Jim Walton

Born on June 7, 1948 in Newport, Arkansas, Jame (Jim) Carr Walton is the third and youngest son of Walmart (NYSE: WMT) founder Sam Walton. Jim Walton earned the bulk of his wealth from his association with Walmart; his annual income in Walmart dividends alone was $475 million after taxes in 2013, according to Forbes. He was No. 12 on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires for 2014 with an estimated net worth of $35.3 billion. As of March 2018, Jim Walton was the 16th richest person in the world, with a net worth of $41.9 billion, including over 152 million of Walmart shares. As of 2018, Walmart operated more than 11,000 stores worldwide bringing in more than half a trillion dollars in revenue.

Jim Walton also heads the regional bank Arvest Bank Group and is chairman of the board for Community Publishers, which puts out several local newspapers in the Southern United States.

Walton earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in 1971, then took a year off to travel and earn a pilot’s license before joining Walmart, where he ran the company’s real estate operations for four years. He left his position with Walmart to join his family’s umbrella corporation, Walton Enterprises, the family’s holding company that owns banks and other businesses. He would later become its president.

Walton is chairman and chief executive office (CEO) of Arvest Bank Group, a Walton-owned regional bank that operates more than 260 banks in more than 100 communities throughout Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. As of 2014, it had assets exceeding $14 billion and was the largest bank in Arkansas by deposits and the largest in Oklahoma by branches. Community Publishers, of which Walton is also chairman and a board member, publishes newspapers in these same three states.

Arvest Bank was originally the Bank of Bentonville, Ark., before the Walton family purchased it in 1961. Arvest expanded by purchasing a small bank in 1963, the Bank of Pea Ridge, and another in 1975, First National Bank & Trust Company. The company began expanding more rapidly starting in 1984. In 2013 Arvest purchased 29 Bank of America locations in the region. Arvest has repeatedly won customer satisfaction awards from J.D. Power and Associates.

As of 2018, Walton lives in Bentonville, Arkansas (which is where Walmart is based out of), with his wife Lynne McNabb Walton. They have four children.