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William S. Simon

American businessman

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionOct 25, 2025
Entity authorityQ8018017 ↗
Source-derived summary

William S. "Bill" Simon (born 1960) is a professor and former business executive who served as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Walmart U.S. and Executive Vice-president of Walmart Inc. from June 29, 2010, to August 8, 2014.

Simon received his B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Connecticut. Before joining Walmart in 2006, he was at Brinker International and at the Florida State Department of Management Services. He spent 25 years in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Navy Reserve. He taught as an adjunct professor at Baylor University and was a member of the Baylor Board of Regents. He also serves on the board of directors for Darden Restaurants.

As it grappled with sluggish store sales, Walmart said on July 24, 2014, that Simon was stepping down and was being replaced by the head of the company's Asia operations, Gregory Foran.

In November 2015, over Fayetteville, Arkansas, Simon floated to safety after deploying the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System on his Cirrus SR22 aircraft, which was experiencing engine trouble.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “William S. Simon” as american businessman. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Simon and American.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 2010, 2014, 2006—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with William, Simon and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William S. Simon”, the useful work is to connect “american businessman” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 25, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8018017. VIAF identifies the subject as 308218116. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 2010, 2014 and 2006.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William S. Simon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.