Eli L. Broad (; born June 6, 1933) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the only person to build two Fortune 500 companies in different industries (KB Home and SunAmerica). As of October 2015, Forbes ranked Broad the 65th wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion.
Early life and education
Broad was born in 1933 in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents who met in New York. His father worked as a house painter, and his mother worked as a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan when he was six years old. In Detroit, his father was a union organizer, and owned five-and-dime stores. Broad attended Detroit Public Schools and graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1951.
Broad attended Michigan State University, majoring in accounting with a minor in economics and graduating cum laude in 1954. Among the jobs Broad held in college were selling women's shoes, selling garbage disposals door-to-door, and working as a drill press operator at Packard Motor, where he was a member of United Auto Workers. The same year, 21-year-old Broad married 18-year-old Edythe "Edye" Lawson.
Broad became the youngest Michigan resident to attain the credentials of Certified Public Accountant (CPA), a record he held until 2010. Broad worked as an accountant for two years and taught night classes at the Detroit Institute of Technology as an assistant professor of accounting in 1956. Wanting to work on his own, he founded his own accounting firm and was offered office space by the husband of his wife's cousin, Donald Bruce Kaufman, in return for doing the books at his real estate firm.
Career
Kaufman & Broad
In 1957, Broad and Kaufman decided to partner and build homes together. Borrowing $25,000 from his wife's parents, Broad put up half the capital in their first venture together, building two model homes in the Northeast Detroit suburbs where the new generation of home buyers were flocking. Broad was responsible for land acquisition and materials while Kaufman handled the design. By streamlining the construction process, they could price the houses so the monthly mortgage would be less than the rent for a two-bedroom apartment. The Kaufman & Broad model featured an attached carport and omitted the basement. They christened this model the "Award Winner" and priced it at $13,700. After one weekend, seventeen were sold and within two years, Kaufman & Broad had built 600 homes in the Detroit suburbs. In 1960, fearing that the Detroit economy was too dependent on the automotive business, they moved to Phoenix, Arizona. In 1961, Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation (now KB Home) went public on the American Stock Exchange. In 1963, Kaufman retired and he and his wife Glorya Kaufman went on to become noted philanthropists. Broad then moved the company to Los Angeles and in 1969, KB Home was the first homebuilder listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1974, Broad stepped down as CEO.
SunAmerica
In 1971, Broad acquired Sun Life Insurance Company of America, a family-owned insurance company founded in Baltimore in 1890. Broad transformed Sun Life into the retirement savings powerhouse SunAmerica. In 1999, he sold SunAmerica to the American International Group (AIG) for $18 billion. Broad continued as CEO of SunAmerica until 2000, when he left to focus on philanthropy full-time.
Writing
In 2012, Broad's first book, The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking, was published by Wiley and Sons and debuted as a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller.
Philanthropy and civic engagement
Eli and Edythe Broad created The Broad Foundations to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have assets of $2.1 billion.
In 2010, the Broads announced their participation in "The Giving Pledge," a commitment for wealthy individuals to give at least half of their wealth to charity. The Broads personally committed to giving 75% of their wealth away.
Education
The stated mission of the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation's education work is to ensure that every student in an urban public school has the opportunity to succeed.
In 2010, Broad gave $10 million to the Washington, D.C. Public Education Fund, $2.2 million to the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University, and $2 million to a Los Angeles charter school's foundation. In 2013, The Foundation announced that it had invested $23 million to date to empower teachers, parents and students with blended learning technologies.
The Broad Prize
The Broad Foundation awards the annual $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education. The Broad Prize recognizes the large urban school districts in America that have made the greatest improvement in student achievement while narrowing achievement gaps among low-income students and students of color. The Broad Prize has awarded $12 million in college scholarships to high school seniors since 2002.
The Broad Center
The Broad Center in Los Angeles, California, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to prepare strong leaders of public school systems through The Broad Superintendents Academy (unaccredited) and The Broad Residency in Urban Education.
Arts
Broad has been an influential figure in the art world since 1973 and has had a particular focus on the cultural life of Los Angeles.
Broad was the founding chairman of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 1979 and chaired the board until 1984. He recruited the founding director of the museum and negotiated the acquisition of the Panza Collection for the museum.
In 2008, The Broad Foundation gave a $30 million challenge grant to rebuild the museum’s endowment and to provide exhibition support. The Foundation's donation was contingent on the museum remaining independent and not merging with Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Broad is a life trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). In 2003, The Broad Foundation gave $60 million to the museum as part of its renovation campaign to create the Broad Contemporary Art Museum and for an art acquisition fund.
The Broads provided the lead gift of $6 million to the Los Angeles Opera to bring Richard Wagner's opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen to Los Angeles for the 2009â€"10 season. In June 2013, the Broads gave $7 million to continue funding the Eli and Edythe Broad general director at L.A. Opera, currently occupied by Plácido Domingo.
The Broads contributed $10 million in 2008 for a programming endowment for a state-of-the-art music and performing arts center at Santa Monica College, The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage, and an adjacent black box performance space, The Edye.
In total, the Broads have given over $800 million to Los Angeles art institutions. Broad now calls Los Angeles a "cultural capital of the world".
The Broad
In August 2010, Eli Broad announced formally that he would build a contemporary art museum in Downtown Los Angeles. Diller Scofidio + Renfro were chosen by Broad to design the approximately 120,000-square-foot museum, which includes exhibition space, offices and a parking garage.
In February 2015, a public preview attracted some 3,500 visitors. The museum opened by Broad and his wife on Sunday, September 20, 2015.
Grand Avenue project
Broad founded the Grand Avenue Committee, which coordinates and oversees development of Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. In 1996, Broad and Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan led the fundraising campaign to build the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened in October 2003. Broad was instrumental in securing the $50 million deposit from the project developer that opened Grand Park in summer 2012.
Higher education philanthropic work
Broad’s first civic board membership and significant investment in education was a $10 million commitment to Pitzer College in 1970. He was eventually named chairman of the board.
In 1991, Broad endowed the Eli Broad College of Business and the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management with $20 million for a full-time MBA program at his alma mater, Michigan State University. The couple gave $5 million to endow the Eli and Edythe L. Broad Dean of Business.
In 2000, Broad gave $23.2 million for the Broad Art Center at UCLA, designed by Richard Meier. Eli and Edythe Broad donated $28 million to Michigan State University for the construction of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid. The museum opened in November 2012.
Scientific and medical research
The Broads’ investments in scientific and medical research focus on three areas: human genomics, stem cell research and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
In 2001, the Broads created the Broad Medical Research Program to fund innovative research to advance the treatment of IBD.
In 2003, Eli and Edythe Broad gave the $100 million founding gift to create The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. The following year, they gave another $100 million, and in 2009, they gave another $400 million to create an endowment to make the institute permanent. The Broads announced Nov. 14, 2013, they were giving an additional $100 million to the institute. The Broad Institute is now the leading genomic medicine institute, employing 2,000 people with an annual research budget of $287 million.
The Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at USC is the product of a public-private partnership between voter-created California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, which donated $30 million in 2006. In 2007, the Broads also donated $20 million to the UCLA Stem Cell Institute. One year later, they gave a major gift to the University of California, San Francisco for the new headquarters of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research, which opened in February 2011. Broad is also a member of the California Institute of Technology Board of Trustees where he funded the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. In 2009, the Broads gave $5 million to fund the Joint Center for Translational Medicine at Caltech and UCLA.
Gun control
In August 2013, Broad donated $250,000 to oppose the recalls of Colorado Senate President John Morse and Sen. Angela Giron, who were being recalled for their support of gun control measures, including a ban on magazines of 15 rounds or more.
Art collection
Broad’s interest in art began in 1973 with his family’s first acquisition of a Van Gogh drawing, entitled "Cabanes a Saintes-Maries" (1888). Art collector and MCA executive Taft Schreiber became his mentor. The Broads' early acquisitions included notable works by Miró, Picasso and Matisse. Eventually, the pair began to concentrate on postâ€"World War II art.
Eli and Edythe Broad established The Broad Art Foundation in 1984 with the goal of making their extensive contemporary art collection more accessible to the public; to date The Foundation has made more than 8,000 loans to more than 500 museums and university galleries worldwide.
The Broads have two collectionsâ€"a personal collection with nearly 600 works and The Broad Art Foundation's collection, which has approximately 1,500 works Modern and contemporary art. In January 2008, the Broads decided that works in their personal collection would ultimately go to their foundation to make the artwork accessible to the public through the foundation’s loan program.
Some of the best-known works are by contemporary artists including:
- John Baldessari's two text paintings from 1967â€"68.
- Jasper Johns â€" flag paintings (1960 and 1967), mixed-media "Watchman" (1964), "hatch" (1975)
- Jeff Koons â€" fluorescent-lighted vacuum cleaners (1981), floating basketballs and bronze lifeboat (both 1985), stainless-steel bunny rabbit (1986), "Bubbles," a life-size porcelain portrait of Michael Jackson and his pet chimpanzee (1988) bought on May 15, 2001 for 5.6M, the first "Balloon Dog" (1994, in blue), and a "Cracked Egg" purchased for $3.5 million in 2006. Broad owns more than 20 Koons pieces, and donated €640,000 ($900,000) to help sponsor a 2008 Koons retrospective at Versailles (with fellow Koons collector François Pinault).
- Roy Lichtenstein â€" three comic strip paintings (1962â€"65) and his 1969 abstraction of a mirror. In November 1994, Broad purchased "I...I'm Sorry" for $2.5 million USD at a Sotheby's auction, paid with his American Express credit card, and thereby earned 2.5 million frequent flyer miles.
- Robert Rauschenberg â€" 1954 red abstraction.
- Damien Hirst â€" Away From the Flock.
- Edward Ruscha's first word painting, "Boss" (1961) and his 1964 picture of Norm's La Cienega Boulevard restaurant on fire.
- Cindy Sherman â€" twelve photographs from 1977â€"150 photographs. The Broads have the world’s largest collection of Sherman’s works.
- David Smith â€" Cubi XXVIII, executed in 1965. Broad's October 2005 purchase at a Sotheby's auction set a contemporary art auction record of $23,816,000. Broad claimed he had "been looking for a Cubi for more than a decade...I knew it would go way over the estimate and I was prepared, frankly, to pay more than what I bid."
- Andy Warhol's advertising image, "Where's your rupture?", two Marilyn Monroe images, a twenty-fold silkscreen of Jackie Kennedy, an Elvis, a dance diagram, a wanted poster, an electric chair and a torn Campbell's soup canâ€"pepper pot (purchased for $11.8 million) â€" all from 1961 to 1967.
Honors and awards
From 2004 to 2009, Broad served as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution by appointment of the U.S. Congress and the President. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1994 was named Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the Republic of France. Broad serves on the board of the Future Generation Art Prize. He received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2007 and the David Rockefeller Award from the Museum of Modern Art in March 2009. In October 2013, the Broads were awarded the William E. Simon Prize for Philanthropic Leadership by Philanthropy Roundtable.
Controversy
Eli Broad was named by the California attorney general as a contributor to Americans for Job Security, a Virginia trade association. The money sent to Americans for Job Security was intended for "issue advocacy," meaning advertising that doesn't expressly urge Californians to vote one way or another. However, Americans for Job Security sent some of their donations to a Phoenix group, Americans for Responsible Leadership, which provided it to a small business action committee that opposed Proposition 30. It is unclear whether Eli Broad was aware that his donation would be used in this way, since he has stated that he supports higher taxes on the wealthy.
The Los Angeles Times obtained a secret 44-page proposal drafted by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and other charter advocates, that according to one critic would "do away with democratically controlled, publicly accountable education in LA." With the aid of a billionaires’ club of supporters, the plan is designed to charterize 50% of LA public schools."
Bibliography
- The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking (ISBN 978-1118173213).
See also
- Whitehead Institute
References
External links
- Eli and Edythe Broad, a visual profile by MSUAA Knowledge Network
- Broad Foundations
- Eli Broad College of Business: Meet Eli and Edythe Broad