Bob Ravener Luncheon

Bob Ravener '81, of Home Depot, Speaks at Chapter April 2005 Luncheon

Bob Ravener ’81 was our guest speaker at the Chapter April luncheon. Bob is currently the Vice President of Human Resources for Home Depot. Bob has been at Home Depot for about two years now. About a year and a half ago, Bob lead Home Depot’s efforts to work directly with the Department of Defense in hiring veterans. Bob is also a member of the President’s Hire Veterans Committee.

Home Depot is an approximately $70 billion company with about 320,000 associates. Their corporate personnel policy is to take care of their people and to treat people with respect. They hire about 150,000 associates per year and create about 20,000 new jobs each year. Last year Home Depot hired over 15,000 veterans, including military spouses.

Operation Career Front is Home Depot’s program for hiring veterans. Through this program, Home Depot works directly with the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Veterans Affairs to provide career opportunities for current and former members of America’s military community. This includes all veterans (including those with service related disabilities), separating active duty service members, National Guardsmen and Reservists, and military spouses. See http://careers.homedepot.com on the Internet for more information and to apply for employment.

Home Depot’s Store Leadership Program is a 2-year business leadership program for officers transitioning to civilian life. See http://careers.homedepot.com/slp on the Internet for more information.

In addition to employment opportunities, Home Depot also has many programs to support veterans and their families. Project Home Front, and similar projects, provided over one million dollars and one million volunteer hours to support the families of service men and women. This included those recently on active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. This support helped the families keep up their home lives and their homes while their loved ones were away serving our country.

In addition, Home Depot spends about $10 million per year on their Olympic Jobs Program. This program is designed to support our Olympic athletes throughout their training and competition.

Many thanks to Bob for sharing this important information with us, and for championing the cause of supporting and hiring veterans in corporate America.

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Bob Ravener '81 starts his presentation.

Chapter President Bill Rentz '55 presents Bob with his personalized Atlanta Chapter apron.