Rob Walton

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Rob Walton is a former chairman of Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. He held the role for 23 years after the death of his father and the company’s founder, Sam Walton, in 1992. He’s also a co-owner of Walton Enterprises, the retailer’s biggest shareholder. Walmart had revenue of $611.3 billion in the year ended Jan. 31, 2023.

The majority of Walton’s fortune is derived from Walmart, the world’s largest retailer. The shares are owned through the Walton Family Holdings Trust as well as the family’s closely held holding company, Walton Enterprises, regulatory filings show. The analysis credits him with almost 12% of the business, based on an assumption that co-founder Sam Walton split the shares he owned equally among his four children — Rob, Alice, Jim and John.

He also owns a 25.5% stake in Arvest Bank, the largest bank in Arkansas, according to a December 2010 filing to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Arvest has a book value of about $1.8 billion, according to a Dec. 31, 2022 filing with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The valuation is based on the average price-to-book value multiple of two publicly traded peers: Fifth Third Bancorp and UMB Financial.

In August 2022, Walton, his daughter Carrie and son-in-law Greg Penner bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion. His 34% stake is valued based on the purchase price.

Since 1992, Walton has collected more than $10 billion from stock sales and dividends, based on an analysis of Bloomberg data. The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of those proceeds, as well as taxes, market performance and family investments.

Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for the Walton family, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.

Biography

Education: University of Arkansas, Columbia Law School

Rob is the oldest son of Sam Walton, who opened his first Walmart retail store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962. At the time of his death 30 years later, Sam had turned Walmart into the world’s largest retailer, with almost 2,000 stores and $44 billion in annual sales.

Rob played football for the College of Wooster in Ohio before earning a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a law degree from Columbia University. He became a senior vice president of Walmart in 1978 and was appointed vice chairman in 1982. Two days after his father’s death in 1992, he took over as chairman, a position he held for 23 years. Walton is a collector of vintage automobiles and has been married three times.

Milestones

• 1944 Was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Sam and Helen Walton.
• 1966 Graduates from the University of Arkansas.
• 1969 Starts working for Conner & Winters, Walmart’s outside counsel.
• 1978 Goes to work for father, becoming a senior vice president at Walmart.
• 1982 Appointed as vice chairman of Walmart.
• 1985 Takes a one-year sabbatical to train for Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii.
• 1992 Becomes Walmart chairman.
• 2005 Marries third wife, a former All-American basketball player.