Generational Lessons with Ken Langone

Is the American Dream alive and well? If you asked Ken Langone, he’d certainly say yes.

Ken’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Italy, and he grew up in a family that he describes as having “a lot of love, but not a lot of money.” Ken spent time in the US Army and dug ditches for the Long Island Expressway before going to Bucknell University to study economics. After graduation, he began a successful career on Wall Street and earned his MBA at NYU. He then became an early investor and co-founder of The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer with approximately 500,000 associates and 2,300 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

After Ken’s business success, he donated $10 million to NYU’s MBA program in 1999. Then in 2008, in support of advancing medical technology and education, Ken gave $200 million to the university's medical center, which was renamed NYU Langone Health, in his honor. In August 2018 Ken pledged $100 million to its School of Medicine, a donation that effectively made tuition free. Today, Ken sits as the Chair of the Board of Trustees at NYU Langone Medical Center.

In this episode, Ken and Jim focus on relationships, covering everything from parenting and affection to building better connections in the workplace and of course touch on that entrepreneurial spirit at the core of both Ken and Jim’s careers.

Best,

Jim McCann