Arthur Blank

Arthur Blank
Arthur Blank
	Blank in 2016
Born	Arthur Morris Blank; September 27, 1942 (age 81); Queens, New York City, U.S.
Education	Babson College (BSBA)
Occupations	Home Depot co-founder; Atlanta Falcons owner; Atlanta United FC owner; philanthropist;
Spouses	Diana Latow (divorced 1993); ; Stephanie Wray (m. 1995; div. 2014) ; Angela Macuga (m. 2016; div. 2019)
Children	6
Website	www.blankfamilyofbusinesses.com

Arthur Morris Blank (born September 27, 1942) is an American businessman. He is best known for being a co-founder of the home improvement retailer The Home Depot.^[2]

Blank owns two professional sports teams based in Atlanta, Georgia – the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) and Atlanta United FC of Major League Soccer (MLS), the latter of which won the 2018 MLS Cup^[3] – and is chairman of their parent company, AMB Group LLC.

Life

Arthur Blank was born to a Jewish family in Flushing, New York.^[4] He was born to Max Blank, a pharmacist, and Molly Blank. He has an older brother named Michael. Blank graduated from Stuyvesant High School in New York City.^[5]

After graduating from Babson Institute in 1963,^[6] Blank was hired by Arthur Young and Company, where he was a senior accountant. He later joined the Daylin corporation, where he rose to become president of Elliott's Drug Stores/Stripe Discount Stores, a division of Daylin. When Daylin decided to sell off that division, Blank moved to another division, Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers. Bernard Marcus was CEO of Handy Dan and Blank was vice president of finance when both were fired in 1978 as part of an internal power struggle.

In 1978, Blank co-founded Home Depot with Marcus. New York investment banker Ken Langone assembled the initial group of investors and merchandising expert Patrick Farrah helped founders realize their vision of one-stop shopping for the do-it-yourselfer. The store revolutionized the home improvement business with its warehouse concept and Blank and Marcus became billionaires as a result. Blank spent 19 years as the company's president before succeeding Marcus as CEO. Blank retired from the company in 2001 as co-chairman. He received his MBA from Harvard.

On May 22, 2024, Blank won the Sports Business Journal's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the Falcons, United FC, and the surrounding community.^[7]^[8]

Sports ownership

In February 2002, Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons franchise in the National Football League from owner Taylor Smith, the son of team founder Rankin M. Smith Sr. In September 2004, he bought the Arena Football League franchise, the Georgia Force; he moved the team to the city of Atlanta after it had spent several years in suburban Gwinnett County.

Blank has expressed serious interest in purchasing other franchises. In early 2006, he temporarily withdrew from contention as a potential buyer of the Atlanta Braves of Major League Baseball. Some months later, Blank re-entered serious talks with Time Warner and a report indicated that a sale was imminent. However, in February 2007, the Braves completed the sale of the team to Liberty Media. Blank has also founded an expansion Major League Soccer franchise named Atlanta United FC that began play in 2017.^[9] The club shares Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the Falcons. Blank also helped the United States Soccer Federation set up their new headquarters in Atlanta, and the new training center was named in his honor.

Philanthropy

Blank is chairman of The Arthur Blank Family Foundation,^[10] and serves on the Board of Trustees of Emory University.

In March 2020, Blank's foundation announced it would donate nearly $5.4 million to aid the coronavirus pandemic response in Georgia and Montana.^[11]^[12]

In October 2020, it was announced that the new Children's Healthcare of Atlanta hospital would be named after Arthur Blank after his foundation donated $200 million to the project. The Arthur M. Blank Hospital is expected to open in September 2024.^[13]^[14]

He is a signatory of The Giving Pledge committing himself to give away at least 50% of his wealth to charitable causes.

Personal life

Blank has been married and divorced three times. He has three children with his first wife, Diana Blank (born 1942): Kenny Blank, Dena Blank Kimball, and Danielle Blank Thomsen;^[15]^[16] they divorced in 1993.^[17] In 1995, he married Stephanie V. Blank (born 1968), a Blowing Rock, North Carolina native and Appalachian State University graduate.^[18] They met when she worked as a designer at a Home Depot store in Atlanta.^[18] They had three children - Joshua Blank, Max Blank, and Kylie Blank - before being divorced.^[19] In June 2016, Blank married Angela Macuga (born 1968),^[1]^[20] who had three children from a previous marriage.^[20]^[21] They announced their pending divorce on January 1, 2019.^[22]

Blank owns Mountain Sky Guest Ranch and West Creek Ranch outside Yellowstone National Park in Paradise Valley, Montana. He also owns several PGA TOUR Superstores.

On February 9, 2016, Blank disclosed that he had treatable prostate cancer.^[23] On March 17, 2016, Blank announced that he is cancer-free following treatment.^[24]