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Ryder Kimball, Ben Tobin, and Sarah Jackson
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- Lukas Walton is the grandson of Sam Walton, the American businessman who created the Walmart empire.
- After his father died in a plane crash in 2015, Lukasreportedly inherited a third of his fortune.
- The Bloomberg Billionaires Index lists Lukas as the world's 59th-richest person as of May 2024.
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The Waltons are America's richest family but some of the Walmart heirs live pretty private lives.
Enter Lukas Walton, the 37-year-old grandson of Walmart and Sam's Club founder Sam Walton.
While his online presence is pretty limited, he's the richest person in the state of Illinois, runs an impact investing group called Builders Vision, and is chair of the Walton Family Foundation's environment program committee.
Here's what we know about him.
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Lukas Walton is the grandson of Sam Walton, founder of Walmart and Sam's Club.
Lukas' father, John T. Walton, was Sam's second-oldest son. In 2005, John died while piloting an ultra-light, homemade aircraft that crashed shortly after takeoff.
Source: The New York Times, Business Insider, Bloomberg
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When he was 3 years old, Lukas was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer that spread to his lungs.
Source: Intelligencer
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Within 5 months he had recovered, which his mother, Christy, attributed to a plant-based diet with produce sourced from her own garden.
Source: Intelligencer
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Lukas also inherited his father's 20% interest in Walton Enterprises, the family holding company that, together with a different family trust, owns around a 45% stake in Walmart.
Source: Business Insider, Bloomberg
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Lukas attended Colorado College, where he created his own major focusing on environmentally sustainable business and later studied energy efficiency and hydrological and geothermal energy in Iceland.
Source: Forbes, Intelligencer, Walton Family Foundation
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He has traveled extensively and has lived in places like Thailand and Mexico.
Source: Walton Family Foundation
Rob Walton, the eldest son of Sam Walton, believes that his family's "environmental focus really grew out of a family connection to the land."
Source: Walton Family Foundation
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Sam and his wife, Helen, are said to have instilled a love for the environment in their children and grandchildren, with yearly outings to places like the Buffalo National River, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon.
Source: Walton Family Foundation
Lukas is involved with the Walton Family Foundation, the family's organization that awards grants toward education, environmental protection, and the family's home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta.
Source: Walton Family Foundation
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Lukas serves as the environment program committee chair and is also a board member of the organization. He is reported to have donated at least $150 million of his own fortune to the foundation.
Source: Walton Family Foundation,Forbes
Forbes reports that between 2014 and 2018, the Walton Family Foundation donated almost $1 billion to K-12 education programs and $441 million to environmental projects. More recently, the foundation awarded $566.5 million in grants in 2022, according to its website.
Source: Forbes, Walton Family Foundation
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On the foundation's work, Lukas recalled that "one of the first grants that we did back in the day was help to develop a sustainable fisheries label. That to me, was a shooting star, was a golden emblem of what would be a successful marketplace development."
Source: Walton Family Foundation
In 2021, Lukas founded and publicly launched Builders Vision, an impact investing group working to tackle social and environmental problems. It's focused on "sustainable food and agriculture, healthy oceans, renewable energy and thriving communities," according to its website.
Source: Fast Company; Builders Vision
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Lukas Walton is the richest person in Illinois, according to Forbes' 2024 list of the wealthiest people in every state. In July 2022, he and his wife, Samantha, sold their home in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood for $1.7 million, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Source: Forbes; Chicago Tribune
Lukas keeps a low public profile. He has no known social media profiles and other personal details are largely absent online.
Source: Business Insider
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