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Company Founder Biographies: Founder bios of some of the most successful people in business today. |  |
Bernie Marcus Bio, Founder of Home Depot
In 1978, both Marcus and Arthur Blank, a Handy Dan regional manager with fifteen years of employment, were fired after a disagreement with upper management. Throwing their lots together, they met with a New York banker and opened their own home improvement store, based in Atlanta, Georgia. Along with Ron Brill and Pat Farrah, they opened the first Home Depot in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1978, and incorporated some of the ideas that had made Price Club and Costco so prosperous, especially in the economic decline of that decade. Though no membership fee was required, as with those warehouse stores, Home Depot similarly benefited from the sheer size of its stores: while Price Club used size in order to stock items in volume and sell them at a discount, Home Depot used it to stock a wide variety of options in order to accommodate the growing possibilities of home repair and home improvement. Marcus served as Chief Executive Officer for the first nineteen years, and then chairman of the board before retiring in 2002. He and Blank have been deeply committed to the city of Atlanta in that time -- while Blank has been involved in sports team ownership, Marcus funded the Georgia Aquarium that opened in downtown Atlanta in 2005. |
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