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Home , Eli Broad

Building a Broad Legacy

An Interview with Eli Broad, Founder, Foundations

EDITORS’ NOTE After working for arts, what made you decide to When you had the vision for the museum, two years as an accountant, Eli focus on those areas, and are they could you have anticipated this type of Broad founded a home-building interrelated? reception? company with Donald Kaufman. In They are separate focuses, but there No. The attendance is almost three times what 1971, the Kaufman and Broad Home is some relationship among them. we expected, and we have in a way reinvented the Corporation acquired a small life In terms of scientific and medi- American museum. insurance company for $52.1 million cal research, the Broad Institute partners It is very friendly. The building is by Diller that Broad eventually transformed with Harvard and MIT, and it’s our Scofidio + Renfro, who did the High Line New into a retirement savings empire. biggest investment – $700 million and York, re-did Lincoln Center, and are doing an addi- With the merger of SunAmerica into it’s 14 years old; it has 2,500 people and tion to MOMA. It’s a very innovative building. AIG in 1999, Broad stepped down as a $450 million annual research budget. We also don’t have security guards – we have CEO and turned his full-time attention They’ve done wonders there. It’s number visitor service associates. These are young people to philanthropy. Broad is the found- Eli Broad one in the world now in genomics, so we who we give 50 hours of training to, and while ing Chairman and Life Trustee of The feel good about that, and that will be a they ensure the art is protected, they engage the Museum of Contemporary Art in and great part of our legacy. public in everything from the art and artists to a life trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum In California, we funded three stem-cell architecture and even the other cultural institutions of Art, the California Institute of Technology, and research centers at UCLA, USC, and UC San along Grand Avenue. This is a different model than The in New York. He is Francisco. They just celebrated their 10th anniver- having guards in uniform just standing there that also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & sary and have made great strides in a number of don’t know anything about art. Sciences and, in 1994, was named Chevalier in areas, so we feel good about that as well. We also have free general admission. the National Order of the Legion of Honour by the For the arts, in September 2015, we opened How important is it for young people to Republic of . In 2004, he became a Regent of The Broad museum in downtown Los Angeles, and learn about art early on? the by appointment of the the attendance has been well beyond anything we It’s important and helps them become more U.S. Congress and the President, serving until 2009. expected – 1.1 million people to date. What’s most creative and thoughtful. Artists look at the world In 2007, he was awarded the Carnegie Medal of interesting is that our attendees are an average of 12 differently than businesspeople and others and Philanthropy. In 2013, Broad and his wife, Edythe, years younger than the national art museum aver- young people can learn from the artists. were awarded the Simon Prize for Philanthropic age, and furthermore it’s a very diverse audience. How critical has it been that you’ve found Leadership. Broad attended State In education, we feel strongly about what the right scientific partners? University, graduating with a degree in account- we’ve done to highlight high-quality public char- We’ve been fortunate in getting Eric Lander ing and becoming the youngest CPA in the state’s ter schools by creating The Broad Prize for Public to be the director of the Broad Institute and of history. He authored a book titled, The Art of Charter Schools and, more importantly, The Broad course the partnership we have with Harvard Being Unreasonable: Lessons in Unconventional Center, which trains superintendents and also pub- and MIT and with the board leadership we Thinking. The Broads opened a new contemporary lic school system leaders. They’ve trained 650 peo- have. The Broad Institute has reinvented a way art museum in downtown Los Angeles in September ple who are out there making a difference in public to conduct science by getting people out of 2015. The Broad has free general admission and education. The Broad Center is now accredited to labs and collaborating. We now have platforms was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. give master’s degrees in education leadership. with everything from computer scientists to Why hasn’t there been much success with engineers, physicists, biologists, and chemists ORGANIZATION BRIEF The Broad public education reform? all working together, and their discoveries are Foundations (broadfoundation.org), which There was something called A Nation at Risk made freely available to all. include The Eli and Foundation about 34 years ago that talked about how our Was it a natural transition for you to go and The Broad Art Foundation, were estab- nation is at risk because of our education system. from business into philanthropy? lished by entrepreneur and philanthropist Eli Progress has been very slow because we have an I’m an entrepreneur, so with everything we Broad and his wife, Edythe, to advance entre- education bureaucracy that doesn’t want change, have done in philanthropy, we have come up with preneurship for the public good in education, and there are teachers’ unions that don’t want to the ideas rather than wait for people to send us science, and the arts. The Broad Foundations see change either. grant applications. invest in improving K-12 public schools, We need greater public school choice, though We have three tests for our philanthropy: will advancing major scientific and medical I don’t support vouchers. We need greater competi- it happen without us? If it’s going to happen any- research to improve human health, and foster- tion among traditional public schools and public way, we don’t get involved. Will it make a differ- ing public appreciation of contemporary art charter schools, magnet schools, and the like. ence 20 or 30 years from now? Are there great, by increasing access for audiences worldwide. Change has not happened fast enough. talented people in an organization who can really Are charter schools the hope for that? make something happen? Looking at the impact that The Broad High-quality public charter schools have led We’re not just in the business of writing checks; Foundation has had in many areas, spe- the way, and they’ve been innovative and have let we are trying to create new things or improve exist- cifically in education, science, and the other traditional public schools follow their lead. ing institutions.• 38 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2017 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 40, NUMBER 2