ATLANTA - The Home Depot, the world's largest home improvement retailer, announced it has named Kevin Martinez as director of Community Affairs, reporting to the company's senior vice president of Corporate Communications and External Affairs, Brad Shaw.

Martinez joins The Home Depot from Starbucks Coffee Company where he served as senior manager, community and civic affairs. At Starbucks, Martinez was responsible for managing a national network of community affairs managers and national nonprofit relationships. In addition, he spearheaded the integration of social responsibility, reputation and business practices into all functions of the company's operations. Martinez also managed Starbucks award winning volunteer program, Make Your Mark, and the highly regarded CUP Fund, an employee assistance fund set up by employees to help other employees.

Prior to Starbucks, Martinez experienced an array of public service, political, philanthropic and retail businesses including managing the Corporate Social Responsibility department at Eddie Bauer in 1998. Under Martinez's leadership, The Global ReLeaf program, "Add a Dollar, Plant-a-Tree," became a nationally acclaimed cause marketing program that was awarded one of Canada's highest environment awards, the Eterne Award, for helping to reforest urban areas in North America. In 1995, Martinez took on the responsibility of manager of community relations for King County Executive Gary Locke, Washington states' current Governor, and later as the director of community relations for Locke's successor, King County Executive, Ron Sims.

"Kevin brings incredible knowledge of corporate community affairs programming and a fresh, new thought process behind CSR to our company," said Brad Shaw, senior vice president of Corporate Communications and External Affairs. "Coming off our inaugural Week of Service where our associates gave back more than 260,000 volunteer hours, the company is in a tremendous position to really make a tangible difference in communities across North America. Kevin is the perfect fit to lead this charge."

As the world's largest home improvement retailer, The Home Depot embraces its role as a leader in social responsibility and celebrates its long-standing commitment to volunteerism. The company's community affairs programs bring together volunteerism, do-it-yourself expertise, product donations and monetary grants to meet critical needs and build affordable communities. The Home Depot's associate volunteer program, Team Depot, was formalized in 1992 as a way to support the communities where the associates live and work. Every store has a Team Depot program and each store works with a network of local and national nonprofit partners to build programs that meet the local needs of the community. In addition to the millions of volunteer hours, The Home Depot has donated more than $200 million in cash and materials since 1989.

Founded in 1978, The Home Depot(R) is the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer and the second largest retailer in the United States, with fiscal 2003 sales of $64.8 billion. The company employs approximately 325,000 associates and has 1,853 stores in 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, nine Canadian provinces and Mexico. The company recently announced the creation of a business development operation for retail expansion into China. Its stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE:HD) and is included in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Standard & Poor's 500 Index.

The Home Depot

The Home Depot

About The Home Depot

We are the world's largest home improvement specialty retailer with stores in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, 10 Canadian provinces, and Mexico.

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