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

businessman A businessperson, also referred to as a 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 ...

. He is best known for being a co-founder of the home improvement retailer

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

. Blank owns three professional sports teams based in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South division. The Falcons were founded o ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL), Atlanta Drive GC of TGL, which won the

SoFi SoFi Technologies, Inc. (abbreviated as SoFi) is an American personal finance and financial technology company. Founded in 2011 at Stanford University, it operates as a direct bank and provides its technology platform to other financial institu ...

Cup in 2025, and

Atlanta United FC Atlanta United FC is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won one MLS Cup, one U.S. Open Cup, and one Eastern ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS), which won the

2018 MLS Cup MLS Cup 2018 was the 23rd edition of the MLS Cup, the championship match of Major League Soccer (MLS), which took place on December 8, 2018. It was the final match of the 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs and was contested by Atlanta United FC and the P ...

, and is chairman of their parent company, AMB Group LLC.

Life

Arthur Blank was born in

Flushing, Queens Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City Borough (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 ...

, New York. He was born to Jewish parents, Max Blank, a pharmacist, and Molly Blank. He has an older brother named Michael. Blank graduated from

Stuyvesant High School Stuyvesant High School ( ) is a co-ed, State school, public, college-preparatory, Specialized high schools in New York City, specialized high school in Manhattan, New York City. The school, commonly called "Stuy" ( ) by its students, faculty, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

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 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 The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

with Marcus. New York

investment banker Investment banking is an advisory-based financial service for institutional investors, corporations, governments, and similar clients. Traditionally associated with corporate finance, such a bank might assist in raising financial capital by unde ...

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 first two stores opened on June 22, 1979 in Atlanta. The stores revolutionized the home improvement business with its warehouse concept and Blank and Marcus became

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. It is a sub-category of the concept of the ultr ...

s 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. On May 22, 2024, Blank won the

Sports Business Journal This is a list of subsidiaries of the American media company Advance Publications Inc. Local media groups The following subsidiaries are owned through Advance Local Advance Media New York *'' The Post-Standard'' (Syracuse, New York) **Syracuse. ...

's Lifetime Achievement Award for his work with the Falcons, United FC, and the surrounding community.

Sports ownership

In February 2002, Blank purchased the

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 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

franchise, the Georgia Force; he moved the team to the city of

after it had spent several years in suburban Gwinnett County. In 2023, Blank purchased Atlanta Drive GC of TGL. 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 (baseball), National League (NL) National League Eas ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

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

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

and a report indicated that a sale was imminent. However, in February 2007, the Braves completed the sale of the team to

Liberty Media Liberty Media Corporation (commonly referred to as Liberty Media or just Liberty) is an American mass media company founded by John C. Malone in 1991. The company has three divisions, reflecting its ownership stakes in the Formula One Group, S ...

. Blank has also founded an expansion

franchise named

that began play in 2017. The club shares

Mercedes-Benz Stadium Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a retractable roof multi-purpose stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in 2017 as a replacement for the Georgia Dome, it is the home of the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League (NFL) and Atlanta ...

with the Falcons. Blank also helped the

United States Soccer Federation The United States Soccer Federation (USSF), commonly referred to as U.S. Soccer, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the official governing body of soccer in the United States. It is a full member of FIFA and governs American soccer ...

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, and serves on the Board of Trustees of

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

. In March 2020, Blank's foundation announced it would donate nearly $5.4 million to aid the coronavirus pandemic response in

and

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. 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 opened on September 29, 2024. He is a signatory of

The Giving Pledge The Giving Pledge is a charitable campaign, founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, to encourage wealthy people to contribute a majority (i.e. more than 50%) of their wealth to philanthropic causes. , the pledge has had 236 signatories from 28 ...

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; 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 County, North Carolina, Watauga and Caldwell County, North Carolina, Caldwell counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 1,376 at the 2020 census. The Caldwell County portion of Blowing Roc ...

native and

Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (), or App State, is a Public university, public research university in Boone, North Carolina, United States. It was founded as a normal school, teachers' college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and th ...

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 a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

in Paradise Valley,

. He also owns a 90-meter (295 ft) $180 million superyacht named with Blank’s initials, "dreAMBoat", as well as several PGA TOUR Superstores. On February 9, 2016, Blank disclosed that he had treatable

prostate cancer Prostate cancer is the neoplasm, uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system below the bladder. Abnormal growth of the prostate tissue is usually detected through Screening (medicine), screening tests, ...

. 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 retail company founders

Blank Blank or Blanks may refer to: *Blank (archaeology), a thick, shaped stone biface for refining into a stone tool *Blank (cartridge), a type of gun cartridge *Blank (Scrabble), a playing piece in the board game Scrabble *Blank (solution), a solutio ...

Arena Football League executives Atlanta Falcons owners Atlanta United FC non-playing staff Babson College alumni Businesspeople from Atlanta Cox Enterprises Jewish American sports executives and administrators 21st-century American philanthropists Stuyvesant High School alumni The Home Depot people Businesspeople from Queens, New York

20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 21st-century American Jews Jews from New York (state) People from Flushing, Queens