Warren Stephens ’79 Selected for U.K. Ambassadorship Stephens, CEO of financial services firm Stephens Inc., is an emeritus member of the Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees.
Washington and Lee University alumnus Warren Stephens ’79 has been tapped by President-Elect Donald Trump to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom.
Stephens is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Stephens Inc., a privately owned, Arkansas-based financial services firm. The company, which serves corporations, state and local governments and institutional and individual investors, has locations throughout the U.S. and Europe. When Stephens became CEO in 1986, the company had 125 employees. Today, Stephens Inc. employs more than 1,200 people in three countries.
Stephens serves on the board of directors of Dillard’s Inc. and has also served as chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealer District Conduct Committee. He is an emeritus member of the Washington and Lee University Board of Trustees, having served in 1997 and from 2007-2015.
He also served as co-chair of W&L’s Honor Our Past, Build Our Future capital campaign from 2009-2015. The Warren A. Stephens Colonnade Walk at W&L is named in honor of Stephens and is a gift from his wife, Harriet, and their children, Laura Stephens Brookshire ’12, John Stephens and Miles Stephens, in recognition and appreciation for Stephens’ love and devotion to Washington and Lee. The Stephens family made significant gifts to renovate and restore the Colonnade and established an endowment to ensure its preservation.
Other philanthropic work includes stewardship of the Harriet and Warren Stephens Family Foundation. Stephens has served as chair of the board of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and is the current chair of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Foundation Board and chair of the Episcopal Collegiate School Foundation Board. He also served on the board of directors for the Boys & Girls Club of Central Arkansas.
Stephens received his bachelor’s degree in economics from Washington and Lee in 1979 and his MBA from Wake Forest University in 1981.
