David Green

David Green Photo

David Green is an American entrepreneur who founded ‘Hobby Lobby’ which is an arts and crafts chain. According to Forbes he is one of the richest people and a billionaire with an estimated net worth of 4.5 billion dollars.

Green was born on 13th November 1941 in Emporia, Kansas. He grew up poor but along the way learned to make the most out of everything he had. Later on he founded a company based on this trait. In 1970 he decided to do start a business. For that purpose he took a loan of 600 dollars and started ‘Greco Products’ in his garage. There he assembled and sold miniature picture frames. By mid of 1972 his business was thriving so much so that he opened a store that was 300 square feet large. Green uses half of the company’s pretax income and adds it to the portfolio of evangelical ministries. By 2012 he had donated 500 million dollars. This donation includes his generous gift of 10.5 million dollars to Liberty University owned by Jerry Falwell, an evangelical Baptist pastor and 70 million dollars to Oral Roberts University. He has helped put almost 1.4 billion copies of gospel literature in homes in over 100 countries especially in Asia and Africa. Both he and his wife have signed the Giving Pledge.

Green was born in a family of preachers thus he has very strong religious beliefs. He states that he built his business based on Biblical ideologies. He strongly believes that the success he got in life is due to his unwavering faith in God. He is publicly against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because it has a provision that gives right to use the morning after pill.

His chain Hobby Lobby sells arts and crafts products such as picture frames, beads, glitter, fabric, glue, baskets, table runners, clay, ribbons, candle rings, wreaths etc…The store is especially filled up during the holiday season. People visit to buy things for house decoration, Christmas gifts; basically everything you need for a festive season or special occasion can be found here. Green’s stores are closed on Sundays for which he loses millions as weekends are a time for big retailing. However he has stuck with this decision of his. He says this way his employees can spend time with their families which is more important for him.

David Green lives in Oklahoma City with his wife Barbara. He has two sons Mart and Steve and a daughter Darsee Lett. Both his sons started assisting him at very early ages. They started with gluing the frames together in Green’s garage. Currently Mart is the CEO and founder of Mardel Christian and Educational Supply and Every Tribe Entertainment. Steve is the president of Hobby Lobby. Darsee Lett is the Creative Director for his stores. Green emphasizes more on people than on profits. The interesting thing is that his profits grew anyway. From a 600 dollars enterprise Hobby Lobby has grown into a business grossing over 2 billion dollars sales.