Meet Lukas Walton, the fiercely private heir to the Walmart empire who has donated millions from his fortune to find solutions to environmental problems (2024)

Updated

2023-07-10T20:57:26Z

Advertisem*nt

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.

Lukas grew up in National City in San Diego County, a town with a median household income of over $51,000 as of 2021.

When he was only 3 years old, Lukas was diagnosed with a rare kidney cancer that spread to his lungs.

Advertisem*nt

Within 5 months he had recovered, which his mother, Christy, attributed to a plant-based diet with produce sourced from her own garden.

Following John's premature death, Christy and Lukas moved to Jackson, Wyoming.

Advertisem*nt

John left about one-sixth of his fortune to his wife, Christy, one-third to his only son, Lukas, and the remaining half to charitable trusts.

Lukas also inherited his father's 20% interest in Walton Enterprises, the family holding company that, together with a different family trust, owns more than a 50% stake in Walmart.

Forbes listed Lukas as the 29th-richest American in 2022 but gave him a self-made score of one (out of 10), indicating that he inherited his fortune but is not actively increasing it.

Source: Forbes

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.

Advertisem*nt

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."

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.

Advertisem*nt

In recent years Lukas has applied his studies and passion for sustainable business to investments and projects undertaken by the Walton Family Foundation, an organization aimed at finding solutions to social and environmental problems.

Lukas serves as the environment program committee chair and is also a board member for the organization. He is reported to have donated at least $150 million of his own fortune to the foundation.

Advertisem*nt

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.

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."

Advertisem*nt

In 2021, Lukas founded and publicly launched Builder's Vision, a Chicago-based philanthropic group working to tackle social and environmental problems.

Lukas Walton is the richest person in Illinois, according to the Chicago Tribune. In July 2022, he and his wife, Samantha, sold their home in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood for $1.7 million, the paper reported.

Advertisem*nt

Lukas keeps a low public profile. He has no known social media sites and other personal details are largely absent online.