Ted Decker

Chair, President and CEO The Home Depot

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Edward “Ted” Decker is Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Home Depot, the world’s largest home improvement retailer, with more than 2,350 stores and roughly 475,000 associates. He is an internal appointment in the fullest sense, having joined the company in 2000 as a director of business valuation and worked through finance, strategy and merchandising to become chief merchant, then president and chief operating officer, and finally chief executive in March 2022 and chair that October. His tenure has been defined by a deliberate shift of the business towards the professional contractor, pursued largely through acquisition: SRS Distribution, then GMS Inc. in September 2025 and Mingledorff’s in May 2026, consolidated alongside HD Supply and Construction Resources under a Pro acceleration structure. On 12 August 2026 the company disclosed that Decker was taking a temporary medical leave from the role, with two senior executives overseeing the Office of the CEO in his absence.

Career Highlights

• Named President and Chief Executive Officer in January 2022, effective 1 March 2022, succeeding Craig Menear, and elected Chair of the Board effective 1 October 2022.
• President and Chief Operating Officer from 2020 to 2022, responsible for global store operations, global sourcing, supply chain, outside sales and service, real estate, merchandising, marketing and online strategy.
• Chief Merchant and Executive Vice President of Merchandising for more than six years, covering store and online merchandising, strategy, marketing and vendor management.
• Built out Home Depot’s professional building-materials business through SRS Distribution, GMS Inc. (acquired 4 September 2025) and Mingledorff’s (acquired 11 May 2026).
• Joined Home Depot in 2000 as Director of Business Valuation, after roles at Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper and earlier corporate finance, lending and credit work at PNC Bank.
• Serves on the boards of Carnegie Mellon University, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and the Atlanta Committee for Progress.
• Lived and worked in England and Australia during his career.

Professional Journey

Decker came to retail sideways, through finance. After an English degree at The College of William and Mary and an MBA at Carnegie Mellon, he worked in corporate finance, lending and credit at PNC Bank, then in business development, strategic planning and finance at Kimberly-Clark and Scott Paper, with international postings in England and Australia. He joined The Home Depot in 2000 as Director of Business Valuation – an analytical, back-office role rather than a merchant one.

The ascent from there was steady and covered unusually wide ground: senior director of business valuation, vice president, Senior Vice President of Strategic Business Development, Senior Vice President of Retail Finance, and then more than six years as Chief Merchant and Executive Vice President of Merchandising. That last posting mattered most. Merchandising is where a big-box retailer’s economics are actually set, and it gave a finance executive command of assortment, pricing, vendor relationships and the online catalogue at the moment when Home Depot was fusing its digital and physical channels.

In 2020 he became President and Chief Operating Officer, adding store operations, global sourcing, supply chain, real estate and outside sales to his brief, which is effectively the whole operating company. The board named him CEO and President in January 2022, effective 1 March, on Craig Menear’s retirement from the executive role, and elected him Chair from 1 October that year.

As chief executive his clearest strategic move has been to chase the professional contractor rather than the weekend do-it-yourself customer, on the reasoning that Pro spend is larger, more repeat and less weather-dependent. That has been executed by acquisition at scale – SRS Distribution in roofing, pool and landscape distribution, then GMS Inc. in September 2025 and Mingledorff’s in May 2026 – and by organisational change, with an Office of Pro Acceleration announced in July 2026 to coordinate Home Depot Pro, HD Supply, SRS Distribution and Construction Resources under the chief financial officer.

On 12 August 2026 Home Depot told the SEC that Decker would take a temporary medical leave from his role. On his own recommendation, the board placed Ann-Marie Campbell, Senior Executive Vice President and a forty-year company veteran who started as a cashier in 1985, in charge of day-to-day operations, and Richard V. McPhail, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, in charge of financial management and the Pro subsidiaries, with McPhail designated interim principal executive officer for SEC purposes. Independent lead director Gregory D. Brenneman is chairing the board meanwhile. Decker retains his titles; the company has set no return date, has named no successor, and as of the quarterly report signed on 24 August 2026 the interim arrangement remained in force.

Education

The College of William and Mary

Bachelor of Arts, English

Carnegie Mellon University

Master of Business Administration