How Ann built the fortune
Ann Walton Kroenke's wealth traces back to the retail business her father and uncle built in small town Arkansas. James Lawrence Walton, known as Bud, was Sam Walton's younger brother and his partner from the early days of their variety store operations. When Sam opened the first Wal-Mart Discount City in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962, Bud was closely involved, scouting locations, overseeing real estate and later serving as a senior executive and director.
Bud Walton received a meaningful ownership stake in the company, though smaller than the share held by Sam's branch of the family. Walmart went public in 1970, and as it expanded from a regional chain into the world's largest retailer by revenue, the value of those shares rose enormously. When Bud died in 1995, his holdings passed largely to his daughters, Ann and her sister Nancy Walton Laurie.
Ann's fortune therefore rests mainly on Walmart stock and the dividends it pays. She has not built a separate operating business of her own, and she is not involved in managing the retailer. Unlike the heirs of Sam Walton, who coordinate much of their holding through Walton Enterprises, Bud Walton's descendants manage their shares separately.
Companies and holdings
Her principal asset is a holding of Walmart shares, which she has reduced over time through sales and gifts, as many family members have done. Walmart today operates thousands of stores in the United States under the Walmart and Sam's Club names and has large operations in Mexico, Central America, Canada, China and India, where it owns a controlling stake in Flipkart.
Ann is married to Stan Kroenke, a real estate developer and sports owner whose company, Kroenke Sports and Entertainment, controls the Los Angeles Rams, Arsenal Football Club in England, the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche. Stan built his own fortune first by developing shopping centers, many of them anchored by Walmart stores, and later through land and ranch holdings across the American West. His sports and property interests are distinct from Ann's inherited Walmart wealth, although the couple's finances are often discussed together.
Early life and career
Ann Walton was born in 1948 and grew up in northwest Arkansas and Missouri as the Walton brothers' business expanded from Ben Franklin franchise stores into their own discount chain. Her childhood coincided with the years in which Sam and Bud were driving between small towns, opening stores and testing the discount format that would later reshape American retailing.
She married Stan Kroenke, a Missouri businessman who grew up in the small town of Mora, and the couple has long kept a base in Columbia, Missouri. They raised two children, Whitney and Josh. Josh Kroenke later became a senior executive of the family sports company and governor of the Nuggets and Avalanche. Ann has never held an executive post at Walmart and has kept a deliberately quiet public profile.
Because of the National Football League's rules on owning teams in other leagues in the same markets, the family reorganized its sports holdings when Stan took control of the Rams, and Josh assumed a larger role in the basketball and hockey teams. Ann's own interests stayed centered on her inherited shares.
Philanthropy and public life
Ann Walton Kroenke rarely gives interviews and does not run a high profile foundation in her own name, so much of her charitable activity is private. Her father was a prominent donor to the University of Arkansas, and the Bud Walton Arena, the university's basketball venue, is named after him in recognition of his gift toward its construction.
The Kroenke family has supported organizations in Missouri and Colorado, and the family's sports businesses run community programs through the Rams, the Nuggets and the Avalanche. Ann's public appearances are mostly linked to her husband's teams, including games and events in Los Angeles, Denver and London.
The fact that two of the richest heirs of the Walton family are Bud's daughters is sometimes overlooked, since attention usually focuses on Sam Walton's children and grandchildren. Ann's position illustrates how the early decision of the Walton brothers to share ownership in the family stores created several separate fortunes within one extended family, each of which grew with the retailer over more than half a century.