W. Austin Ligon
Co-founder & CEO (Retired)
CarMax

← Back

Austin Ligon is the co-founder and retired chief executive officer of CarMax, Inc. He retired in June 2006. CarMax, Inc., is the nation’s largest retailer of used cars. The company operates 86 used car superstores in 39 markets throughout the U.S. CarMax will sell more than 400,000 retail cars and recorded total revenues of more than $8 billion the current fiscal year. At nearly $100 million in sales per store, CarMax used car superstores are among the highest volume retail stores in the U.S. CarMax, Inc., is a Fortune 500 company traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:KMX) and was again named one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” in 2007, as well as Fortune’s “Most Admired” company in automotive services and retailing.

Austin and Rick Sharp, then Circuit City CEO, developed the CarMax idea together in 1991 and launched the first CarMax store in Richmond, Virginia, in 1993. Austin initially served as senior vice president, automotive, for Circuit City and became president of CarMax in 1995. He led the company through its IPO as a tracking stock of Circuit City in 1997 and became chief executive officer upon the spin-off of CarMax from Circuit City in 2002. He also served as senior vice president of corporate planning for Circuit City from 1991 to 1995.

Austin came to Circuit City from Marriott Corporation where he had been senior vice president of strategic planning for Marriott Hotels and Resorts. He joined Marriott in 1984 as director of corporate planning and business development and also served as vice president of marketing and as vice president and general manager in the family restaurant division.

Austin was previously a senior consultant for the Boston Consulting Group in London, England, from 1980 to 1983 and an independent financial consultant to several international companies in Bangkok, Thailand, from 1983 to 1984. Before attending Yale School of Management, he worked as a health economist in Dallas and San Antonio from 1976 to 1978, and was a teaching fellow in economics at the University of Texas, Austin, from 1973 to 1976.

The primary focus of Austin’s community involvement is related to secondary and university education. He has been a board member of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University for the last seven years, as well as serving the Maggie L. Walker Governor’s School Renovation Foundation. He is also now a member of the Yale School of Management advisory board, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, St. John’s College (Annapolis and Santa Fe) Board of Governors, and the board of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Business Foundation.

Austin earned a BA in 1973 with special honors (economics and government) in the Plan II Honors program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also studied as an exchange student at the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, Peru in 1972-1973. He subsequently earned his MA in economics in 1978 from the University of Texas, and an MBA in 1980 from the Yale School of Management. He is married to Samornmitr Lamsam, a native of Thailand; they have three children.