Born to a Jewish family in 1942, Arthur Blank grew up in Flushing, New York. Blank received a B.S. in Business Administration and accounting from Babson College in 1963. Blank worked as a senior accountant for Arthur Young and Company and later joined the Daylin Corporation. At Daylin he worked his way up to president of Elliot’s Drug Stores/Stripe Discount Stores which was a division of Daylin. When Daylin sold off the Elliot’s Drug division Blank went to work in the Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers where he met Bernard Marcus. The two were fired in 1978 as part of an internal power struggle when Marcus was the CEO and Blank was vice president of finance.
Immediately after leaving Handy Dan Blank, along with Marcus and investment banker Ken Langone created and co-founded The Home Depot home improvement store, which revolutionized the home improvement business. Blank was the Home Depot president for 19 years and then succeeded Marcus as CEO. In 2001 Blank retired from Home Depot as the co-chairman.
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