When Bernard Marcus was laid off from a subsidiary of Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers at age 49, he didnšt look for another job. Instead, he moved to Atlanta and co-founded Home Depot, Inc. On the first store's opening day, Business Week reported, Marcus was so intent on creating a warehouse feel that he raced around on a forklift, throwing on the brakes to create skid marks on the floors.
Over 1,000 stores later, the company is now the world's largest home improvement retailer, with locations in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Chile. Marcus is worth an estimated $3 billion in Home Depot holdings alone.
Selling power tools has enabled Marcus to become a powerbroker -- at home and abroad. He voted with his wealth during the last election, contributing $353,500 to the GOP and its candidates. Most of the money was delivered in a single donation on October 20, when Marcus handed $250,000 to the party in the final weeks of the campaign.
Marcus is also attempting to alter politics in the Middle East through a think tank he chairs called Israel Democracy Institute. The group is supporting efforts by Likud and Labor politicians to alter the current electoral system, which allows voters to give control of the Knesset to a party that opposes the prime minister. Ironically, the current system was instated in 1996 with the support of another American group of Jewish businessmen, Huka LeIsrael.
Marcus is also working to link the Israeli economy to his home state. The country has the second-highest density of startups after Silicon Valley, and the hardware mogul has helped persuade state officials to offer the Israeli firms incentives to relocate in Georgia. "All the things they want, we've got them," says Marcus, who notes that the state stands ready to offer tech firms a variety of tax breaks.
A trustee-for-life of the Atlanta Jewish Federation, Marcus says he has integrated Judaic principles into what he likes to call the "Home Depot family." For him, helping people understand Judaism is a matter of marketing. "I think a lot of it has to do with selling," he says. "You've got to sell the beauties of Judaism."
Some of Home Depot's business practices haven't been all that attractive. In 1997, the company was accused of discriminating against women by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "Home Depot's glass ceiling began with a glass basement," the EEOC's general counsel told Home Improvement Market. The company dismissed the charges as a "flagrant waste of taxpayer money," but eventually paid $65 million and agreed to ensure women equal access to sales and management positions.
-- Karem Saïd
