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Home , Eli Broad

A Broad Legacy

An Interview with Eli Broad, Founder, Foundations The Broad museum, under construction on Grand Avenue in downtown

EDITORS’ NOTE After working for What has made you and your phi- systems and a Residency program, where we two years as an accountant, Eli lanthropy so effective? take M.B.A.s and train them to work in ur- Broad founded a home-building We’re very focused on three ar- ban school districts, the U.S. Department of company with Donald Kaufman. eas. In scientifi c and medical research, Education, state education departments, and In 1971, the Kaufman and Broad we’ve been fortunate to fi nd the right charter management organizations. These Home Corporation acquired a leaders, like Eric Lander, who heads two programs have been very successful at small life insurance company for the Broad Institute, which has been cultivating strong talent in our public school $52.1 million that Broad eventu- a great success. We also have a great systems. ally transformed into a retirement board chaired by Lou Gerstner, which You are also a major supporter of KIPP? savings empire. With the merger includes people like Eric Schmidt and We support many great charter manage- of SunAmerica into AIG in 1999, Art Levinson. In addition, we have ment organizations, of which KIPP is one. In Broad stepped down as CEO and great leaders at the stem cell centers , we were the fi rst supporter of turned his attention full-time to phi- Eli Broad that we funded at UCLA, USC, and UC Eva Moskowitz and her Success Academy. lanthropy. Eli and his wife, Edythe, San Francisco. It’s about fi nding the We also have spent some of our time clos- had created a family foundation in the ’60s as right leadership but also being dedicated to it ing down the charter management organiza- a way to support their charitable interests and once we’ve found it. tions that don’t work. causes, and refocused their charitable giving on In education reform, which is a very tough The work you’ve done related to ge- venture philanthropy. Broad was the founding area, we’ve had to be dogged. It’s tough not to nomics and stem cells requires long-term Chairman and is a life trustee of The Museum get frustrated because progress is slow. investments. What progress have you been of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and a life The third area is the arts, and my wife and able to create in this area? trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of I have been involved in the art world as collec- It’s amazing. The Broad Institute has be- Art, the California Institute of Technology, and tors for nearly 45 years. come number one in the world in genomics, The in New York. He is We use three tests to determine if we and it has grown to more than 2,000 people in also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts should invest in a particular cause: If something 10 years. & Sciences and, in 1994, was named Chevalier will happen without our involvement, then What has happened in stem cell research in the National Order of the Legion of Honour we don’t invest. We ask, will our investment is going to make major improvements in the by the Republic of . In 2004, he became a make a difference 10 or 20 years from now? human physical condition. Regent of the by appoint- And also, does the leadership exist to make that The Broad is a contemporary art mu- ment of the U.S. Congress and the President, difference? seum that you and your wife are building in serving until 2009. In 2007, he was awarded Does your experience in building downtown Los Angeles and is due to open the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. In 2013, businesses transfer to how you look at later this year. What does that project mean the Broads were awarded the Simon Prize for philanthropy? to you and what can people expect to see in Philanthropic Leadership. Broad attended There are some similarities. We want to see that building? State University, graduating with a a plan, and we track progress against that plan. We have more than 2,000 works of con- degree in accounting and becoming the young- Not everything you do in business or philan- temporary art in our personal collection and est CPA in the state’s history. He has authored a thropy will work out, but that’s okay. If you’re in The Broad Art Foundation collection. The book titled, The Art of Being Unreasonable: doing 10 things and eight are working, that’s a foundation has made over 8,000 loans to 500 Lessons in Unconventional Thinking. pretty good average. If something doesn’t work different institutions since we started it in out, we stop and move forward with something 1984. Now we’re building a public museum ORGANIZATION BRIEF The Broad Foundations else. that will be home to all of our artworks – we (broadfoundation.org), which include The Eli Why is education reform so difficult will be able to show about 300 works at and Foundation and The Broad to achieve and are you optimistic that the a time – and the museum will also serve as Art Foundation, were established by entrepre- challenges can be overcome? the worldwide headquarters for our lending neur and philanthropist Eli Broad and his wife I have to be optimistic. We have made great library. We’re excited about sharing our in- Edythe to advance entrepreneurship for the pub- progress in certain areas, like with the growth terest in the arts broadly so there will be no lic good in education, science, and the arts. The of charter schools in America. charge for admission. Broad Foundations invest in improving K-12 I’ve yet to meet a scientist who wants to After all of the success you’ve had in public schools in America so teachers are sup- maintain the status quo. Yet, everyone in public business, do you get as much fulfillment ported and every student has the opportunity to education seems to like things the way they are, out of the philanthropic work? succeed. They make signifi cant contributions to and they don’t want to change. I do. We started two Fortune 500 compa- advance major scientifi c and medical research What is the purpose of the Broad nies and sold the last one to AIG for $18 billion to improve human health, and they foster pub- Center? 16 years ago. But I actually feel better about lic appreciation of contemporary art by increas- The Broad Center has two programs: an what we’re doing now to give back and make ing access for audiences worldwide. Academy for the top leaders of public school a difference.• 30 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2015 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 38, NUMBER 2