John C. Tolleson

Chairman and CEO of Tolleson Wealth Management

John Tolleson is Chairman and CEO of Tolleson Wealth Management. He founded the firm after retiring as Chairman and CEO of First USA, the financial services company that he had founded in 1985.

In building the core team of specialists for Tolleson Wealth Management, John called upon his three and a half decades of experience in banking and financial services. While attending Southern Methodist University (SMU), he began his banking career with National Bank of Commerce, eventually overseeing all of the bank’s commercial lending activities. He then joined MBank Dallas, an MCorp subsidiary, managing correspondent banking. He later served as Chairman and CEO of MBank Austin, and subsequently as managing director of the retail banking and marketing division of MCorp, which later became First USA.

In 1989, Tolleson led a leveraged buyout of First USA; and in 1992, he took the company public, listing it on the NYSE. Under his leadership, First USA grew from $400 million to $24.6 billion in credit card loans, prior to its merger with Bank One Corporation in 1997. After the merger, Tolleson joined the board of Bank One and started The Tolleson Group. In 2000, he founded Tolleson Wealth Management.

As CEO of Tolleson Wealth Management, John focuses on strategic planning, policy, and investment services. John is a member of the firm’s Board of Directors as well as its Executive Committee. He and his family continue to be significant clients of the firm.

As a community leader, he devotes time and energy to various charitable and philanthropic organizations. John serves on several boards, including the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, Baylor Health Care System Foundation and Southwestern Medical Foundation. He is a trustee of his alma mater, SMU, and serves in several other capacities as well: as Chairman of the university’s Investment Committee, as Chairman of the Executive Board of the university’s Cox School of Business, and as a Director of the school’s Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series. He was awarded the Cox School of Business Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1996.

John is married with a son and a daughter. He grew up in Ennis, Texas before moving to Dallas to attend SMU. He is an avid cyclist and enjoys spending his free time in the mountains and on the golf course.