Arthur M. Blank (born September 27, 1942) is an American

businessman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

and a co-founder of the home improvement retailer

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

. He also currently owns two professional sports teams based in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

- the Atlanta Falcons of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

(NFL) and

Atlanta United Atlanta United FC, commonly known as Atlanta United, is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. Founded in 2014, Atlanta United began pl ...

of Major League Soccer (MLS), the latter of which having won the 2018 MLS Cup, thus giving him an

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conferen ...

Championship to his credit.

Life

Arthur Blank was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Flushing, New York Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the i ...

. 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 New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

After graduating from Babson Institute in 1963, Blank was hired by Arthur Young and Company, where he was a senior accountant. He later joined the

Daylin Daylin, Inc. was a major retail conglomerate based in Los Angeles and later Beverly Hills, California. Its best-known unit was Handy Dan Improvement Centers, which prefigured The Home Depot; the company also briefly owned London Drugs as well as Gr ...

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 Handy Dan Home Improvement was an American home improvement store based out of New Jersey. It went out of business in May, 198 Bernard Marcus was CEO of Handy Dan in 1978 when he was fired along with company vice president Arthur Blank amid a c ...

Home Improvement Centers.

Bernard Marcus Bernard "Bernie" Marcus (born May 12, 1929) is an American billionaire businessman. He co-founded The Home Depot and was the company's first CEO, and chairman until retiring in 2002. Early life and education Bernard Marcus was born to Russian Jew ...

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 The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement r ...

with Marcus. New York

investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...

Ken Langone Kenneth Gerard Langone Sr. KSG (born September 16, 1935) is an American billionaire businessman, investor, and philanthropist, best known for organizing financing for the founders of The Home Depot. He has been a major donor to the Republican Pa ...

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. Today, Blank is the Chairman of AMB Group LLC, parent company of the Atlanta Falcons and

. He is also chairman of The Arthur Blank Family Foundation, 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 Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

. 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 2025.

Sports ownership

In February 2002, Blank purchased the Atlanta Falcons franchise in the

from owner Taylor Smith, the son of team founder Rankin M. Smith Sr. In September 2004, he bought the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

franchise, the

Georgia Force The Georgia Force was an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States (part of suburban Atlanta) that played in the South Division of the American Conference. The team was owned by Doug MacGregor and Donn Je ...

; he moved the team to the city of

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

after it had spent several years in suburban

Gwinnett County Gwinnett County ( ) is located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. It forms part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. In 2020, the population was 957,062, making it the second-most populous county in Georgia (after Fulton ...

. 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 The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The Braves were founded in Bos ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. Some months later, Blank re-entered serious talks with

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

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 Atlanta United FC, commonly known as Atlanta United, is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. Founded in 2014, Atlanta United began pl ...

that began play in 2017. The club shares Mercedes-Benz Stadium with the Falcons.

Personal life

Blank has been married three times and divorced twice, with a third divorce pending. He has three children with his first wife,

Diana Blank Diana Latow Blank (born September 13,
Sep 18, 2015 ...

(born 1942): Kenny Blank, Dena Blank Kimball, and Danielle Blank Thomsen; they divorced in 1993. In 1995, he married Stephanie V. Blank (born 1968), a

Blowing Rock, North Carolina Blowing Rock is a town in Watauga and Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 1,397 at the 2021 census. The Caldwell County portion of Blowing Rock is part of the Hickory– Lenoir– Morganton Metropo ...

, native and Appalachian State University graduate.Point's North magazine: "Stephanie Blank"
May 2010 They met when she worked as a designer at a Home Depot store in Atlanta. They had three children - Joshua Blank, Max Blank, and Kylie Blank - before being divorced. In June 2016, Blank married Angela Macuga (born 1968),Saporta Report: "Arthur Blank says purchasing soccer team for Atlanta is ‘close to his heart’"
April 17, 2014 who had three children from a previous marriage. They announced their pending divorce on January 1, 2019. Blank owns Mountain Sky Guest Ranch and West Creek Ranch outside

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...

in Paradise Valley,

. He also owns several PGA TOUR Superstores. He is a signatory of

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a campaign to encourage extremely wealthy people to contribute a majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has 236 signatories from 28 countries. Most of the signatories of the pledge are billionaires, a ...

committing himself to give away at least 50% of his wealth to charitable causes. On February 9, 2016, Blank disclosed that he had treatable prostate cancer. On March 17, 2016, Blank announced that he is cancer-free following treatment.The Atlanta Journal Constitution: "Blank announces he is ‘cancer free’" by D. Orlando Ledbetter
March 17, 2016

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blank, Arthur 1942 births Living people American billionaires American businesspeople in retailing Arena Football League executives Atlanta Falcons owners Atlanta United FC Cox Enterprises Giving Pledgers 21st-century philanthropists Babson College alumni Stuyvesant High School alumni The Home Depot people Businesspeople from Atlanta Sportspeople from Queens, New York Jewish American sportspeople Blank Blank Chairmen and investors of soccer clubs in the United States 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews