Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Residence Depot, has died on the age of 95.
Marcus, who grew up in New Jersey, was the youngest son of poor Russian immigrants and have become a self-made billionaire with a web price of over $11 billion, per Forbes, after founding the house enchancment chain with Arthur Clean in 1978, with the help of investor Ken Langone.
Marcus, a longtime donor to the Republican Nationwide Committee, based on federal election information, was an early supporter of former President Donald Trump.
In one among his final interviews in November 2023, Marcus spoke with FOX Enterprise senior correspondent Charlie Gasparino in a wide-ranging interview through which he blasted President Biden’s financial insurance policies for exacerbating the rise in costs that customers are dealing with.
Ticker | Safety | Final | Change | Change % |
---|---|---|---|---|
HD | THE HOME DEPOT INC. | 395.57 | +2.98 | +0.76% |
“I by no means anticipated something like what we’re going via,” Marcus mentioned of Biden on the time. “I get up each morning and I say, ‘What is that this dunce going to do in the present day?’”
“He reduce drilling, he triggered the inflation, the inflation triggered each different drawback for each businessman, for each American,” Marcus mentioned. “And the folks that he’s imagined to symbolize – the poor individuals, the center class – they’re getting killed in the present day.”
FULL INTERVIEW: HOME DEPOT CO-FOUNDER BERNIE MARCUS
Marcus additionally based the Job Creators Community, a small enterprise advocacy group, greater than a decade in the past.
“Bernie Marcus was one of many nice American enterprise success tales,” mentioned Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of the Job Creators Community. “However Bernie was a lot greater than a businessman. He was a visionary, a philanthropist, and a devoted household man. Whereas The Residence Depot grew to change into one of many nation’s largest companies, Bernie by no means forgot the significance of small companies to the financial system and the nation as an entire. He generously tasked JCN with preserving the small enterprise financial system towards relentless large authorities assaults.”
Marcus and his spouse Billi, who based the Marcus Basis, have given greater than $2 billion to numerous causes.
“Bernie Marcus’s legendary enterprise success is matched solely by his beneficiant philanthropy,” mentioned Elaine Parker, president of Job Creators Community Basis. “He didn’t simply give again however paid it ahead, serving to protect the free-market financial system that permits the subsequent technology of Residence Depots.”
“Bernie acknowledged that small companies and entrepreneurship are the lifeblood of the American financial system,” she added. “And the easiest way to guard them is by defending capitalism, the one financial system that enables strange individuals to change into entrepreneurs and financially impartial.”
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The couple can be a part of “The Giving Pledge” together with Warren Buffett, Invoice Gates, Elon Musk and different rich people. The group helps philanthropists who decide to giving a majority of their wealth to charity.
Residence Depot went public in 1981 for $12 per share and is buying and selling round $395 a share as of Tuesday. It has over 2,000 shops and employs greater than 500,000.