Quick Answer
Marvin Ellison is chairman, president and CEO of Lowe’s. Kathy Warden is chair, CEO and president of Northrop Grumman. They run unrelated companies, and their documented link is Business Roundtable, where both took part in its June 2025 CEO Workforce Forum.
As of October 24, 2026, Warden is 55 and Ellison is 61 or 62. Their latest reported annual pay totals are $21,581,889 for Ellison (Lowe’s fiscal 2025) and $25,357,443 for Warden (calendar 2025). Neither person has a verified net worth figure.
TL;DR
- Ellison leads Lowe’s, a home improvement retailer. Warden leads Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and defense company.
- No family or business tie between them turned up beyond shared membership in organizations such as Business Roundtable.
- Warden’s age is derived from two SEC filings. Ellison’s exact birth date is not published, and the 1966 birth year some sites give conflicts with filings.
- Reported pay is mostly stock and option awards valued at grant, so it is not take home pay.
- Net worth figures online vary wildly and rest on no disclosed method, so this page does not endorse any of them.
On This Page
- At a glance
- How they are connected
- How old they are
- How much they make
- Net worth: what can be verified
- Who they are
- FAQ
- Key takeaways
Marvin Ellison and Kathy Warden at a Glance (As of October 24, 2026)
| Detail | Marvin Ellison | Kathy Warden |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Lowe’s Companies | Northrop Grumman |
| Industry | Home improvement retail | Aerospace and defense |
| Title | Chairman, president and CEO | Chair, CEO and president |
| CEO since | July 2018 | January 2019 |
| Chair since | May 2021 | August 2019 |
| Age | 61 or 62 (exact birth date unpublished) | 55 (derived from filings) |
| Latest reported total pay | $21,581,889 (fiscal 2025) | $25,357,443 (2025) |
| Net worth | No verified figure | No verified figure |
Both are named with the correct spelling here: Kathy, not Cathy. A few other people share each name, so check the company before trusting a profile.
How Are Marvin Ellison and Kathy Warden Connected?
They are peers in the same business leadership circles, not colleagues. Lowe’s and Northrop Grumman are separate companies in different industries, and no shared employer, partnership or family tie appeared in the sources reviewed.
Business Roundtable
Business Roundtable’s recap of its CEO Workforce Forum quotes both Ellison and Warden, and Fortune’s photo caption places the event on June 17, 2025 in Washington. At that forum, Ellison said he and Carrier’s CEO had been given the lead on the group’s skilled labor workforce initiative. Warden spoke about the training programs her company uses to build its manufacturing workforce.
The 2020 White House industry groups
In 2020, the White House announced industry groups for an economic revival effort. Ellison was listed with retail executives and Warden with defense executives, so they were named to different groups.
What is not documented
No evidence turned up of a business deal, joint appearance beyond those events, or any personal relationship. Treat claims beyond the above as unconfirmed.
How Old Are Marvin Ellison and Kathy Warden?
Neither executive has a publicly confirmed birth date in the sources reviewed, so the ages below are worked out from ages printed in official filings. Many sites copy an age without saying when it was true, which is how stale numbers spread.
How old is Kathy Warden?
As of October 24, 2026, Kathy Warden is 55. A Northrop Grumman SEC filing dated July 12, 2018 listed her as 47, and the company’s 2026 proxy statement lists her as 54 as of April 3, 2026. Together those place her birthday between April 4 and July 12, 1971, so she has already turned 55 this year. Wikipedia’s looser “1970 or 1971” range is consistent with this.
How old is Marvin Ellison?
As of October 24, 2026, Marvin Ellison is 61 or 62. Lowe’s 2026 proxy statement and annual report list him as 61. Bloomberg reported him as 53 when Lowe’s named him CEO on May 22, 2018, and a 2016 J.C. Penney announcement gave 51. Those ages point to a birth between about mid 1964 and spring 1965.
Some biography pages say he was born in 1966. That would make him 59 or 60 today, which does not fit the filing ages, so the filings look stronger. One caveat: the reference date for the age printed in Lowe’s proxy was not confirmed, so the exact birthday remains unresolved.
Common errors to ignore: Ellison was born in Haywood County, Tennessee and grew up in Brownsville, not Chicago. He has been Lowe’s CEO since 2018, not 2021; 2021 is when he also became chairman.
How Much Do Marvin Ellison and Kathy Warden Make?
Both companies report CEO pay each spring in proxy statements filed with the SEC. The totals below are the latest filed figures as of October 24, 2026.
| Executive | Pay year | Reported total | Main parts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marvin Ellison | Fiscal 2025 | $21,581,889 | Salary $1,544,231; stock awards $12,480,467; option awards $4,262,895; annual incentive $3,232,693; other $61,603 |
| Marvin Ellison | Fiscal 2024 | $20,164,912 | Prior year for comparison |
| Kathy Warden | 2025 | $25,357,443 | Salary $1,840,385; stock awards $16,750,230; annual incentive $4,218,000; pension and deferred pay change $1,270,017; other $1,278,811 |
| Kathy Warden | 2024 | $24,359,199 | Prior year for comparison |
How much does Marvin Ellison make a year?
His base salary was about $1.5 million in fiscal 2025, and his reported total was $21,581,889. By simple division, roughly 78 percent of that total was stock and option awards.
How much does Kathy Warden make a year?
Her base salary was about $1.8 million in 2025, and her reported total was $25,357,443. Stock awards were about two thirds of the total.
Why reported pay is not take home pay
The SEC totals count stock and option awards at their value on the grant date. The cash an executive actually receives, and what those awards are later worth, can be very different.
Reading the fiscal year labels
Lowe’s fiscal 2025 ended January 30, 2026, while Northrop Grumman uses the calendar year. Some aggregator sites label Lowe’s pay by the year the period ended, so the same figure can appear under two different years.
What Is Marvin Ellison’s Net Worth? And Kathy Warden’s?
There is no verified net worth figure for either person. Net worth requires private information about all assets and debts, which neither executive has disclosed.
Online claims for Warden run from tens of millions of dollars to $200 million, and claims for Ellison span a similar spread. Several pages quote the same person at different values within a few months, and share counts for Ellison differ from site to site. Most estimates multiply reported shares by the current stock price, so they move daily and ignore everything else the person owns or owes.
What can be checked is narrower. Each company’s proxy statement has a table of shares the executive owns, and SEC Form 4 filings show reported stock sales. Those are holdings, not net worth. Also note that “how much is he worth” can mean pay, which the section above covers.
Who They Are: Two Career Snapshots
Who is Marvin Ellison?
Marvin Ellison has led Lowe’s since July 2018 and became chairman in May 2021. Before that he spent 15 years at Target and 12 years at Home Depot, where he rose to executive vice president of U.S. stores, then ran J.C. Penney from 2014 until 2018. He studied at the University of Memphis and earned an MBA at Emory University, and he sits on the FedEx board. In September 2026, Lowe’s described itself as a company with more than $86 billion in fiscal 2025 sales and over 1,750 stores.
Who is Kathy Warden?
Kathy Warden joined Northrop Grumman in 2008, became president and chief operating officer in January 2018, CEO on January 1, 2019, and chair in August 2019. She earlier worked at General Dynamics, Veridian and General Electric. She holds a degree from James Madison University and an MBA from George Washington University, and she sits on the Merck board. On October 20, 2026, Northrop reported third quarter sales of $11.1 billion and a backlog of about $110 billion.
As of the dates above, both were still in their roles. Warden led Northrop’s October 20, 2026 earnings update, and Lowe’s announced on September 8, 2026 that Ellison would speak as chairman and CEO. Check each company’s investor page for anything newer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Marvin Ellison and Kathy Warden related?
No evidence of a family tie turned up. They share a professional link through Business Roundtable.
Is total compensation the same as salary?
No. Salary is the base cash pay, while total compensation adds stock and option awards valued at grant, annual incentives and other items.
Why does Lowe’s fiscal 2025 end in January 2026?
Lowe’s uses a retail style fiscal calendar that ends near the end of January. Its fiscal 2025 ended January 30, 2026.
Are they still CEOs today?
As of October 24, 2026, nothing reviewed showed a change for either. The latest items were Warden’s October 20, 2026 earnings release and Lowe’s September 8, 2026 announcement about Ellison.
Why do net worth numbers differ so much?
Sites use different stock prices, share counts and assumptions, and they cannot see private assets or debts. None discloses a method that can be checked.
How does CEO pay compare with typical employees?
Northrop reported Warden’s 2025 pay at 224 times its median employee, whose total was $112,998. Lowe’s reported its median associate’s 2025 pay as $37,371.
Did the January 2026 executive order change Warden’s pay?
An order signed January 7, 2026 targets pay and buybacks at defense contractors that underperform on delivery. No reporting reviewed shows it changed her reported 2025 compensation.
Where can I check the filings myself?
Search each company’s latest proxy statement (DEF 14A) on the SEC’s EDGAR database, or open the investor relations page for Lowe’s or Northrop Grumman. The summary compensation table and director biographies hold the figures used here.
Sources and Method
Facts above rest mainly on SEC filings: Northrop Grumman’s July 12, 2018 current report and its 2025 and 2026 proxy statements, Lowe’s 2025 and 2026 proxy statements and annual report, and a 2016 J.C. Penney announcement. Supporting sources are Bloomberg (May 22, 2018), Business Roundtable’s workforce forum recap, Fortune, the White House’s 2020 announcement, Northrop Grumman’s October 20, 2026 results release and Lowe’s September 8, 2026 press release. Aggregator sites were used only to describe how widely their claims differ.
Key Takeaways
- As of October 24, 2026, Marvin Ellison leads Lowe’s and Kathy Warden leads Northrop Grumman, and the two are connected through shared business leadership circles, not a shared employer.
- Warden is 55 and Ellison is 61 or 62, based on ages printed in SEC filings and press reports.
- Latest reported pay is $21,581,889 for Ellison (fiscal 2025) and $25,357,443 for Warden (2025), mostly in stock awards.
- Net worth for both remains unverified, so treat any single dollar figure as an estimate at best.
- Ages, titles and pay change over time, so recheck the filings before relying on any figure after October 24, 2026.
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