Home Depot Founder Bernard Marcus Net Worth: From Fired CEO to Entrepreneur

Homeowners looking for tools and equipment for repairs and do-it-yourself projects often turn to Home Depot (HD) for supplies and advice from associates working on the floor.

Bernard Marcus founded Home Depot, the largest home improvement retailer in the US, with partner Arthur Blank in 1978, and one of his principles in the retail business was to focus on customer service. Since then, his net worth has skyrocketed along with the value of Home Depot stock.

Marcus worked his way up in retail, got fired, and had to start over as an entrepreneur at nearly 50 years old to start Home Depot. Here’s how much it’s worth now.

Related: Home Depot Founder Arthur Blank Net Worth: Investments in Atlanta Falcons and Farms

Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus started Home Depot later in life, but has worked in retail for decades.

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What is the net worth of Bernard Marcus?

Marcus has a net worth of $11 billion at the end of September 2024, according to Forbes.

This makes him one of the richest Americans whose wealth originates in the retail industry. By comparison, each brother of the Walton family, whose father, Sam Walton, founded Walmart (WMT) has a net worth of around $100 billion.

How did Bernard Marcus make his money?

Marcus amassed most of his wealth through his stock in Home Depot.

The size of his current Home Depot stake in 2024 is unclear, but when he retired in 2002, Marcus reportedly owned 60 million shares. They would currently be valued at about $24 billion based on Home Depot’s stock price at the end of September 2024, indicating that it may have sold some of its shares since the retreat.

Who is Bernard Marcus?

Bernard “Bernie” Marcus was born in 1929 and raised in Newark, New Jersey. His parents emigrated from Russia, and he was the youngest of four children.

In an interview with PragerU, a conservative nonprofit foundation, Marcus said he grew up in a Newark tenement in a mixed-race neighborhood. It was tough growing up in the area, he said, and he joined a black gang after being assaulted by a member.

His father was a carpenter but not a very good businessman, so the family struggled financially and his older brothers had to work to help out. He set his sights on becoming a doctor as the profession would provide him with a better financial living.

Marcus studied pre-med at Rutgers University and was accepted to Harvard Medical School. However, the school asked for a $10,000 donation for admission, but he said he didn’t have the money. However, he focused on a career in the medical field and trained to be a pharmacist.

Being a pharmacist wasn’t to his liking, but the retail side of the business was, and he later took retail jobs. His work at discount retailer Two Guys, he said, helped lay the groundwork for how he believed a retail business should operate, particularly 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.

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When did Bernard Marcus found Home Depot?

After Two Guys, Marcus worked other retail jobs. He was president of O’Dell’s, a manufacturing conglomerate, and was vice president of hard goods sales for Vornado, a discount retail chain.

In 1972, Marcus served as president of Los Angeles-based Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, which operated approximately 70 home improvement retail stores in the western US. In 1978, Marcus said he was perceived as a threat by Sanford Sigoloff, who was CEO of the company that owned Handy Dan, and he and Arthur Blank, who was Handy Dan’s CFO, were fired.

Approaching 50 and with a wife and three children to support, finding a job became a pressing issue for Marcus. He contacted a friend, Kenneth Langone, who had his own venture capital firm. Langone told Marcus that he was sorry for being fired, but Langone said that Marcus had been hit with a “golden horseshoe” so to speak, and that he could now follow through on his plan to start the improvement shop for homes he imagined.

With $2 million in seed capital from Langone, Marcus, Blank and two others founded Home Depot.

More about Home Depot:

• Home Depot: Company History, Timeline, and Facts
• How Much Does Home Depot Pay? Hourly pay rates for cashiers and entry level employees
• Home Depot Halloween: When the store releases its animatronics, inflatables and more

How has Home Depot stock fared since the IPO?

Shares of Home Depot have outperformed major benchmarks since the company began trading on the Nasdaq stock market in 1981, just three years after it was founded. Trading then moved to the New York Stock Exchange in 1984.

Following the initial public offering (IPO), the stock has risen more than 19,800 times since its first day of trading in September 1981, according to Google Finance data, and that means a $10,000 investment since then would be valued at $198 million in the last period. September 2024.

Marcus said many of Home Depot’s employees over the years have become multi-millionaires, factoring in stock awards they’ve been given and gains in the stock price.

Home Depot’s spectacular rise in stock price over the years has churned out multimillionaires among its workforce.

Google Finance

How does Bernard Marcus spend his money?

Marcus was Home Depot’s first CEO until 1997 and remained chairman before stepping down in 2002 to retire. After retirement, Marcus focused on philanthropy. He has funded hospitals, autism programs, the founding of the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, and Jewish causes, including funding for young Jews to travel to Israel and learn more about their culture.

He also provided funding to help military veterans with traumatic brain injuries, from concussions to post-traumatic stress disorder. In 2009, he and his wife, Billi Marcus, established the Marcus Foundation, which focuses on sustainability issues.

Like Home Depot co-founder Blank, Marcus is a signatory to the Giving Pledge, which means he aims to donate the majority of his wealth to charitable causes.

Marcus’s politics are 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 US, Canada and Mexico, with more than 85% of them located in the US.

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