#2 Eli Broad
Net Worth: $5.4 billion -22%
Last Year: $6.9 billion
Age: 76
Residence: Los Angeles
Source of Wealth: Homebuilding, insurance
The Money:
L.A.? best-known philanthropist saw his once-$5.3 billion stake in insurance giant AIG evaporate during last year? credit crisis. His massive contemporary art collection is down slightly from last year? $1.6 billion high.
The Buzz:
Shoring up his fortune is not how Eli Broad would have envisioned spending much of the past year.
After all, the 75-year-old billionaire had already spent decades building up not one, but two Fortune 500 companies before making himself over as a venture philanthropist.
And he? still got a lot of school districts to turn around, downtowns to redevelop and arts institutions to endow.
But that work had to be put on hold as AIG crumbled in the global economic meltdown. Broad, who sold his Sun America financial services company to the insurance giant a decade ago, became the public face of angry shareholders, who watched their nest eggs dwindle due to AIG? bad bets on subprime credit default swaps.
He played a behind-the-scenes role in the shakeup of the New York financial conglomerate? management and board ?all to no avail. His holdings in the insurer, valued at $5.3 billion in 2005, shrunk to less than $1.7 billion.
Ultimately, he threw in the towel, liquidated and took his losses. Broad said he squirreled away what was left in gold, municipal bonds and other conservative investments. Back in Los Angeles, he shrugged off the debacle and continued to use his muscle to shake up educational and cultural institutions.
He was among a core of civic and political leaders who pressured the Los Angeles Unified School District to oust Superintendent David L. Brewer in December. That same month, Broad used his financial muscle to overhaul the management of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, pledging $30 million after he got his desired changes.
Unlike self-described billionaire ?ambler?Kirk Kerkorian, Broad is a more calculated risk-taker, befitting his origins as a certified public accountant in his native Michigan back in the 1950s. ? don? take risks unless I can get a big reward,?he has often said.
Broad had his first big success with homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, but poured his energy into philanthropy and civic service after selling off Sun America. Since then, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has contributed roughly $1.5 billion to educational and cultural institutions. Museums, business schools and medical research institutes are named for him and his wife from coast to coast. His latest namesake, the Broad Contemporary Art Museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, opened last year. It will hold exhibitions of his $1.5 billion art collection.
And despite the economic meltdown, the Broads have continued to give. After learning that New York? famous Juilliard School had lost financing for a well-regarded musical training program for African American and Latino children, the Broad foundation last month pledged $425,000 over four years to help keep the program afloat.
Closer to home, the Broads are lead underwriters of the Los Angeles Opera? upcoming production of Richard Wagner? classic Der Ring cycle. Even so, Broad wishes he could do more. The foundation, whose assets are down 28 percent from 15 months ago, is fulfilling current commitments, but making fewer new promises.
?e?e more judicious when looking at new things,?he said. ?ut then, everyone is these days.?br>
