Board and Staff
Art Pope, Chairman
Art serves as Chairman of the Board and CEO and President of Variety Wholesalers Inc., which owns and operates a general merchandise retail chain of over 350 stores in 15 eastern states, with over 7,000 employees. (For more information on Art, visit www.artpope.com.)
Art also serves as Chairman and President of the John William Pope Foundation, a private grant-making foundation supported by the company and Pope family. The Pope Foundation makes grants of approximately $10 million a year to support public policy, education, cultural, and humanitarian efforts.
Art has served on numerous nonprofit and government boards and commissions. Currently, Art serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
Art was elected to and served four terms in the North Carolina House of Representatives (1989-1992, 1999-2002) and served as Special Counsel to Governor Jim Martin of North Carolina in 1985. Art is an activist in the Republican Party, having served at every level from precinct chairman to Chairman of the N.C. Republican Party State Convention and delegate to the Republican National Convention (1992, 1996, 2008, and 2012).
Art lives in Raleigh, North Carolina and is a Tar Heel State native. Art is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B.A. with Honors, 1978, and received his J.D. from Duke University, 1981. Art is married to Kathy Pope and they have a blended family of three children.