BIOGRAPHY – DAVID GREEN, Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Hobby Lobby began operation August 3, 1972 with six hundred square feet of retail space in Oklahoma City. It is now the largest privately-owned arts and crafts retailer in the world, employing approximately 35,000 team members at over 800 stores spread across forty-seven states. Hobby Lobby is foremost an arts & crafts store, but includes many departments such as hobbies, picture framing, jewelry making, fashion fabrics, floral, cards & party, baskets, wearable art, home accents and holiday merchandise. Their headquarters are located in just over 10 million square feet of manufacturing, distribution and office space in Oklahoma City. Affiliated companies include nine Hemispheres Fine Furnishing stores, located in Oklahoma and Texas, as well as Mardel, a popular Christian office and educational supply chain found in seven states. Hobby Lobby also has offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. David remains chairman of the affiliate companies, the CEO of Hobby Lobby and a buyer of merchandise.
David is the author of two books, More than a Hobby, and his most recent book Giving it All Away… And Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously. This book shares some of Hobby Lobby’s Supreme Court battle involving the Affordable Care Act but the larger story of family legacy and the power of generosity.
To learn more about David Green and Hobby Lobby, please visit www.hobbylobby.com, or pick up a copy of his book More Than a Hobby, now available at Hobby Lobby, your local book store or on our website.
BIOGRAPHY – William (Bill) High is co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of The Signatry – A Global Christian Foundation.
Prior to starting the Foundation in 2000, Bill was a partner with Blackwell Sanders LLP, a national and international law firm. In addition to his CEO responsibilities, Bill helped found two technology companies– iDonate.com, the only integrated online donation platform serving the non-profit community, and FamilyArc.com, an online personal and private family legacy platform.
With The Signatry, he’s been part of overseeing their efforts from startup to receiving now nearly $3 billion in contributions. In particular, he works with families, individual givers, ministries and financial advisors. As a particular point of emphasis, he works with business owners who are selling their business and owners transitioning their business to the next generation.
In addition, Bill is a published author and sought after conference speaker. He was recently named one of America’s Top 25 Philanthropy Speakers for 2017 as ranked by Philanthropy Media.
His recent books include a book co-authored with David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby, called Giving It All Away…And Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously (Zondervan 2017), and a book coauthored with Steve and Jackie Green, This Dangerous Book: How the Bible has Shaped our World and Why it Still Matters Today (Zondervan 2017). Other books include Stories of the Generous Life. Ordinary People. Extraordinary Generosity, and its sequel, The Generosity Bet. He also co-authored Sell Well, about avoiding common mistakes when selling a business, Why the Conservative Mind Matters, and contributed to unHeritage: 11 Pitfalls to Family Legacy and How to Avoid Them, and the companion volume unPrepared: Heirs At Risk.
Bill has been married to his wife Brooke for more than 30 years. They have four children, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren.