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Ken Langone
Status
Born in 1935 (age –). Living in Sands Point, New York.
Criminal status: No criminal convictions; the New York Attorney General's civil suit over NYSE compensation was dismissed by the New York State Court of Appeals in 2008.
Summary
Ken Langone co-founded The Home Depot in 1978 alongside Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank after his venture capital firm, Invemed Associates, organized the startup's initial financing. His early stake in Home Depot — which grew into the world's largest home improvement retailer — became the foundation of his fortune, and Invemed has continued operating as a private investment firm focused on healthcare and technology companies.
Langone and his wife Elaine have given at large scale for decades, with the most consequential gifts concentrated in medical education. He chaired the NYU Langone Health Board of Trustees from 1999 until stepping down on September 1, 2025, when Fiona Druckenmiller succeeded him as chair and he became Chair Emeritus. By 2026 the couple's cumulative giving to NYU had reached roughly $750 million, making free tuition a permanent feature of two New York medical schools.
Business Relationships
Langone co-founded The Home Depot in 1978 with Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank after Marcus was fired from hardware chain Handy Dan. Langone organized the financing through Invemed and took a founding stake; Marcus and Blank provided operational leadership. Earlier in his Wall Street career he took Ross Perot Sr.'s Electronic Data Systems public in 1968.
He served as a director of the New York Stock Exchange and chaired its compensation committee, a role that drew scrutiny in the Richard Grasso compensation controversy. He also sat on the board of ChoicePoint Inc., a data management company; a Florida businessman later sued him over that board role in a 2004 civil action.
Ownership
Langone controls Invemed Associates LLC as its founder, chairman, president, and CEO. The firm is a New York Stock Exchange-member brokerage and investment banking company specializing in healthcare and technology, and also serves as his family office.
He remains a trustee of NYU Langone Health as Chair Emeritus after chairing its Board of Trustees for 26 years; Alec Kimmelman succeeded Robert Grossman as CEO and dean in the same September 2025 leadership transition, which Langone's board voted unanimously to confirm.
His wealth derives primarily from his founding stake in The Home Depot, held since the company's 1978 launch. He has never sold a Home Depot share in the company's 48-year history, though he has donated some shares to charity.
Family & Heirs
Ken Langone is married to Elaine Merrill Langone, with whom he has three children. The couple give jointly through their philanthropy; all major donations to NYU and Bucknell are made in both their names.
Langone grew up in Roslyn Heights, New York, the son of a plumber and a cafeteria worker, and the working-class immigrant-family origins remain a recurring reference point in his philanthropic motivations. He and Elaine are original Giving Pledge signatories, committing the majority of their wealth to charity.
Evidence
1999-01-01 - 😇 - Langone donates $10 million to NYU's part-time MBA program to preserve it for working professionals
1999-07-29 - 😇 - Langone and wife donate $11 million to Bucknell University for a new athletics and recreation center
2004-05-24 - 😈 - NY Attorney General Spitzer sues Langone for breach of fiduciary duty over NYSE chief Richard Grasso's $139.5 million compensation package
2004-12-03 - 😈 - Florida businessman sues Langone for $1.8 billion alleging he made false statements to artificially depress Seisint's acquisition price
2008-04-16 - 😇 - Langone and wife give $200 million to NYU Medical Center, the largest gift in its history, prompting a renaming to NYU Langone Medical Center
2010-07-14 - 😇 - Ken and Elaine Langone sign the Giving Pledge, committing the majority of their wealth to philanthropy
2014-03-19 - 😈 - Langone compares Democrats fighting income inequality to Hitler in 1933 Germany; issues a partial apology
2018-08-22 - 😇 - Langone and wife donate $100 million to NYU School of Medicine, making tuition free for every student
2021-02-17 - 😇 - Langone joins the board of RADical Hope, a foundation dedicated to youth mental health and suicide prevention
2023-01-26 - 😇 - Langone and wife make a $25 million testamentary gift to NYU Stern's Langone Part-Time MBA Program for scholarships
2023-07-21 - 😇 - Langone and wife give $200 million to NYU Long Island School of Medicine for perpetual full-tuition scholarships for all students
2025-12-04 - 😇 - Langone pledges $2 million a year for five years to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund for Catholic education in New York at its 48th Annual Awards Dinner
2025-12-18 - 😇 - Singleton Foundation honors Langone with its Lifetime Achievement award and gifts $250,000 to NYU Stern's Langone Part-Time MBA Program on his behalf
Analysis
The dominant pattern in Langone's record is major, sustained philanthropy in medical education and cancer research. His three successive gifts to NYU's medical institutions — $200 million in 2008, $100 million in 2018 for free tuition, and $200 million in 2023 for perpetual scholarships at the Long Island campus — represent a deliberate effort to remove debt as a barrier to medical careers. The practical effect has been measurable: when free tuition was announced in 2018, applications increased 50% and the share of applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds doubled.
Alongside that philanthropy sits a corporate governance failure. As chairman of the NYSE compensation committee, Langone approved a $139.5 million lump-sum payment to NYSE chief Richard Grasso — a package condemned as excessive and inappropriate for the head of a nonprofit regulator. The resulting Spitzer lawsuit was dismissed on procedural grounds in 2008 after the NYSE converted to a for-profit entity, not on the merits.
He is also a long-standing Republican megadonor and public political voice. His 2014 remarks comparing income inequality advocates to Hitler were broadly condemned across the political spectrum, and in 2025 he donated to the super PAC backing Andrew Cuomo's New York City mayoral bid while publicly endorsing Donald Trump's second-term economic record.
Questions
Does the dramatic scale of Langone's medical philanthropy — including free tuition at two NYU schools and perpetual endowments — outweigh his role in the corporate governance failure that enabled the Grasso compensation controversy?
His giving is heavily concentrated in institutions that now carry his name. How should naming-rights philanthropy — which also generates institutional prestige for the donor — be weighed against anonymous or arms-length giving?
Redemption Arc
Constructive and sustained. His philanthropic giving has scaled through his 80s and into his 90s: the 2023 NYU Long Island commitment funds free medical education in perpetuity, and at age 90 he pledged $2 million a year for five years to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund and redirected a Singleton Foundation Lifetime Achievement award into a $250,000 gift to his namesake NYU Stern MBA program. His involvement with Damon Runyon Cancer Research, RADical Hope, and the Ken's Krew employment program for neurodiverse workers spans multiple domains beyond headline gifts. The trajectory of his giving — adding new commitments in new areas decade after decade, continuing even after stepping back from NYU Langone's board chairmanship in 2025 — suggests continued engagement rather than a single landmark act.