Eli Broad

Eli Broad is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the only individual to have created two Fortune 500 companies in different industries.

• Eli Broad bought his first real estate at age 20 and cofounded home builder Kaufman & Broad in 1957 with $12,500 borrowed from his in-laws.
• His Kaufman & Broad became one of the nation’s biggest home builders, supplying parents of baby boomers with affordable housing.
• He later bought Sun Life Insurance, transforming it into annuities giant SunAmerica, before selling it to AIG for $18 billion in stock in 1998.
• The Broads’ two foundations, which have $3 billion in combined assets, support medical research, public education and the visual and performing arts.
• The foundations, which recently celebrated 50 years of grant making, have pledged and given away over $4 billion in grants.
• The L.A. art museum opened by Broad and his wife Edythe in 2015 offers free admission to view works from the couple’s contemporary art collection.
• In 2019, Broad published a controversial opinion piece in the New York Times supporting a wealth tax for the top 1%.