Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is an American heiress to the fortune of Walmart as daughter of founder Sam Walton. In September 2016, she owned over US$11 billion in Walmart shares. As of October 2022, Walton has a net worth of $59 billion, making her the 19th-richest person, and the second richest woman in the world according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In the spring of 2023, Forbes estimated her fortune at $56.7 billion and moved her to the third line in the ranking of the richest women.
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, according to a March 2023 filing. Bloomberg’s analysis credits her 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.
Since 1992, Walton has collected more than $10 billion in stock sales and dividends, based on an analysis of Bloomberg data. The value of her cash investments is based these proceeds, as well as taxes, art purchases, market performance and family investments. She doesn’t own a stake in the family’s Arvest Bank, the biggest bank in Arkansas.Randy Hargrove, a spokesman for the Walton family, declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Biography
The only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, Alice Walton graduated from Trinity College in San Antonio, Texas, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance. She embarked on a career in finance, first as an equity analyst at First Commerce, then as an options trader at E.F. Hutton. She also served as vice chairman and head of investments at Arvest Bank, the Walton family’s closely held bank. In 1988, she started investment bank Llama Co., where she served as chief executive officer. The company folded following the bond market crash of 1998.
Alice Walton is a buyer of American art; her collection includes works by John Singer Sargent, Norman Rockwell and Asher B. Durand, which are displayed in the museum she founded, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, in Bentonville, Arkansas.
Career
Early in her career, Walton was an equity analyst and money manager for First Commerce Corporation and headed investment activities at Arvest Bank Group. She was also a broker for EF Hutton. In 1988, Walton founded Llama Company, an investment bank, where she was president, chairwoman and CEO.
Walton was the first person to chair the Northwest Arkansas Council and played a major role in the development of the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport, which opened in 1998. At the time, the business and civic leaders of Northwest Arkansas Council found a need for the $109 million regional airport in their corner of the state. Walton provided $15 million in initial funding for construction, and Llama Company underwrote a $79.5 million bond. The Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport Authority recognized Walton’s contributions to the creation of the airport and named the terminal the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building. She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2001.
Llama Company closed in 1998.
In his 1992 autobiography Made in America, Sam Walton remarked that Alice was “the most like me—a maverick—but even more volatile than I am.”
Milestones
- 1949 Alice Walton is born in Newport, Arkansas, to Sam and Helen Walton.
- 1979 Works for Walmart as a buyer, moves to E.F. Hutton as options trader.
- 1979 Accused by the SEC of making “unsuitable” option trades.
- 1988 Starts her own investment bank, Llama Co.
- 1999 Llama folds following the 1998 bond market crash.
- 2011 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opens.
