Eli Broad Biography

Eli Broad is a well-known business executive who has created two Fortune 500 businesses from the bottom up over the course of his five-decade career. He founded both SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation). Today, Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, are philanthropists as the creators of The Broad Foundations, which they created to promote entrepreneurship for the public good in education, research, and the arts. The Broad Foundations, which comprise The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have $2.4 billion in assets. The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation supports system-wide initiatives and policies that enhance public schools by fostering settings that allow outstanding teachers to do great work and children of all backgrounds to learn and flourish. The $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education, The Broad Superintendents Academy, and The Broad Residency in Urban Education are among the foundation's significant education projects. The Broad Foundation also supports cutting-edge scientific and medical research in human genomes, stem cell research, and inflammatory bowel disease. The Broads announced a $100 million foundation contribution to The Eli and Edythe Broad Institute for Biomedical Research in 2003, in an unprecedented collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the Whitehead Institute. The Institute's mission is to achieve the human genome's potential of revolutionizing clinical care and making information freely available to scientists all around the world. They provided The Broad Institute a second $100 million contribution in 2005, and in 2008, they gave an additional $400 million to make the world's top genomics institute permanent. The Broads have established two of the world's most famous collections of postwar and contemporary art over the last four decades: The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection and The Broad Art Foundation. The two collections contain approximately 2,000 pieces by nearly 200 artists. The Broad Art Foundation has had an active "lending library" of its large collection since 1984. The Broad Art Foundation, which is dedicated to improving public access to contemporary art, has loaned over 8,000 works of art to almost 500 museums and university galleries throughout the world. Mr. Broad founded and is a life trustee of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, to which The Broad Foundation made a $30 million challenge donation in December 2008 to restore the museum's endowment and offer exhibition support. He is a life trustee of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the Broads donated $60 million to establish the Renzo Piano-designed Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened in February 2008, and to finance an art purchase budget. The Broads announced plans to establish a modern art museum and the headquarters of The Broad Art Foundation on Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles in August 2010. The Broad, the new museum, will be designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro and will open in early 2014. The Broads have been tireless supporters of Los Angeles' cultural and architectural vibrancy. Mr. Broad, who believes that all great cities require a vibrant center, was the driving force behind the development of Grand Avenue in downtown Los Angeles, which will blend residential, retail, cultural, and recreational uses into a civic centerpiece to rival the world's greatest cities' main boulevards. Mr. Broad and then-Mayor Richard Riordan launched a fundraising effort in 1996 to create the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened to international acclaim in October 2003. The Broads funded the Los Angeles Opera's staging of Richard Wagner's four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, which premiered in 2009—2010. They donated $10 million in 2008 to establish an endowment for programs and arts education at the Santa Monica College performing arts center's The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage and The Edye Second Space. Mr. Broad served as a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution by appointment of the United States Congress and the President from 2004 to 2009. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Republic of France made him a Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor in 1994. Mr. Broad is a member of the Future Generation Art Prize's board of directors. In 2007, he won the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, and in March 2009, he received the David Rockefeller Award from the Museum of Modern Art. The Broads, who believe strongly in higher education, have expanded their generosity to a number of colleges around the country. The Broad Foundation provided a significant gift to UCLA's School of Arts and Architecture for The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center. Mr. Broad is a life trustee at Caltech, where the Broads established the Broad Fellows Program in Brain Circuitry, provided the cornerstone gift for the establishment of the Broad Center for Biological Sciences, and funded the establishment of the Joint Center for Translational Medicine at Caltech and UCLA to translate experimental research into clinical applications. The University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine announced the establishment of the Eli and Edythe Broad CIRM Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research in 2006. The Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, which opened in 2010, was funded in large part by the Broads. The Broads made a significant donation to the University of California, San Francisco in 2008 for the establishment of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Mr. Broad has also served as head of Pitzer College's board of trustees and vice chairman of the California State University system's board of trustees. The Broads established the Eli Broad College of Business and the Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University (MSU) in 1991, where Mr. Broad earned his bachelor's degree with honors in 1954. The Broads made a $26 million contribution in June 2007 to establish the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU, and they added another $2 million to the project in January 2010. The museum is scheduled to open in November 2012. Mr. Broad is also a popular author, with his debut book, The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking, published in May 2012 by Wiley & Sons. The Broads have two adult boys and live in Los Angeles.

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