About Art Pope
Bio
James Arthur ‘Art’ Pope is the Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Variety Wholesalers, Inc. Headquartered in Raleigh and Henderson, North Carolina. The company owns and operates over 400 discount merchandise retail stores with 10,000 employees in 18 states. Art is also Chairman and co-founder of the John William Pope Foundation, a private foundation that makes grants to support public policy, education, arts, and humanitarian efforts. He currently serves as a board member and past Chairman of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and a board member and past Chairman of the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University.
Art has a long history of public service. In 1985, at 29, he served as special counsel to North Carolina Governor Jim Martin. Later, he served four terms as a North Carolina State Representative, from 1989-1992 and 1999-2002. He served as the North Carolina State Budget Director under Governor Pat McCrory from 2013-2014. From 2020 through the present, Art has served as a member of the Board of Governors of the University of North Carolina.
Art Pope has been honored with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine and is a recipient of the William Richardson Davie Award from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Art lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.He earned his bachelor's with Honors in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Juris Doctor from Duke University. He is a member of the North Carolina State Bar.