2016 DCLPB Keynote Speaker

Steve green

President of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., Chairman of the Board of the Museum of the Bible

Hobby Lobby began operation on August 3, 1972, with three hundred square feet of retail space located in north Oklahoma City. This was a retail outgrowth of Greco Products, a miniature picture frame company founded in 1970 by Steve’s father, David Green when he borrowed $600.00 to buy a molding chopper, set up shop in his garage at home, and started making miniature wooden picture frames. In 1972 the first retail operation was opened in a 600-square-foot strip mall at NW 23rd and Robinson in Oklahoma City. Steve graduated from high school in 1981 and began working full-time as the Store Operations Supervisor. He was promoted to Executive Vice President in 2000 and named President of Hobby Lobby in December 2004. In 2013, Green was presented with an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity Degree by Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, and in 2015, Mid-American Christian University presented him with an Honorary Doctorate of Biblical Literature. 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. Hobby Lobby employs approximately 30,000 people and operates over 600 stores in 47 states. Hobby Lobby sales for 2014 totaled more than $3.65 billion. Hobby Lobby is the world’s largest privately owned arts and crafts retailer. The headquarters are located in a 7 million square foot manufacturing, distribution, and office complex in Oklahoma City. Affiliated companies include Hemispheres and Mardel, a popular Christian office and educational supply chain found in six states. Hobby Lobby also has offices in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Steve’s father, David, is the Founder and C.E.O. of Hobby Lobby, and his mother, Barbara, is a Buyer for Hobby Lobby and Hemispheres. His brother Mart Green is the C.E.O. of Mardel Stores, and his sister Darsee Lett is the Vice President of Hobby Lobby Art/Creative. In 2009, the Green Family purchased its first biblical artifact. Today Steve devotes half his time to what has become known as The Green Collection, which is among the world’s newest and largest private collections of rare biblical texts and artifacts. The collection of more than 40,000 biblical antiquities 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. In the summer of 2011, 400 items from the collection were put on display in a traveling exhibit called Passages which began in Oklahoma City and then moved to Atlanta, Charlotte, Colorado Springs, Springfield, MO, and is now open in Santa Clarita, CA.  It will be traveling to other cities nationwide. On March 1, 2012, over 100 items were put on display at the Vatican in Rome during Lent in an international traveling exhibit called Verbum Domini. This international exhibit has since gone to Cuba, returned to the Vatican in 2014 and will be returning to Cuba in 2016. The Book of Books exhibit was on display in Israel from 2013 thru 2014. Green has authored two books. His first, Faith in America, was published in 2011 by Looking Glass Books and tells the history of the advertisements that Hobby Lobby places in newspapers across the United States each year to share the real meaning of Christmas, Easter, and Independence Day. In his second book, The Bible in America, published in 2013, Steve presents a never before seen view of who we are as a nation and as individuals and how the Bible has guided our history and continues to shape our national and personal destiny. Both can be purchased at Hobby Lobby stores across the nation. Steve and his wife Jackie have been married for over 30 years and reside in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They are the proud parents of one son and five daughters. Within the last several years, they have added a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, and four beautiful grandchildren. They are actively involved in their church and many other national and international Christian ministries and charities.