Eli Broad

Eli L. Broad (/broʊd/; born June 6, 1933) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the only person to build two Fortune 500 companies in different industries (KB Home and SunAmerica). As of October 2015, Forbes ranked Broad the 65th wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion.

Early life and education

Broad was born in 1933 in the Bronx, New York, the only child of Lithuanian Jewish immigrant parents who met in New York. His father worked as a house painter, and his mother worked as a dressmaker. His family moved to Detroit, Michigan when he was six years old. In Detroit, his father was a union organizer, and owned five-and-dime stores. Broad attended Detroit Public Schools and graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1951.

Broad attended Michigan State University, majoring in accounting with a minor in economics and graduating cum laude in 1954. Among the jobs Broad held in college were selling women's shoes, selling garbage disposals door-to-door, and working as a drill press operator at Packard Motor, where he was a member of United Auto Workers. The same year, 21-year-old Broad married 18-year-old Edythe "Edye" Lawson.