Eli Broad (1933–2021) was an American billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the founder of SunAmerica Inc. and KB Home (formerly Kaufman and Broad Home Corporation.)
Born in the Bronx, New York, Broad was the son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants. He studied accounting at Michigan State University in Lansing, paying his tuition by driving delivery trucks and selling garbage disposals door-to-door.
Over a five-decade career in business, Broad built two Fortune 500 companies from the ground up. Having purchased his first real estate at age 20, he co-founded the homebuilder Kaufman & Broad in 1957. He led it to become one of the biggest homebuilders in the U.S. He later acquired Sun Life Insurance, transformed it into the retirement savings powerhouse company SunAmerica, and sold it to the insurer American International Group (AIG) in 1998.
In 2019, Broad was ranked the 78th wealthiest person in America. His philanthropies focus on public K-12 education, scientific and medical research, and the visual and performing arts. He was a significant benefactor of the Broad Museum of Art in Los Angeles and Michigan State University.
Broad was the author of The Art of Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Thinking (2012.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Eli Broad
While I am proud of a number of accomplishments, there are real costs to being unreasonable. Long hours. Too little time with family. A near incapacity for, as they say, stopping and smelling the roses.
—Eli Broad
Topics: Accomplishment
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