Speakers
Steve Green
President, Hobby Lobby
Steve Green is president of Hobby Lobby, the world’s largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer. Founded by his father, David, in 1972 in 300 square feet of retail space, the chain has grown to 469 stores in 39 states. Mr. Green began working for the family business as a store operations supervisor after graduating from high school in 1981 and became the company’s executive vice president in 2000. Today, Hobby Lobby and its affiliates have combined sales of more than $2.2 billion. Affiliated companies include Hemispheres, EthnoGraphic Media, and Mardel Stores, a Christian bookstore and educational supply chain led by his brother, Mart. Mr. Green now devotes half his time to what has become known as the Green Collection, among the world’s newest and largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts. In 2009, Hobby Lobby purchased its first biblical artifact, and today the collection holds more than 30,000 biblical antiquities that will eventually become the core of an international, non-sectarian museum of the Bible and will be the subject of ongoing scholarly research through the Green Scholars Initiative.
