H. Lee Scott, Jr.

Lee Scott, the second of three sons, was born in 1949 in Joplin, Missouri, at the hospital closest to his family's hometown of Baxter Springs, Kansas. "At the end of the war, my dad was working as a welder in California," says Scott. "But my mother was an only child, and she wanted to go back to Kansas to be near her parents. They moved into a little house that was just two doors down from where my father grew up."

Scott's mother worked as an elementary school music teacher, and his father owned a Phillips 66 gas station on the iconic cross-country American highway, Route 66. "Baxter Springs was a great place to grow up," says Scott. "Extended family on both sides lived there. It was the kind of place where no one moved in and no one moved out. I went to school with the same 70 kids my whole life, which made it easy to join in activities. I sang in the choir, I played in the band; and I was on the football, basketball, and track teams. You didn't have to be good; you just had to show up."

Scott began working in his father's gas station when he was 12. In those days, the attendant washed windows and checked under the car's hood with each car that came in for gas. Scott did those duties and also cleaned the bathrooms and washed cars. "My father put a premium on hard work and living up to your commitments," he says. "He taught me that when you sign up for work, you work. He also felt integrity was important."

Scott describes his mother as compassionate. "She was the choir director at our church for 50 years," he says, "and I think the choir members were the same people for all those years. My mother taught us the importance of education, and she is the one who brought religion into the family, which was a big part of our life. We went to church every Sunday and choir practice every Wednesday night."

Another important person in Scott's life was his maternal grandmother. "My grandfather died when my grandmother was 60," he says. "From then on, I spent every Friday night at her house so she wouldn't be alone. She was a great fisherwoman and loved everybody. She never met a stranger. If you asked me who in my family I am most like, it would be her."

Scott enjoyed school but says he was not a serious student. "I wasn't especially good at any one thing. I wasn't a great student, but I wasn't bad. I wasn't an athlete, but I loved playing sports. I loved being in the choir at school and in church, but it was always one of my mother's greatest disappointments that she, the music teacher, had three boys and none of them could carry a tune. I was class president at one point, and I had plenty of friends. My upbringing was stable and happy, which I guess allowed me to simply develop in a normal way."

When he thought about his future, Scott took inspiration from his love of the outdoors and hoped he could be a forest ranger. He attended Pittsburg State University and took mostly science classes to prepare for a job in forestry. During his sophomore year, he met and soon married his wife, Linda. He then decided to change his major to business. "I had always struggled in my science courses," he says, "but after I switched to business, I was on the dean's list every semester."

Still, the financial pressures of paying tuition bills and supporting a young family began to mount. The couple's first home was a 10-by-50-foot trailer that had no heat. To make ends meet, Scott worked night shifts at a local factory where he made tire molds for pay under $2 an hour. After coming home from work each morning, he had to use a Q-tip to remove the metal flakes that spun into his eyes while grinding the molds. As Scott approached his final semester in school and now with a child at home, it became unclear whether he would have to delay completing college. However, at this critical moment in his life and the beginning of his career, he received a scholarship that enabled him not only to earn his degree, but to do so on time. "The person who funded that scholarship changed our lives," says Scott. "I've never forgotten how the generosity of one person could make such a huge difference."

Scott graduated in 1971 and went to work for Yellow Freight in Joliet, Illinois. Six years later, he made a fateful visit to Walmart's home office in Bentonville, Arkansas. His task was to collect payment for a $7,000 bill owed to Yellow Freight. Scott called on David Glass, a future president and CEO of Walmart, who said the company would not pay the bill. However, Glass was so impressed with how the young executive conducted himself that he offered him a job on the spot.

Although Scott turned down that job offer, within two years he joined Walmart as an assistant director of the company's private truck fleet in 1979. This marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey that would take Scott to the top of what would become the world's largest corporation.

In his early years at Walmart, Scott rose rapidly through the ranks to lead the logistics division and then merchandise. In 1998, he was promoted to president and CEO of Walmart U.S., the company's largest business segment. One year later, he was promoted to chief operating officer and vice chairman of the entire company. In 2000, he became president and CEO of Walmart, succeeding the man who hired him from Yellow Freight Systems more than two decades before, David Glass.

During Scott's nine years as president and CEO of Walmart, he oversaw a 243 percent increase in global sales, from $165 billion to $401 billion, and a 277 percent increase in earnings per share, from $1.21 to $3.35. He also expanded Walmart's operations from 10 to 16 countries, including to India, Japan, and Chile. During his final year as CEO, Walmart was the best performing stock in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Scott is perhaps best known, however, for his work to change how Walmart views its role in the world and, in turn, how the world views Walmart. When the company's response to Hurricane Katrina became a lifeline to Gulf Coast residents in August 2005, he saw an opportunity for Walmart to make a bigger difference in society. Later that year, he delivered a groundbreaking speech in which he publicly committed Walmart to its three original sustainability goals.

Over the next several years, Walmart stepped out on some of the biggest challenges facing the United States and the world, including efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lower prescription drug costs, and build a more responsible global supply chain. During Scott's tenure, Walmart's financial performance and social and environmental leadership combined to deliver one of the most extraordinary transformations in recent corporate history. Upon his retirement from Walmart's board in 2014, the company named its newly renovated logistics building the Lee Scott Logistics Complex.

Scott believed in the three basic principles of Walmart: keep your integrity, treat people with respect and dignity, and try to improve yourself every day. "I think those principles work as well on a corporate level as they do on a personal one. But in addition to that, I credit much of my success to the people who were around me. I recruited people who were better than me, and I made sure I gave them credit where and when it was due. I believe when you give credit away, it all comes back to you."

When asked for his definition of success, Scott says, "Like many in business, I once defined success as making money, but I now define it as making a difference. The relationships I developed with those who I worked with and the enduring respect we have for each other, at every level of the corporate ladder, I think that is success."

Scott often addresses young people. His advice for them is to pursue intellectual integrity. "It goes without saying that you shouldn't steal or falsify an expense report. But what I mean by intellectual integrity is that you shouldn't go into your boss's office hoping you won't be asked about a problem; you should be the person who goes to the boss to reveal a problem. If you build a career around that, surround yourself with capable people, and give them credit for their achievements, then I think there is no limit to how far you can go."