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Some professionals got their start working in retail\u2014but not nearly as many of those same workers made it all the way to the top of a Fortune 500 company. But Marvin Ellison did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ellison got his start making just $4.35 per hour working part-time at Target<\/a> while he was in college at the University of Memphis. Now he\u2019s president, CEO, and chairman of Lowe\u2019s, a $130 billion home-improvement giant and one of only eight Black Fortune 500 CEOs<\/a>. While that\u2019s less than 2% of the entire group, it\u2019s a record-high share of Black CEOs on the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reflecting on the fact that he\u2019s only one of a few Black CEOs on the Fortune 500, Ellison said he has mixed emotions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOn one hand, I feel incredibly privileged and blessed to be in this role because it gives me a chance to hopefully be a positive role model and create a pathway for other people who look like me,\u201d Ellison said in a November 2022 interview<\/a> with Daymond John, a Black entrepreneur most famous for his hip-hop apparel company FUBU and serving as an angel investor on Shark Tank.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really disappointed that in 2022 we still have such a significant gap in the capability that exists out there and the opportunities of individuals that look like me to be in a role like this,\u201d said Ellison, who leads a Fortune 50 company with more than 1,700 stores and 300,000 associates in the U.S., according to Lowe\u2019s<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ellison got his start as a part-time employee, but he was \u201cfortunate to land in a company that believed in developing people.\u201d So he \u201cgrinded it out for 15 years,\u201d eventually reaching a director-level position at Target before moving into the home-improvement industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what got Ellison to top leadership roles at both retail and home-improvement companies was his drive to differentiate himself from other candidates. He did this by taking on jobs and assignments that \u201cnobody else wanted,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t have great pedigree, I didn\u2019t have an Ivy League education. I didn\u2019t have any stellar international opportunities or stints on my r\u00e9sum\u00e9,\u201d Ellison said. \u201cI\u2019m competing against all of these exceptionally talented people on paper; I had to find a way to differentiate myself.\u201d<\/p>\n That strategy drove Ellison up the ranks of Target and on to Home Depot<\/a>, where he spent 12 years in senior-level operations roles. He also served as executive vice president of U.S. stores for the company from 2008 to 2014, \u201cdramatically improving customer service and efficiency across the organization,\u201d according to Lowe\u2019s. The retail chain snagged Ellison after his intermediary stint as chairman and CEO of J.C. Penney<\/a>.\u00a0Ellison also earned his MBA from Emory University and serves on the board of directors for FedEx<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lowe\u2019s ranks No. 39 on the Fortune 500 and on Fortune\u2019<\/em>s lists of America\u2019s Most Innovative Companies and the World\u2019s Most Admired Companies. It shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise, then, that Lowe\u2019s is rubbing elbows with Nvidia<\/a> to develop AI technologies for use in its retail stores. Lowe\u2019s now has more than 50 active AI models used for sourcing logic, inventory planning, and pricing\u2014as well as generally \u201ccreating an environment that\u2019s easier to sell, shop, and work.\u201d<\/p>\nMarvin Ellison\u2019s strategy for defying the odds<\/h2>\n