Lowe’s CEO went from earning $4.35 an hour at Target to being one of the only 8 Black Fortune 500 CEOs with this strategy

Ellison got his start making just $4.35 per hour working part-time at Target while he was in college at the University of Memphis. Now he’s president, CEO, and chairman of Lowe’s, a $130 billion home-improvement giant and one of only eight Black Fortune 500 CEOs. While that’s less than 2% of the entire group, it’s a record-high share of Black CEOs on the list. 

Reflecting on the fact that he’s only one of a few Black CEOs on the Fortune 500, Ellison said he has mixed emotions. 

“On 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,” Ellison said in a November 2022 interview with Daymond John, a Black entrepreneur most famous for his hip-hop apparel company FUBU and serving as an angel investor on Shark Tank.

“I’m 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,” 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’s. 

Marvin Ellison’s strategy for defying the odds

Ellison got his start as a part-time employee, but he was “fortunate to land in a company that believed in developing people.” So he “grinded it out for 15 years,” eventually reaching a director-level position at Target before moving into the home-improvement industry. 

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 “nobody else wanted,” he said. 

“I didn’t have great pedigree, I didn’t have an Ivy League education. I didn’t have any stellar international opportunities or stints on my résumé,” Ellison said. “I’m competing against all of these exceptionally talented people on paper; I had to find a way to differentiate myself.”

That strategy drove Ellison up the ranks of Target and on to Home Depot, where he spent 12 years in senior-level operations roles. He also served as executive vice president of U.S. stores for the…