Bernard Marcus was appointed to the Board of Directors in December 2007. Mr. Marcus is an independent Director. Mr. Marcus is a member of the Compensation Committee.

A New Jersey native, Mr. Marcus graduated from Rutgers University (New Brunswick, New Jersey) in 1954 and worked several decades in retail stores and manufacturing companies such as Two Guys, Odell and Handy Dan Home Improvement Centers before co-founding Home Depot with his business partner Ken Langone in 1979.

An active philanthropist, Mr. Marcus is founder of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to Israeli democracy; founder of the Marcus Institute, which provides treatment to children suffering from brain-related illnesses and disorders; and donated $3.9 million to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the creation of an emergency anthrax response center. Mr. Marcus runs his philanthropic endeavors out of the Marcus Foundation, where he serves as chairman of the board and is personally involved in deciding which organizations receive grants.

Since retiring from active participation in Home Depot in 2002, Mr. Marcus has focused on the Georgia Aquarium as his most recent and public philanthropic undertaking, donating $200 million to the facility that opened in 2005 as one of the largest aquariums in the world.