Home Depot Co-founder Named Entrepreneur of the Year

Release Date: Mar 19, 2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the UMKC Bloch School have announced the recipient of the International Entrepreneur of the Year award. Arthur M. Blank, co-founder of Home Depot, will be honored as this year’s International Entrepreneur of the Year at the 24^th Annual Entrepreneur of the Year Awards Dinner.     


Arthur Blank

Blank is widely known in the business community for his success in building the world’s largest home improvement retailer and the second-largest retailer in the United States. He co-founded The Home Depot in 1978 and retired from the company as co-chairman in 2001. In addition to the company’s financial success, during Blank’s 23 years with The Home Depot the company donated more than $113 million to communities, and Home Depot associates provided hundreds of thousands of hours of personal volunteer time. 

Since retiring from Home Depot, Mr. Blank is employing many of the same business principles and values that made him successful in his ownership of the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) and the Georgia Force (AFL) football teams. In addition, he has continued his dedication to giving back, through active involvement with the Atlanta Falcons Youth Foundation and The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, which focuses on enhancing education, preserving green space, sustaining the arts and sparking collaboration among community partners. The foundation, along with Blank and his wife's personal giving, has granted more than $250 million since 1995 to various charitable organizations.“This award is significant to me,” says Blank, “not as much for the personal honor, but more for the ideal it honors – entrepreneurship. I look forward to this special event.”

“By honoring entrepreneurs and innovators like Arthur Blank, along with our regional and student entrepreneurs, we marry the legacy and future of entrepreneurship in Kansas City and around the world,” says Lee Bolman, interim dean at the Bloch School. “The Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Bloch plays an integral role in developing tomorrow’s entrepreneurs – people who will build new business, create jobs, and provide the growth and sustainability needed for a successful future.”

The Awards Dinner will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8 at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center Exhibit Hall. Honorary dinner chairs for this year’s event are Clark Hunt, chairman of the board, Kansas City Chiefs, and his wife Tavia Hunt, along with Dan Hesse, Sprint CEO, and his wife Diane Canaday Hesse. Proceeds from the dinner benefit the Bloch School’s Institute for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, one of Kansas City’s primary resources for educating and creating the next generation of entrepreneurs.

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