About the Broads

Eli and Edythe Broad are lifelong philanthropists as founders of The Broad Foundations, which they established to advance entrepreneurship for the public good in education, science and the arts. The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation, have assets of $2.5 billion.

After creating shareholder wealth by providing vital homebuilding and retirement savings services through the two Fortune 500 companies he created—KB Home and SunAmerica, Inc.—Eli Broad and Edythe, his wife of 53 years, are now devoting their time, energy and resources to philanthropy.  

The primary work of The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation is to dramatically improve urban K-12 public education through better governance, management, labor relations and competition.

The Broad Foundation also invests in advancing innovative scientific and medical research in the areas of human genomics, stem cell research and inflammatory bowel disease. In an unprecedented partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and the Whitehead Institute, the Broads in 2003 announced a $100 million founding gift to create The Eli and Edythe Broad Institute for biomedical research. The Institute’s aim is to realize the promise of the human genome to revolutionize clinical medicine and to make knowledge freely available to scientists around the world. They gave a second $100 million gift to The Broad Institute in 2005.

Over the past four decades, the Broads have built two of the most prominent collections of postwar and contemporary art worldwide: The Eli and Edythe L. Broad Collection and The Broad Art Foundation. Since 1984, The Broad Art Foundation has operated an active “lending library” of its extensive collection. Dedicated to increasing access to contemporary art for audiences worldwide, The Broad Art Foundation has provided over 450 museums and university galleries worldwide with more than 7,000 loans of artwork.

Mr. Broad was the founding chairman and is a life trustee of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, and he is currently a trustee of The Museum of Modern Art in New York and vice chairman of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where the Broads have given a $60 million gift to build The Broad Contemporary Art Museum, which opened in February 2008.

Tireless advocates of Los Angeles, the Broads have championed the cultural and architectural vitality of the city. Committed to the belief that all great cities need a vibrant center, Mr. Broad was the visionary 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 main boulevards of the world’s greatest cities. In 1996, Mr. Broad and then-Mayor Richard Riordan spearheaded the fundraising campaign to build the Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, which opened to worldwide acclaim in October 2003.  

In 2004, Mr. Broad became a Regent of the Smithsonian Institution by appointment of the U.S. Congress and the President. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1994 was named Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor by the Republic of France. In fall 2007, Mr. Broad received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy.

Strong believers in higher education, the Broads have further extended their philanthropy to a number of universities across the country. The Broad Foundation made a major contribution to the School of the Arts and Architecture at UCLA for The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Center. Mr. Broad is a life trustee of Caltech, where the Broads created the Broad Fellows Program in Brain Circuitry and gave the cornerstone gift to create the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. In 2006, the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California announced the creation of the Broad Institute for Integrative Biology and Stem Cell Research. Mr. Broad has also served as chairman of the board of trustees of Pitzer College and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the California State University system.

In 1991, the Broads endowed The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University (MSU), where Mr. Broad graduated cum laude in 1954.  In June 2007, the Broads announced a $26 million gift to create the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at MSU.

The Broads reside in Los Angeles and have two grown sons.