Kenneth Langone

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Kenneth Langone, (born c. 1935) Venture Capitalist, and investment banker and financial backer of The Home Depot, is a former director of the New York Stock Exchange. He was elected as director of Yum! Brands effective October 7, 1997, and is a member of the Audit Committee. Langone holds an M.B.A. from and is also a trustee of New York University.

Kenneth Langone was born in Roslyn Heights, New York to working-class parents; his father was a plumber and his mother a cafeteria worker. As a boy, Langone witnessed his parents' labor firsthand and the imprint stuck with him his entire life. As a student at Bucknell University, Langone worked various blue collar jobs as a butcher's assistant, a caddy and a ditch digger. After graduating in three and a half years, Langone headed back to New York, this time to Manhattan instead of Roslyn Heights. While working full-time during the day, Langone attended New York University Stern School of Business at night. That part-time evening program now bears his name, and is known as the "Langone Program" at NYU.

Following his NYU graduation, Langone began his business career. His launching pad was the IPO deal he set up for Ross Perot's company Electronic Data Systems.

Building up his experience over the next decade, Langone began to study the home improvement business and eventually bought stock in Handy Dan, a home improvement chain. This led to a relationship between Langone and both Handy Dan CEO Bernard Marcus and CFO Arthur Blank. Although a minority shareholder, Langone effectively protected Marcus from issues that arose between Marcus and Sanford Sigiloff, the CEO of The Daylin Corporation, Handy Dan's parent company. Marcus, however, felt that if Langone sold his interest in Handy Dan, it may actually improve his relationship with Sigiloff. Shortly after Langone sold his Handy Dan stock both Marcus and Blank were fired. Langone organized financing for Marcus and Blank to found Home Depot. Now a national chain with over 300,000 employees, it is Langone's most notable business venture.

Langone has made noise with his attempted purchase of the New York Stock Exchange. Although the deal fell through, it raised Langone's stature on Wall Street and in the business community in general. He became embroiled as a principal figure in the 2004 prosecution by Eliot Spitzer of Richard Grasso for a controversial pay package received by Grasso as chairman & chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange from 1995 to 2003. The Exchange was operated as a non-profit enterprise. Langone was, as a director of the Exchange, involved in development of the pay package, which was subject to New York state laws governing non-profit enterprises. Spitzer was attorney general for the State of New York and later became the State's governor, resigning in 2008 amidst a prostitution scandal.^[1]

Langone served on the board of General Electric in 2001, Langone tapped Robert Nardelli to become CEO of Home Depot after Jeffrey R. Immelt was chosen over both Nardelli and James McNerney to succeed Jack Welch as CEO of GE.

Langone also served on the board of Database Technologies, a position he filled at invitation of the company's founder Hank Asher.^[2] Asher claims Langone was responsible for his ouster.

Langone is a co-founder and board member of ChoicePoint Inc.

Langone is involved in philanthropy, donating millions of dollars to a wide variety of charities, most recently 200 million dollars to what is now known as the New York University Elaine A. and Kenneth G. Langone Medical Center. He and his wife Elaine have three children.

He was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Pope Benedict XVI{fact}.

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[edit] External Links

• Firm Mines Wealth Of Personal Data, Washington Post, loaded 14 March 2006
• ChoicePoint-FBI Deal Raises New Privacy Questions, consumeraffairs.com, 16 May 2006, loaded 2 April 2007
• N.Y.U. Medical Center gets Another $100 Million Gift New York Times, April 16, 2008