Christy Walton

Christy Walton

  

Wal-Mart - Net Worth $26.5 B is the only woman in the top ten list of world's richest people.

Biography

Christy Ruth Walton (born 1955) is the widow of John T. Walton, one of the sons of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart. After John's death in June 2005, she inherited his fortune of US$15.7 billion.

According to Forbes, she is the 6th richest person in the United States, and the 10th richest person in the world, as of March 2012. Forbes reported that she was the richest woman in the world for seven years running, and still held the title in March 2012. However, by May 2012 BRW estimated that Australian mining magnate Gina Rinehart had exceeded Walton's wealth.[4][5] As of August 2012, she and her family had an estimated net worth of $29.9 billion, the bulk of which comes from her shares in Wal-Mart, but also from First Solar, in which her husband invested. She resides in Jackson, Wyoming and has one son, Lukas.[citation needed] As of October of 2012, Walton was listed as the 9th richest person in the world.

Profiled by Condé Nast Portfolio magazine in The Giving Index, she is ranked as the highest female philanthropist according to the amount she gives as a percentage of her wealth. At a then estimated $16.3 billion net worth, she contributed a total of $3.5 million cumulatively between 2002 and 2006.

Non-profit organizations in which Walton is actively serving include the national association of trustees and staff, corporate giving officers, and individual donors – The Philanthropy Roundtable. The San Diego Natural History Museum where she is a board member, as well as the San Diego Zoological Society and the Mingei International Museum are also institutions to which she makes donations. In 2006, Walton also donated her own old Victorian home to the International Community Foundation – Center for Cross-Border Philanthropy, which was built in 1896 for former National City, California postmaster Oliver Noyes and is of historical significance. Since her donation, she has endowed $4 million towards the edifice's preservation.

Additionally, she supports her family's own charitable foundation, the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation, which prioritizes education and benefits colleges such as the University of Arkansas, the College of Business Administration of the University of Arkansas, and several other colleges, community trusts, universities and foundations. In 2007, her family's foundation donated as much as $1.6 billion