The oldest of eight siblings in a Catholic family with German, French-Canadian, and Norwegian roots, Menard attended Eau Claire Regis High School. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire with a degree in business and a minor in psychology. Menard began his career constructing pole buildings with friends from college. He made his home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Menard has six children, and married his third wife, Faiha Obaid, in 2008. He is Roman Catholic. In 1997, Menard was caught using his own pickup truck to haul plastic bags filled with chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his home for disposal with his household trash. Menard pleaded no contest to felony and misdemeanor charges involving records violations, unlawful transportation, and improper disposal of hazardous waste. Menard and his company were fined $1.7 million for 21 violations. In 2013 the IRS ordered Menard to pay $6 million in back taxes after he allegedly mischaracterized $20 million as salary, not dividends, deducting it as a business expense. In a separate case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court forced Menard to pay $1.6 million to a former legal counsel to compensate for gender discrimination and gross underpayment. In April 2020, Menard was among several businessmen named to the economic advisory group established by President Donald Trump.
Menards
Menard opened his first hardware store in 1964. As of 2014, his company owned 287 Menards stores. As of 2005, Menards grossed an estimated $5.5 billion in sales. Menard had a net worth of $8.6 billion in 2013, according to the Forbes 400, and is the richest person in Wisconsin. In 2013, Menard ousted a former investment partner, Stephen Hilbert, a 20% shareholder in MH Equity, for mismanaging assets and resources. Menard has a pronounced hostility towards organized labor. He imposed an absolute ban on hiring anyone who had ever belonged to a union. One employee described having to fire two promising management prospects because they had worked in high school as baggers for a unionized supermarket. Managers at Menards are subject to 60 percent pay cuts if their store becomes unionized. Managers also have to agree to pay fines of $100 per minute for infractions such as opening late and to submit any disputes to management-friendly arbitration rather than legal courts.
In January 2008, Menard gave $15 million to support Eau Claire's Luther Midelfort Hospital. The donation will be used for a new emergency services department and to help Mayo Clinic educate and train health professionals. In 2015, Menard donated $10 million to support the Eau Claire Area YMCA. The gift will replace the current five-court LE Phillips Tennis Center that opened in 1972 to become an eight-court indoor tennis center known as the Menard Family YMCA Tennis Center. A supporter of conservative causes, Menard has donated to the political groups of the Koch brothers.
