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A Fireside Chat with Ken Langone
October 22, 2018 @ 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
On Monday, October 22 at 5 pm, Ken Langone, business icon, philanthropist, and co-founder of The Home Depot, will join Professor Edward Lopez, Director of the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise, for a Fireside Chat. Langone will discuss his experience in entrepreneurship, as well as stories and ideas from his new memoir, I Love Capitalism: An American Story.
“There’s one important point I want to make right at the beginning of this book,” Langone writes in his 2018 memoir, “The thing I can’t say and never will say is that I’m self-made.”
Growing up poor in WWII-era Roslyn Heights, New York, Ken Langone has gone onto major success as an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and television commentator. His career in finance began as a salesman, matching business ideas with financiers. In 1974 he started his own investment firm, Invemed, and in 1979 Ken arranged financing for he and two business partners to co-found The Home Depot. By 1989 Home Depot was the nation’s largest home improvement store and today employs over 380,000 associates across 2,000 U.S. locations.
With his wife Elaine, both devout Roman Catholics, Ken has made major philanthropic donations to universities, medical schools, hospitals, and children groups including Ronald McDonald House, Robin Hood Foundation, Promise Academy, and more.
Sponsored by the Division of Academic Affairs and the Center for the Study of Free Enterprise, WCU’s Distinguished Speaker Series brings perspectives from leading figures in education, arts and music, politics, business and economics.
The event is free and open to the public.
Please register for this event at langone.wcu.edu.