The Home Depot

The Home Depot was founded by Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank in 1978. Along with a merchandising guru Pat Farrah and an investment banker Ken Langone, the founders' vision was a one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourself kind of person. The first two stores were around 60'000 square feet each and they opened their doors on June 22, 1979 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Associates from the start were able to offer the best customer service in the home improvement industry. To be a Home Depot associate meant that you were and expert on product knowledge and installation, this was made sure of by the intense training that the company made mandatory for all staff. Home Depot brought the know-how and tools to revolutionize the home improvement industry. being the most rapid growing retailer in U.S. history. The company went public on NASDAQ in 1981 and in 1984, moved to the New York Stock Exchange. The company expanded greatly in the 1980s and 1990s. In the year 1989 Home Depot had a celebration for opening its 100th store. Home Depot expanded into Canada in 1994, Mexico in 2001, and made a extended leap out to China in 2006.

The Home Depot has product alliances directly with industry leading manufactures to deliver the most exclusive assortments to customers. Through proprietary products and a combination of national brands such as BEHR paint, RIDGID tools, Ryobi tools, LG appliances, and Cub Cadet and Toro lawn equipment , the company sets the standard for innovation merchandise for professional contractors and the do-it-yourself type of people.

Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer is Francis S. Blake. He has held this position since January of 2007. Blake is 61 years old and has been in the top management staff since 2002 while he served as the Company's Executive Vice President. Currently Blake's Senior Leadership team consists of Tim Crow who is executive vice president of human resources, Matt Carey who is executive vice president and CIO, Craig Menear who is executive vice president-merchandising, Marvin Ellison who is executive of the U.S. Stores, Carol B. Tome who is CFO and executive vice president of corporate services, and Jack VanWoerkom who is executive vice president of corporate services. Francis S. Blake salary consists of 1,025,000.00 dollars a year but after stock options and all other compensations Blake topped out at 9,927,573.00 dollars in 2009. Before Francis Blake joined Home Depots team, Blake served as Vice President of Business Development of GE Power Systems from 1998 to July of 2000 and served as Deputy Secretary for U.S. Department of Energy (DE) from May 2001 to April 2002. Francis Blake has an amazing team working with him to run Home Depot. Blake's CFO Carol Tome was recognized in 2009 with the Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans award by BDN Network and the 2009 CFO of the Year award by the CFO Roundtable. She was ranked No. 16 in Forbes magazine's 2008 list of the World's