Homeowners looking for tools and equipment for do-it-yourself repairs and projects often turn to the Home Depot (HD) for supplies and advice from associates working the floor.
Bernard Marcus founded Home Depot, the biggest home improvement retailer in the U.S., with partner Arthur Blank in 1978, and one of his tenets in the retail business was to focus on customer service. Since then, his net worth has skyrocketed along with the value of Home Depot’s stock.
Marcus worked his way up in the retail business, got fired, and had to start over again as an entrepreneur at almost 50 years old to set up Home Depot. Here’s what he’s worth now.
Related: Home Depot founder Arthur Blank’s net worth: Investments in Atlanta Falcons & ranches
Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus started Home Depot later in his life, but he had worked for decades in retail.
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What is Bernard Marcus’s net worth?
Marcus has a net worth of $11 billion as of late September 2024, according to Forbes.
This makes him one of the richest Americans whose wealth originated in the retail industry. By comparison, each sibling of the Walton family, whose father, Sam Walton, founded Walmart (WMT) has a net worth of about $100 billion.
How did Bernard Marcus make his money?
Marcus accumulated the bulk of his wealth through the shares he has held in Home Depot.
The size of his current stake in Home Depot as of 2024 isn’t clear, but when he retired in 2002, Marcus reportedly held 60 million shares. Those would currently be valued at about $24 billion based on Home Depot’s stock price in late September 2024, indicating that he may have sold some of his shares since retiring
Who is Bernard Marcus?
Bernard “Bernie” Marcus was born in 1929 and was raised in Newark, New Jersey. His parents emigrated from Russia, and he was the youngest of four children.
In an interview with PragerU, a nonprofit conservative foundation, Marcus said that he grew up in tenement housing in Newark in a mixed-race neighborhood. It was tough growing up in the area, he said, and he joined a Black gang after being bullied by a member.
His father was a carpenter but was not a very good businessman, so the family struggled financially, and his older siblings had to work to help out. He set his sights on becoming a doctor because the profession would provide a better financial livelihood.
Marcus studied pre-med at Rutgers University, and he was accepted into Harvard University’s medical school. The school, though, requested a donation of $10,000 for admittance, but he said he didn’t have the money. Still, he focused on a career in the medical field, and he trained to be a pharmacist.
Being a pharmacist wasn’t to his liking, but the retail side of the business was, and he subsequently took on jobs in retail. His work at discount retailer Two Guys, he said, helped to lay the foundation for how he believed a retail business should operate, particularly in focusing on customer service.
Home Depot opened its first store in Atlanta in 1979, and the home improvement retailer now has more than 2,300 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Jeff Greenberg/Getty Images
When did Bernard Marcus found Home Depot?
After Two Guys, Marcus worked other jobs in retail. He was president of O’Dell’s, a manufacturing conglomerate, and was vice president of hard goods merchandising for Vornado, a discount retail chain.
In 1972, Marcus served as president of Los Angeles-based Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, which operated about 70 home improvement retail stores in the western U.S. In 1978, Marcus said he was perceived as a threat by Sanford Sigoloff, who was the CEO of the company that owned Handy Dan, and he and Arthur Blank, who was Handy Dan’s chief financial officer, were fired.
Approaching 50 and with a wife and three children to support, finding work became an urgent matter for Marcus. He reached out to a friend, Kenneth Langone, who had his own venture capital firm. Langone told Marcus that he was sorry about his being fired, but Langone said Marcus was struck with a “golden horseshoe,” so to speak, and that he could now pursue his plan of establishing the home improvement store that he envisioned.
With $2 million in start-up capital from Langone, Marcus, Blank, and two others went on to found Home Depot.
More on Home Depot:
Home Depot: Company history, timeline & factsHow much does Home Depot pay? Hourly pay rates for cashiers and starting employeesHome Depot Halloween: When the store releases its animatronics, inflatables, and more
How has Home Depot’s stock performed since its IPO?
Home Depot’s stock has outperformed major benchmarks since the company first started trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market in 1981, just three years after it was established. Trading then moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1984.
Following its initial public offering (IPO), the stock has risen more than 19,800 times since the first day of trading in September 1981, according to Google Finance data, and that means a $10,000 investment back then would be valued at $198 million as of late September 2024.
Marcus said that many of Home Depot’s workers over the years became multimillionaires, factoring in the stock awards given to them and the share price’s gains.
Home Depot’s spectacular rise in share price over the years has minted multimillionaires among its workforce.
How does Bernard Marcus spend his money?
Marcus was Home Depot’s first CEO until 1997, and he stayed on as chairman before stepping down in 2002 to retire. After retiring, Marcus focused on philanthropy. He has funded hospitals, autism programs, the establishment of the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and Jewish causes, including funding Jewish youth to travel to Israel and learn more about their culture.
He has also provided funding to help military veterans with traumatic brain injuries, from concussion-type injuries to post-traumatic stress disorders. In 2009, he and his wife, Billi Marcus, started the Marcus Foundation, which focuses on sustainability issues.
Like fellow Home Depot co-founder Blank, Marcus is a signatory of the Giving Pledge, meaning he aims to donate the bulk of his wealth to charitable causes.
Marcus’s politics lean conservative, and as a Republican mega-donor, he has donated to the election campaigns of Republicans such as President Donald Trump.
When did Bernard Marcus open the first Home Depot?
Home Depot opened its first store in Atlanta on June 22, 1979. It now operates more than 2,300 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, with over 85% of them located in the U.S.
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