Austin Ligon
Co-Founder & Retired CEO
CarMax

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Austin Ligon is the co-founder and retired CEO of CarMax, Inc. He retired in June 2006, and is now a private venture investor. CarMax, Inc. is the nation’s largest retailer of used cars. The company operates 100 used car superstores in 46 markets throughout the U.S. CarMax will sell nearly 600,000 retail and wholesale cars, and record total revenues of approximately $8 billion, in the current fiscal year. At nearly $80 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 (KMX) and was named one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” for the fifth consecutive year in 2009.

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 became president of CarMax in 1995. He lead the company through a decade and a half of rapid growth, including its IPO as a tracking stock of Circuit City in 1997. He added the title of CEO upon the company’s spinoff from Circuit City in 2002.

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 served as vice president of both marketing and concept general management 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 in Bangkok, Thailand, during 1983–84. He worked as a health economist in Dallas and San Antonio during 1976–78, 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 education. He is a member of the governing boards of the University of Virginia, the University of Virginia Invesment Management Company (UVIMCO), and St. John’s College (Annapolis and Santa Fe). He is advisory board chairman of the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at John’s Hopkins University, and an advisory board member of the Yale School of Management. He serves on the boards of several venture start-up companies.

Austin earned a BA in 1973 from the Plan II Honors program at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He studied at the Pontifical Catholic University in Lima, Peru, in 1972–73. 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 (SOM ’80), a native of Thailand; they have three children.