Bill Rhodes
When the head audit partner at Ernst & Whinney (now Ernst & Young) was tired of the audit team losing inter-department golf competitions, he saw All-American golfer Rhodes swing a club and hired him as an intern. That kickstarted a career which saw Rhodes become the youngest president of a Fortune 500 company, AutoZone, at just 39. He oversees the nation’s leading auto parts retailer and leading distributor of auto parts and accessories, a $10.5 billion company with almost 6,000 stores in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Brazil. Rhodes is a minority owner of the Memphis Grizzlies and is immediate past chairman of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. In 2013, Inside Memphis Business named Rhodes CEO of the Year.
