Langone is perhaps best known as a co-founder of Home Depot, which he established in 1978 with Arthur Blank and Bernard Marcus. Langone provided venture capital for the company through Invemed. He served on the board and was a member of the Executive Committee of Home Depot until May, 2008. Home Depot employs over 300,000 people and has reshaped the home improvement industry saving the American consumer billions of dollars annually.
He also serves on the boards of YUM Brands, Unifi, Inc. and Micell Technologies. YUM Brands, the world’s largest restaurant chain, owns and franchises Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
In addition to his business affiliations, Mr. Langone currently serves on the Board of Trustees of New York University and on the Board of Overseers of its Stern School of Business. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the NYU Langone Medical Center, which was renamed in his honor as a result of Ken and his wife Elaine’s generous support.
From 1980 to 1996 he was a member of the Board of Trustees of Bucknell University where he served as Chairman of its Nominating Committee and as a member of its Executive Committee.
Ken serves on the Board of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund, the Ronald McDonald House, the Robin Hood Foundation, CSIS and the Harlem Children’s Zone. He is Chairman of the Harlem Children’s Zone Promise Academy, a charter school in New York City.
A noted philanthropist, Langone has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to charities. And, in recognition of his support for Catholic causes, Langone was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI. He and his wife Elaine have three grown sons.
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KENNETH G. LANGONE
Kenneth Langone was born in Roslyn Heights, New York to working class parents in a close-knit Italian family. His father was a plumber, and his mother worked in a cafeteria. Although Langone’s high school principal stated that sending the boy to college would be a waste of money, the Langones mortgaged their house so that their son could attend Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. Langone received a BA in Economics. Upon graduation, he served in the U.S. Army for two years.
Following his military service, Langone worked in the investment department of Equitable Life Assurance Society and in 1960, after attending night classes, received an MBA from New York University. In 1961, Mr. Langone became an associate at broker/dealer R.W. Pressprich & Co. and in 1968, as an Executive Vice President, handled the highly successful initial public offering of Ross Perot's Electronic Data Systems (EDS).
In 1974, Langone founded Invemed Associates, Inc. a small Park Avenue investment bank established to finance start-ups in the medical field. Among Invemed’s major transactions was the takeover of medical electronics company Ivac, which Langone later sold to Eli Lilly.