Home Depot promotes Ellison to executive VP job

The Home Depot has promoted Marvin Ellison to executive vice president of U.S. stores. Ellison, 43, is the first African-American in Home Depot’s executive suites in the company’s history. The company was founded in 1978.

In his new post, one of six executive vice president jobs, Ellison will be in charge of nearly 2,000 stores in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Ellison spent his first day on the job speaking with the division presidents and regional vice presidents and he appeared on “Same Page,” a television broadcast that goes to store managers.

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Courtesy of Home Depot

Marvin Ellison is the highest ranking African-American executive in Home Depot history.

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Ellison is replacing Paul Raines, who is leaving Home Depot for another company. Raines held the post since April 2007 and joined the company in 2000. Raines, also 43, was born in Costa Rica, speaks fluent Spanish and was active in Atlanta’s Hispanic business community.

Ellison is a native of Brownsville, Tenn. His parents were sharecroppers, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in a 2006 interview. They encouraged their eight children to get an education. Ellison earned an MBA from Emory and a business/marketing degree from the University of Memphis.

He started working for Target his junior year of college. Fifteen years later, in 2002, he left Target as director of assets protection to join Home Depot. He’s also been the vice president of loss prevention, the senior vice president of global logistics and, most recently, president of Home Depot’s Northern Division, overseeing more than 650 stores and 110,000 employees in the Northeast and the Midwest.

Ellison’s appointment might help quiet critics who say Home Depot does not have enough minorities in its management ranks.

At Home Depot’s annual meeting May 22, a group called Operation LEAD, or Leadership to End All Discrimination, asked Home Depot to provide the number of African-American managers, vendors and contractors the company employs. But the group’s proposal failed. A spokesman for the group could not be reached by e-mail or a phone call by press time Monday.

“We’re fortunate to have someone with Marvin’s credentials take this role,” Home Depot spokesman Ron DeFeo said.