David Alfred Perdue Sr. and the former Gervaise Wynn, both of whom were educators, gave birth to their son David in Macon, Georgia. David Perdue is the son of David Perdue. His father, a Democrat, was elected as the superintendent of schools for Houston County, Georgia, from 1961 to 1980, during which time he managed the desegregation of the local school system. During his tenure, the county’s schools were integrated.
Early life
Perdue spent his childhood in Warner Robins, Georgia, and attended Northside High School, where he excelled academically, competed on the school’s varsity athletic teams, and served as president of his class.
He graduated in 1968. After getting an appointment from Georgia Congressman Jack Brinkley in June 1968 to attend the United States Air Force Academy for one year, he started classes there in June 1968. However, due to his poor academic performance, he was forced to withdraw from the academy. In 1969, Perdue communicated his desire to leave the Air Force Academy to Congressman Brinkley through a letter. He stated in the letter, “I have made a mistake, and I do not want this type of career.”
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Later on, Perdue made the decision to transfer to Georgia Tech, where he eventually completed his undergraduate degree in industrial engineering in 1972 and his graduate degree in operations research in 1975.
Sonny Perdue, a former governor of Georgia and the United States Secretary of Agriculture, is the first cousin once removed of David Perdue.
Career
Perdue began his professional career in 1972 as a management consultant with Kurt Salmon Associates, an international consulting firm. He remained with the company for a total of 12 years before leaving in 1984.
Perdue worked for the worldwide clothing manufacturer Gitano Group Inc. in Singapore from 1991 to 1992, serving as the managing director during that time. Perdue joined Sara Lee Corporation in 1992 and quickly rose through the ranks, eventually becoming Senior Vice President of Asia Operations. 
During the time that Perdue was employed by the company, the business shut down dozens of plants in the United States, including four in the state of Georgia. At the same time, Perdue was involved in the process of locating suppliers in China and Hong Kong.
Two years later, in 2004, Perdue was promoted to the position of senior vice president of operations at Haggar Clothing. Under his leadership, the percentage of the company’s activities that were produced in lower-cost countries increased to 75%.
Perdue first started working at Reebok in 1998 as a senior vice president, and he eventually worked his way up to the position of president and CEO of the Reebok Brand. He is recognized for breathing new life into the company’s sneaker line. A former executive at Reebok described the contract that Perdue negotiated with the National Football League as “revolutionary” for repositioning the company’s shoe brand. The arrangement was negotiated by Perdue.
In June of 2002, Perdue left Reebok to take over as Chief Executive Officer of PillowTex, a textile company located in North Carolina.
The business had just recently emerged from bankruptcy with a significant amount of outstanding debt as well as a pension obligation that was inadequately paid. After nine months on the job and receiving a salary totaling $1.7 million, he decided to leave the company in 2003 since he was unable to convince the company’s backers to provide additional cash or locate a buyer for the company.
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An internal auditor pointed out that the prolonged departures of Secretary Perdue from the headquarters in North Carolina were “bad for morale.” We felt he’d given up.” Pillowtex made the announcement that it will be closing its doors in July of 2003, which resulted in the loss of jobs for 7,650 people across the country.
After leaving Pillowtex, Perdue took the position of a chief executive officer at Dollar General.
Before he joined the company, it had just inflated its profits by $100 million, and it had paid out $162 million to resolve shareholder complaints. Both of these events occurred before he started working there. In addition to updating the company’s marketing strategy, Perdue completely reorganized the company’s inventory line and logistics network.
The corporation raised the price of its stock and increased the number of stores it operated to 2,600, after first shuttering hundreds of locations. In the four years that he served as CEO, a total of roughly 2,500 individual employment lawsuits were brought against the corporation in federal court. This number compares to only 76 in the four years that came before his tenure as CEO.
Perdue is credited with facilitating the sale of Dollar General to private equity investors KKR in 2007. The transaction took place in 2007. In total remuneration from Dollar General for the years 2007 and 2008, he was awarded a total of $42 million. After the sale of Dollar General to KKR, the company was hit with shareholder lawsuits alleging that Perdue and other executives had undersold shareholders; in order to settle those cases, Dollar General paid $40 million.
Perdue was employed by the Indian chemical and textile company Gujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd. from 2007 to 2009 in the capacity of senior consultant. In July of 2010, his cousin Sonny Perdue, who was serving as governor at the time, appointed him to a position on the board of directors of the Georgia Ports Authority.
Perdue Partners, a global trading corporation based in Atlanta, was established by him, his cousin, whose tenure had expired the previous year in January 2011, and two former officials of the state of Georgia in April of 2011.
Benton Express, a logistics company based in Atlanta, was purchased by Perdue Partners in December 2012, and the business was subsequently rebranded as Benton Global. Instead of subcontracting for trucking services beginning in February of 2013, Benton Global began transporting their own freight straight from the port. Around the middle of 2013, Perdue resigned from the port’s board. Benton Global went out of business suddenly in 2015.
Between the years 2010 and 2014, Perdue was a member of the board of directors of the data marketing company Cardlytics. As part of the pay package for his board service, he was awarded 75,000 shares. Perdue received $6 million in profit on the sale of Cardlytics shares after the company went public.
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Perdue’s business record has been described as “mixed” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but the publication also notes that he was “known on Wall Street as a turnaround specialist who helps resurrect businesses and reap profits for investors.” In a deposition, he stated that “I spent the majority of my career doing that,” which refers to the fact that the majority of his positions entailed sending work overseas.
Net Worth
In his financial statement, former the United States Senator David Perdue declared having a net worth of approximately $50 million.
A Sea Island estate with a value of $2.4 million and further investments totaling $21 million made up the bulk of Perdue’s fortune, in addition to approximately $17 million in cash on hand.
His assets include an interest in Cardlytics, a financial company that was the subject of an inquiry by the Justice Department in 2020 after Perdue sold more than $1 million worth of its shares. His investment in Cardlytics is at 464,000 dollars. Midway through the year 2020, the investigation was wrapped up without any charges being filed.
During his final four years in the United States Senate, he claimed to have earned approximately $6 million through various investments.
