Kenneth Langone
Kenneth Langone was born a short distance outside of Manhattan to a blue collar family. His mother worked in a cafeteria and his father was employed as a plumber. Kenneth Langone's parents good example led him to develop a great work ethic himself. While he attended Bucknell University as an undergraduate student, Kenneth worked many tough jobs including ditch digger, butcher's assistant and caddy and still managed to graduate in only three and a half years. Mr. Langone then headed to attend New York University's School of business at night time (which later came to be named after him: the "Langone Program").
Post-graduation, Kenneth Langone launched his stellar career in business by setting up the IPO of Ross Perot's company Electronic Data Systems. Through the next decade, Kenneth Langone began to study the home improvement business and bought stock in Handy Dan's, a small chain. Langone worked with the CEO Bernard Marcus and CFO Arthur Blank of Handy Dan's to help stabilize their relationship with their parent company and majority stockholder. However, Marcus believed that he would have a stronger relationship with the parent company if Ken Langone was not involved, so Langone sold his shares. Shortly thereafter, both the CFO and CEO were fired.
Kenneth Langone then partnered with Marcus and Blank to found a new home improvement chain and organized the financing for it. What company is this? Home Depot, now is the largest home improvement chain in the world with stores in all 50 states and over 300,000 employees. Ken Langone's business acumen and financial brilliance helped lead this company to immense success. Home Depot is still on the cutting edge, recently being ranked the #5 Most Environmentally and Socially Responsible Company by the Natural Marketing Institute.
Langone has remained highly involved in the business world, including his attempted purchase of the New York Stock exchange. The deal ended up falling through, but it helped to solidify him as one of the major players in business of the last few decades. Ken Langone also has served on the boards of General Electric, Database Technologies, ChoicePoint and many other major companies. Kenneth Langone has even been made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI.