Bernie Marcus was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1929. He began his professional career as a pharmacist, eventually owning his own drug store. Then, he transitioned from his ownership position to corporate employee by becoming CEO of Handy Dan, one of the first major home improvement retailers, which would later go out of business in 1989. During his time as CEO of Handy Dan, Marcus hired Arthur Blank who would become his CFO. Serving as co-founder and CEO of Home Depot in its early, developmental years, Marcus helped lead The Home Depot through its first major rounds of expansion. Marcus’s leadership style created a uniquely decentralized, entrepreneurial, and employee/customer-centric environment. He refused to pay employees on commission basis because he wanted employees to focus on teaching customers and solving problems. Also, he was a proponent of a non-elitist management style. He established an employee stock-purchase program which gave all workers the opportunity to be shareholders in the company. Marcus maintained the mission “to serve customers first and foremost”, while also fostering a family atmosphere in which loyal employees worked hard because they were given financial and career opportunities. In May 1997, Bernie Marcus stepped down as CEO, and his partner and co-founder Arthur Blank took over.
Arthur Blank
Arthur Blank was raised in Queens, New York. He studied accounting at Babson College and worked for the Arthur Young firm. Later, Blank was hired by Bernie Marcus, and ultimately became CFO of Handy Dan until they were dismissed in 1978. During the early stages of The Home Depot’s growth, Marcus and Blank fostered its distinctive “bleeding orange culture”. After Marcus stepped down in 1997, Blank took over as CEO and immediately began implementing new growth initiatives. Blank proposed a new, smaller neighborhood-store concept to compete with True Value and Ace Hardware. Also, he accelerated international expansion into Chile and Argentina. He established new branches to handle Direct Mail and telephone orders, while also creating Proinitiative, a professional builder’s market segment.
Ken Langone
Kenneth Langone was born in Roslyn Heights, New York to a working class family. He became a student at Bucknell University majoring in economics. He graduated from Bucknell in three and a half years, and then moved back to New York where he worked full-time during the day and attended New York University Stern School of Business at night. Consequently, this part-time evening program now bears his name, and is known as the "Langone Program" at NYU. The launching pad of his business career was the IPO deal he set up for Ross Perot's company Electronic Data Systems. Langone began to take an interest in the home improvement business and bought stock in Handy Dan. This led to a relationship between Langone and both Handy Dan CEO Bernie Marcus and CFO Arthur Blank. Shortly after Langone sold his stock in Handy Dan both Marcus and Blank were dismissed from the company. Then, Langone organized $2 million financing for Marcus and Blank to found Home Depot.
Bob Nardelli
Robert Louis "Bob" Nardelli was born in 1948 in Old Forge, Pennsylvania. He first joined General Electric in 1971 as an entry-level manufacturing engineer. By 1995, he had ascended to become president and CEO of GE Power Systems, also retaining the title of GE senior vice president. In 2000, The Home Depot’s original financier, Ken Langone, offered Nardelli The Home Depot CEO position after Nardelli was overlooked to succeed legendary General Electric CEO Jack Welch. Nardelli was a great operator and a numbers guy who had spent nearly his entire career with GE and had little retail experience. He had been CEO of transportation and CEO of power systems at GE, and he was definitely a disciple of the General Electric operating style and system. During Nardelli’s first six months at Home Depot, 29 of the top 34 Home Depot executives left the company to be primarily replaced by GE executives. Nardelli implemented numerous changes all without hindering store and revenue growth. Nardelli’s strategy was to improve core stores, diversify through services and new channels, and move into international markets. He focused on bottom-line efficiency and developing a wholesale-builder-supply business and a home-services business. He cut labor costs by doubling the number of part time workers, and put General Electric command practices in place to take control away from store and division managers. Also, he reversed Home Depot’s cash-return policy and altered company policies on sales to the government. Overall, some of Nardelli’s changes did little to ease turmoil within the company, while many competitors thrived. Home Depot stores were not as modern as some competitors and customer satisfaction was way down. In January 2007, Nardelli resigned.
Frank Blake
Frank Blake was born in 1949 in Boston. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard in 1971. He then received his JD from the Columbia Law School in 1976. He was admitted to the District of Columbia bar in 1978. From 1991 to 1995 he was on the general counsel for General Electric, where he led all business development endeavors. Blake then served as Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy, a role similar to that of chief operating officer in the private sector. Blake joined The Home Depot in 2002 as executive vice president for Business Development and Corporate Operations. He was a longtime protégé of Bob Nardelli. In 2007, Frank Blake was named CEO by the executive board. Blake immediately went to work renewing ties with founders Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank and selling Home Depot Supply, the company’s wholesale distribution division, for $10 billion. Blake also closed down the company’s executive dining room urging his senior officers to “eat with the troops”. In comparison to Nardelli’s numbers-driven approach which gave little appreciation to the role of the store and its associates, Blake's strategy emphasized reinvigorating the stores and its service culture. Blake has been credited for returning The Home Depot dogma of knowledgeable employees with high customer satisfaction and reigniting the “Orange Apron Cult”.
Pat Farrah
Pat Farrah was born the son of an oil surveyor in Southern California. After just three months, he dropped out of junior college and took a job at National Lumber and Supply Company in 1962 in Los Angeles. By virtue of his excellent performance in the areas of product knowledge and customer service, he was promoted to manager of the company’s second store. His continued success led him to be appointed vice president and general manager of National Lumber and Supply. Later, in 1977, Farrah left National Lumber after a disagreement with the owners. During his time at National Lumber and Supply, Pat fostered an innovative new home-improvement retailing idea. Pat proceeded to secure the necessary capital to found a revolutionary new retailing outlet called Homeco in 1978. During this time Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank, recognized Homeco’s similarity to the home-improvement concept which would later become The Home Depot. Due to financing issues, Homeco went out of business and Marcus and Blank hired Farrah to help get Home Depot started. Farrah is acknowledged for his influential contribution to the Home Depot's merchandising efforts from its early stages in 1979.