidential campaign.
In 2021, he donated $1 million to
South Dakota Governor
Kristi Noem to fund a
National Guard deployment to the Texas/Mexico border.
Assets
In 2010, he bought an 18,600 square foot mansion in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
for $28 million from American country singer
Alan Jackson.
Johnson also owns a 79-acre vineyard in Suisun Valley, California.
Publications
*
Personal life
Johnson is married to Joyce, whom he married after returning from the Vietnam War.
Johnson is a practising Christian.
Johnson resides in Franklin, Tenn., and owns a large collection of classic cars, including a 1955 Chevrolet.
His son-in-law,
Jay Adair
Jay Adair (born 1969/1970) is an American billionaire businessman, and the chief executive officer (CEO) of Copart, a car salvage company founded by his father-in-law, Willis Johnson.
Adair started at Copart as a manager in 1989 at the age of ...
, is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Copart, and owns shares in the company worth more than $800 million.
References
Living people
1947 births
American billionaires
American business executives
Oklahoma Republicans
United States Army personnel of the Vietnam War
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