Aaron Walton

Advertising executive Aaron M. Walton was born on July 17, 1961 in Boston, Massachusetts to Homer Walton, Jr. and Patricia Walton. He graduated from Mt. St. Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island in 1979 and earned his B.S. degree in business administration from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts in 1983.

That same year, Walton joined the Pepsi-Cola Company as a marketing analyst and held several positions, ultimately serving as the music marketing manager for Pepsi-Cola. Then, in 1991, he went on to found Aaron Walton Entertainment (AWE), an entertainment marketing company whose clients included, Pepsi-Cola, Pizza Hut, KFC, Frito Lay, Taco Bell and AT&T. In 2001, Walton sold Aaron Walton Entertainment after ten years as its founder. In 2005, Walton co-founded Walton Isaacson, an advertising agency, with Cory Isaacson and former NBA player Earvin “Magic” Johnson, which rose to No. 1 on Black Enterprise’s “BE 100” list for advertising agencies. Its clients included Lexus, American Airlines, The Home Depot, Unilever, Constellation Brands, Duckhorn Portfolio, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Amazon. Walton has served as its CEO for over twenty years

Walton joined the board of ThinkLA in 2016 and served as co-president from 2020 to 2022. He also served as a board member for GLAAD; the Tectonics Theater Project; Young Audiences New York; the San Francisco Symphony Advisory Council; the Alonzo King LINES Ballet; the Human Rights Campaign; the National Advertising Review Board; the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) as a Western regional representative; the Ad Council; the IRTS Foundation; and the American Advertising Federation.

Walton has received numerous awards and honors including the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award from his alma mater, Babson College, in 2020, the A-List Executive of the Year Award from Ad Age magazine in 2023, and an induction into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2023. The American Association of Advertising Agencies listed Walton on their “100 People Who Make Advertising Great” list in 2017 and Ebony magazine included Walton on their “Power 100” list in 2013 and 2020.

Walton resides in Los Angeles, California.

Aaron M. Walton was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on July 15, 2024.