Marcus is a co-founder of Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer. The Atlanta-based company has more than 2,300 stores in North America and had revenue of $151.2 billion in the year to Jan. 30, 2022. Marcus co-founded the business with Arthur Blank in 1978 at age 50 and retired as chairman in 2002.
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Marcus's fortune derives from Home Depot, the company he co-founded in 1978. Home Depot has more than 2,300 stores in North America and is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer, according to its website.
The billionaire held almost 60 million shares in the publicly traded company when he retired as chairman in May 2002, according to a proxy filing dated April of that year. Marcus wasn't required to disclose his holdings after his retirement because they were below beneficial reporting requirements and he's calculated here to have sold all of his shares in equal installments between 2002 and 2018.
The valuation was updated on Nov. 14, 2018 to remove Marcus's Home Depot shareholding because it couldn't be confirmed. Before this date, it was assumed that he still held about 70% of the shares he had in 2002. This change led to a decrease in the net wealth calculation of more than $4 billion.
The value of his cash investments is based on an analysis of calculated share sales as well as known charitable donations, dividends, taxes and market performance. Marcus has received more than $400 million in dividends since 1987, according to Bloomberg's analysis.
A person familiar with the fortune said in December 2021 that Bloomberg's calculations were broadly accurate.
Marcus was born in 1929 in Newark, New Jersey. The son of Jewish immigrants from Russia, he grew up poor in a tenement while his father worked as a cabinet maker, according to a 2012 Philanthropy magazine profile.
Marcus graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in pharmacy studies in 1954. After school, he briefly worked in pharmaceuticals before taking over the cosmetics department at New Jersey discount chain Two Guys. He added management of the sporting goods department, as well as household appliances, before leaving the company in 1968.
After a brief stint as president of manufacturing group Odell Corp., Marcus was named chairman of Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers, a California retailer. Marcus and fellow executive Arthur Blank were fired after corporate raider Sanford Sigloff took over the chain in 1978, according to an Oct. 10, 2008 profile in Entrepreneur Magazine.
The pair decided to borrow $2 million to establish two discount home improvement stores in Atlanta. They lost half their money in the business's first year, according to a 1993 Bloomberg profile. Despite early struggles, Home Depot found its niche in the market. The company expanded to Miami and went public in 1981. It had become the world's largest home improvement retailer by 1990, according to its website.
Marcus served as Home Depot's CEO until 1997, and remained chairman until 2002, when he retired. He has pledged to give the majority of his wealth to charity, and donated $250 million to found the Georgia Aquarium, which opened in 2005.