Bruce Karatz
Encyclopedia
Bruce Karatz is an American
homebuilder and philanthropist
noted for his role as CEO in the development of KB Home
from 1972 through 2006, and for his philanthropic efforts to help re-build Los Angeles
after the L.A. Riots and New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina
. On April 21 2010, Karatz was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud and two counts of making a false statement. He was acquitted of 16 other charges, including securities fraud and filing false proxy statements. On October 15, 2010, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed one of the two counts of mail fraud of which the jury had found Mr. Karatz to be guilty based on lack of evidence. On November 10, 2010, Judge Wright sentenced Mr. Karatz to probation for a term of five years, rejecting prosecutors’ request for a lengthy prison sentence, noting that there was no evidence that Mr. Karatz’s actions damaged KB Home or its shareholders.
, Il and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota
to a middle class Jewish family where his father owned a movie theater and his mother was a homemaker. He graduated from high school in 1963 and from Boston University
in 1967. Karatz received his Juris Doctor
degree from the University of Southern California
in 1970.
After spending a short time as an in-house counsel, Karatz moved to the home building side of the business and soon thereafter became head of KB Home’s French division. He made a mark in 1977 when he installed a full-sized model home on the roof of the Au Printemps
department store. More than 500,000 people toured the rooftop house. During his time in France
, KB Home grew into one of France's largest homebuilders.
In 1981 Karatz re-joined the Los Angeles headquarters of KB Home and in 1986 was named CEO. As CEO, Karatz oversaw the company’s growth into one of the most successful home building companies in the world. Karatz is credited with changing the company’s business model
of building homes on speculation
and then selling them in favor of building houses on order. KB Home's new business model allowed middle class
home buyers to customize their homes and defined a far more efficient and profitable business model for the industry.
In the early 1990s, when the real estate
market in Southern California collapsed, Karatz moved aggressively to expand the company by acquiring other regional home builders such as the San Antonio-based builder Rayco for $105 million in 1996. The success of the new business model led KB Home to acquire additional companies and expand organically into markets across the country to provide customized homes for middle class families.
As CEO, Karatz built on his Paris marketing
achievements. Working with Fox Broadcasting, which was celebrating the tenth anniversary of The Simpsons
, KB Home constructed a real-life replica of the Simpsons' home in one of KB Home's Nevada subdivisions, which helped turn Las Vegas
into KB Home's top market.
During his tenure as CEO, KB Home became a Fortune 500
company. Karatz oversaw a 1476% increase in the company’s market capitalization
, an 800% increase in the companies stock price, a 575% growth in revenue
, a 400% rise in dividends and increased the number of employees from less than 500 to over 6,000. In 2006, KB Home was ranked the #1 homebuilder in Fortune Magazine’s 2006 list of America’s Most Admired Companies and was listed by Fortune as one of America’s Most Admired Companies[4] and won the American Business Award as the Best Overall Company. Karatz in turn became one of the country's highest-paid CEOs during this time.
Karatz had to overcome reservations of KB Homes’ Board of Directors. Fortune Magazine wrote at the time, “It’s not often you hear a CEO express goals in humanitarian, not bottom-line, terms, especially when its shareholder money with which he’s do-gooding.”
Karatz agreed to make KB Home the builder for an episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition after listening to a pitch from employees. The show featured a family headed by a single mother, Patricia Broadbent, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer
and had seven children. Six of the children were adopted, three of those born with HIV.
Ms. Broadbent is a longtime children’s advocate, former social worker and an internationally recognized AIDS activist.
Rather than remodel the family’s home, Karatz decided to raze it and build a 3200 square feet (297.3 m²) home in 48 hours. Hundreds of workers and KB Home demolished the Broadbents’ 1450 square feet (134.7 m²) cinderblock house while Ms. Broadbent and three of her daughters were on vacation. In the closing moments of the episode, Karatz tore up the family’s mortgage, promised to pay off the entire loan on their behalf and said they’d never have to worry about making those payments again.
In 1992 after the Los Angeles riots, Kaufman and Broad spearheaded the effort to rebuild Camp Hollywoodland, a rustic canyon retreat for inner-city children whose main hall, dining room and other structures were gutted by fire.
In 2007, Karatz founded the Keep Your Home Foundation to support people in California facing foreclosures as a result of the mortgage crisis. Keep Your Home Foundation supports a clearinghouse website to provide information to homeowners facing foreclosure.
In a November 2004 cover article, The USA Today said of him, “Karatz brings honesty that people around him notice.”
Since May 2010, Mr. Karatz has worked as a full-time volunteer and financial supporter of a non-profit agency, HomeBoy Industries.
Karatz other philanthropic initiatives include:
He has been recognized for his philanthropic leadership, including:
In 2008, in resolution of the November 12 2006 agreement with the company, Karatz paid $8.5 million to KB Home. In addition, Karatz paid $480,000 to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission civil case. He did not admit or deny wrongdoing.
In March 2009, Karatz was indicted for his role in option granting process at KB Home. He was accused of selecting backdated stock option grant dates for himself and others at KB Home and then failing to fully disclose this to the company's board, shareholders, accountant’s and regulators. He pled not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
After the verdict, Karatz issued the following statement: "I will continue to get strength from the support of my family, including my wife, children and grandchildren, good friends and former colleagues. And while this is personally a challenging time, what I continue to value from my time as the CEO of KB Home is the fact that we successfully built a strong company, created more than 5,000 good paying jobs and executed upon a business strategy that created very, very significant shareholder value—all resulting in KB Home being listed in 2006 as one of "America’s Most Admired Companies".
On October 15 2010, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed one of the two counts of mail fraud of which the jury had found Mr. Karatz to be guilty based on lack of evidence. On November 10 2010, Judge Wright sentenced Mr. Karatz to probation for a term of five years, including eight months in a home detention program, and fined him $1,000,000. Judge Wright rejected prosecutors’ request for a lengthy prison sentence, noting that there was no evidence that Mr. Karatz’s actions damaged KB Home or its shareholders. A federal probation officer had recommended the sentence that Judge Wright imposed, saying he was swayed by Mr. Karatz’s long history of philanthropy, previously clean record and the lack of a financial loss. The report of the Probation Office stated in part as follows:
Truly, in the collective 30 plus-year experience of the undersigned Probation Officer and Supervising Probation Officer, this office has never seen such an array of efforts to assist the community . . . These letters [submitted on Mr. Karatz’s behalf] all note the defendant’s support during times of need. Most notably, the letters describe the involvement of the defendant and reflect a participation that involved much more than mere financial donations. This is not a man who simply shared his wealth. He extensively shared his expertise and time as well.
A community leader sent a letter stating as follows:
Bruce has always been the “can-do” guy, requiring virtually no public attention or accolades. While a common lament about Los Angeles is that it has lost many of the iconic figures who propelled its prosperity and sense of community purpose, Bruce has repeatedly stepped up to fill the void, always taking on the tough jobs--for kids, for minorities, for abused women, for the arts, for education, for the LAPD, and for conservation and the environment. Mayors Bradley and Riordan turned to Bruce time and time again when there was a need for leadership. The results include everything from Rebuild LA, which Bruce chaired after the civil unrest in the early 1990s, to Camp Hollywoodland, to the Mayor’s Alliance for a Safer LA, and the list goes on. At the University of Southern California, where I also chair a board, Bruce has been a wise counselor and strong supporter, serving on the Board of Trustees, and importantly, as a driving and pivotal member of the Board of Counselors for the USC Gould School of Law. His interests there have always been to increase quality and to extend the outreach of our University to meet the needs of the broader community.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Wright, in rejecting the government’s request for an order sending Mr. Karatz to prison for six and a half years, called the government’s sentencing memorandum “mean-spirited and beneath this office.”
On December 14, 2010, Mr. Karatz and the prosecutors filed a stipulation dismissing their respective appeals of the trial court’s judgment and order.
Post-sentencing press reports stated that, in retrospect, the backdating “scandal” was overblown. Although more than 800 companies used some form of lookback to price their stock options, only a handful of people were unlucky enough to face serious consequences as a result. Some 2,000 public companies engaged in backdating at some point. Some 150 companies eventually restated their past results to conform to the proper rule for expensing such options. Yet only a few executives were singled out for criminal prosecution.
, Barack Obama
, Al Gore
, Antonio Villaraigosa
and Dianne Feinstein
(according to public campaign finance records.)
, a leading cancer activist best known for co-founding the annual Revlon Run/Walk events in New York
and Los Angeles and Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program, which helped raise more than $80 million for cancer
research.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
homebuilder and philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
noted for his role as CEO in the development of KB Home
KB Home
KB Home is a homebuilding company based in the United States, founded in 1957 as Kaufman & Broad in Detroit, Michigan. It was the first company to be traded on the NYSE as a home builder and is a Fortune 500 company...
from 1972 through 2006, and for his philanthropic efforts to help re-build Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
after the L.A. Riots and New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season was a powerful Atlantic hurricane. It is the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was the sixth strongest overall...
. On April 21 2010, Karatz was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud and two counts of making a false statement. He was acquitted of 16 other charges, including securities fraud and filing false proxy statements. On October 15, 2010, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed one of the two counts of mail fraud of which the jury had found Mr. Karatz to be guilty based on lack of evidence. On November 10, 2010, Judge Wright sentenced Mr. Karatz to probation for a term of five years, rejecting prosecutors’ request for a lengthy prison sentence, noting that there was no evidence that Mr. Karatz’s actions damaged KB Home or its shareholders.
Early life
Karatz was born in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Il and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
to a middle class Jewish family where his father owned a movie theater and his mother was a homemaker. He graduated from high school in 1963 and from Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
in 1967. Karatz received his Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor
Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...
degree from the University of Southern California
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
in 1970.
Career
In 1972, Karatz joined Kaufman & Broad (the company took the KB Home name in 2001) as an associate general counsel.After spending a short time as an in-house counsel, Karatz moved to the home building side of the business and soon thereafter became head of KB Home’s French division. He made a mark in 1977 when he installed a full-sized model home on the roof of the Au Printemps
Printemps
Printemps is a French department store .The flagship Printemps store is located on Boulevard Haussmann in the IXe arrondissement of Paris along with other well-known department stores like Galeries Lafayette. There are other Printemps stores in Paris and throughout France...
department store. More than 500,000 people toured the rooftop house. During his time in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, KB Home grew into one of France's largest homebuilders.
In 1981 Karatz re-joined the Los Angeles headquarters of KB Home and in 1986 was named CEO. As CEO, Karatz oversaw the company’s growth into one of the most successful home building companies in the world. Karatz is credited with changing the company’s business model
Business model
A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...
of building homes on speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
and then selling them in favor of building houses on order. KB Home's new business model allowed middle class
Middle class
The middle class is any class of people in the middle of a societal hierarchy. In Weberian socio-economic terms, the middle class is the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-economically between the working class and upper class....
home buyers to customize their homes and defined a far more efficient and profitable business model for the industry.
In the early 1990s, when the real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
market in Southern California collapsed, Karatz moved aggressively to expand the company by acquiring other regional home builders such as the San Antonio-based builder Rayco for $105 million in 1996. The success of the new business model led KB Home to acquire additional companies and expand organically into markets across the country to provide customized homes for middle class families.
As CEO, Karatz built on his Paris marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
achievements. Working with Fox Broadcasting, which was celebrating the tenth anniversary of The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, KB Home constructed a real-life replica of the Simpsons' home in one of KB Home's Nevada subdivisions, which helped turn Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
into KB Home's top market.
During his tenure as CEO, KB Home became a Fortune 500
Fortune 500
The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...
company. Karatz oversaw a 1476% increase in the company’s market capitalization
Market capitalization
Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...
, an 800% increase in the companies stock price, a 575% growth in revenue
Revenue
In business, revenue is income that a company receives from its normal business activities, usually from the sale of goods and services to customers. In many countries, such as the United Kingdom, revenue is referred to as turnover....
, a 400% rise in dividends and increased the number of employees from less than 500 to over 6,000. In 2006, KB Home was ranked the #1 homebuilder in Fortune Magazine’s 2006 list of America’s Most Admired Companies and was listed by Fortune as one of America’s Most Admired Companies[4] and won the American Business Award as the Best Overall Company. Karatz in turn became one of the country's highest-paid CEOs during this time.
Philanthropic Activities
In December 2005, shortly after Hurricane Katrina, Karatz directed that KB Home become the first, and at that time only, national homebuilder to go to New Orleans to support re-building efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. KB Home acquired 74 finished lots in downtown New Orleans and bought 3,000 acres in Jefferson Parish. At the time, Karatz said,
“We're now seven, eight months into post-Katrina, and we're the only ones that have stepped up. I honestly think that's part of the problem with New Orleans: It's a weak business community. And I personally felt it was important for a company like ours to do something, because if we waited for others, we could be waiting a long time. And if we're successful, it will motivate others.”
Karatz had to overcome reservations of KB Homes’ Board of Directors. Fortune Magazine wrote at the time, “It’s not often you hear a CEO express goals in humanitarian, not bottom-line, terms, especially when its shareholder money with which he’s do-gooding.”
Karatz agreed to make KB Home the builder for an episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition after listening to a pitch from employees. The show featured a family headed by a single mother, Patricia Broadbent, who had been diagnosed with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
and had seven children. Six of the children were adopted, three of those born with HIV.
Ms. Broadbent is a longtime children’s advocate, former social worker and an internationally recognized AIDS activist.
Rather than remodel the family’s home, Karatz decided to raze it and build a 3200 square feet (297.3 m²) home in 48 hours. Hundreds of workers and KB Home demolished the Broadbents’ 1450 square feet (134.7 m²) cinderblock house while Ms. Broadbent and three of her daughters were on vacation. In the closing moments of the episode, Karatz tore up the family’s mortgage, promised to pay off the entire loan on their behalf and said they’d never have to worry about making those payments again.
In 1992 after the Los Angeles riots, Kaufman and Broad spearheaded the effort to rebuild Camp Hollywoodland, a rustic canyon retreat for inner-city children whose main hall, dining room and other structures were gutted by fire.
In 2007, Karatz founded the Keep Your Home Foundation to support people in California facing foreclosures as a result of the mortgage crisis. Keep Your Home Foundation supports a clearinghouse website to provide information to homeowners facing foreclosure.
In a November 2004 cover article, The USA Today said of him, “Karatz brings honesty that people around him notice.”
Since May 2010, Mr. Karatz has worked as a full-time volunteer and financial supporter of a non-profit agency, HomeBoy Industries.
Karatz other philanthropic initiatives include:
- Rand Corporation (Board of Trustees 1995-2006 and Vice-Chairman 2004; Chairman, Rand Education Committee 1994-2003)
- DARE (Director)
- Children’s Institute International (Director)
- National Park Foundation (Director)
- Co-Chair of the Mayor’s Alliance for Safer L.A. YMCA of Metropolitan LA (Director)
- KCET, Board of Directors
- Pitzer CollegePitzer CollegePitzer College is a private residential liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, a college town approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. Pitzer College is one of the Claremont Colleges....
(Director) - Coro (Director)
- Wilshire Boulevard TempleWilshire Boulevard TempleWilshire Boulevard Temple, founded in 1862 as Congregation B'nai B'rith, is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, California. One of the country’s most respected Reform congregations, Wilshire Boulevard Temple's magnificent sanctuary, with its iconic dome and Warner Murals, is a City of...
(President)
He has been recognized for his philanthropic leadership, including:
- Human Relations Award, American Jewish Committee (2004)
- Ellis Island Medal of Honor, National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (2003)
- Crystal Angel Award, Los Angeles Police Foundation (2002)
- Distinguished Humanitarian Award, B’nai B'rith (2000)
- Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, Presented by the Pres. Of France (1999)
- Spirit of Life Award, City of Hope National Medical Center (1996)
- Jack Webb Award, LA Police Historical Society (1995)
- Distinguished Service Award, The Aviva Center (1994)
- Humanitarian of the Year Award, National Association of Christians and Jews (1984)
Indictment
On November 12 2006 Karatz agreed to leave KB Home and to pay the company the difference between the initial strike price of his stock options and the closing price on the new “measurement date” for options he had exercised that were incorrectly priced.In 2008, in resolution of the November 12 2006 agreement with the company, Karatz paid $8.5 million to KB Home. In addition, Karatz paid $480,000 to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission civil case. He did not admit or deny wrongdoing.
In March 2009, Karatz was indicted for his role in option granting process at KB Home. He was accused of selecting backdated stock option grant dates for himself and others at KB Home and then failing to fully disclose this to the company's board, shareholders, accountant’s and regulators. He pled not guilty and denied wrongdoing.
Verdict
On April 21 2010, Karatz was found guilty of two counts of mail fraud and two counts of making a false statement. He was acquitted of 16 others charges, including securities fraud and filing false proxy statements. The jury found Mr. Karatz “not guilty” on all counts charging the actual “backdating” of KB stock options.After the verdict, Karatz issued the following statement: "I will continue to get strength from the support of my family, including my wife, children and grandchildren, good friends and former colleagues. And while this is personally a challenging time, what I continue to value from my time as the CEO of KB Home is the fact that we successfully built a strong company, created more than 5,000 good paying jobs and executed upon a business strategy that created very, very significant shareholder value—all resulting in KB Home being listed in 2006 as one of "America’s Most Admired Companies".
On October 15 2010, Judge Otis D. Wright II dismissed one of the two counts of mail fraud of which the jury had found Mr. Karatz to be guilty based on lack of evidence. On November 10 2010, Judge Wright sentenced Mr. Karatz to probation for a term of five years, including eight months in a home detention program, and fined him $1,000,000. Judge Wright rejected prosecutors’ request for a lengthy prison sentence, noting that there was no evidence that Mr. Karatz’s actions damaged KB Home or its shareholders. A federal probation officer had recommended the sentence that Judge Wright imposed, saying he was swayed by Mr. Karatz’s long history of philanthropy, previously clean record and the lack of a financial loss. The report of the Probation Office stated in part as follows:
Truly, in the collective 30 plus-year experience of the undersigned Probation Officer and Supervising Probation Officer, this office has never seen such an array of efforts to assist the community . . . These letters [submitted on Mr. Karatz’s behalf] all note the defendant’s support during times of need. Most notably, the letters describe the involvement of the defendant and reflect a participation that involved much more than mere financial donations. This is not a man who simply shared his wealth. He extensively shared his expertise and time as well.
A community leader sent a letter stating as follows:
Bruce has always been the “can-do” guy, requiring virtually no public attention or accolades. While a common lament about Los Angeles is that it has lost many of the iconic figures who propelled its prosperity and sense of community purpose, Bruce has repeatedly stepped up to fill the void, always taking on the tough jobs--for kids, for minorities, for abused women, for the arts, for education, for the LAPD, and for conservation and the environment. Mayors Bradley and Riordan turned to Bruce time and time again when there was a need for leadership. The results include everything from Rebuild LA, which Bruce chaired after the civil unrest in the early 1990s, to Camp Hollywoodland, to the Mayor’s Alliance for a Safer LA, and the list goes on. At the University of Southern California, where I also chair a board, Bruce has been a wise counselor and strong supporter, serving on the Board of Trustees, and importantly, as a driving and pivotal member of the Board of Counselors for the USC Gould School of Law. His interests there have always been to increase quality and to extend the outreach of our University to meet the needs of the broader community.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Wright, in rejecting the government’s request for an order sending Mr. Karatz to prison for six and a half years, called the government’s sentencing memorandum “mean-spirited and beneath this office.”
On December 14, 2010, Mr. Karatz and the prosecutors filed a stipulation dismissing their respective appeals of the trial court’s judgment and order.
Post-sentencing press reports stated that, in retrospect, the backdating “scandal” was overblown. Although more than 800 companies used some form of lookback to price their stock options, only a handful of people were unlucky enough to face serious consequences as a result. Some 2,000 public companies engaged in backdating at some point. Some 150 companies eventually restated their past results to conform to the proper rule for expensing such options. Yet only a few executives were singled out for criminal prosecution.
Political Activity
Over the years, Karatz generated attention over his support of Democratic candidates, including Bill ClintonBill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Al Gore
Al Gore
Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. served as the 45th Vice President of the United States , under President Bill Clinton. He was the Democratic Party's nominee for President in the 2000 U.S. presidential election....
, Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Villaraigosa
Antonio Ramón Villaraigosa , born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr., is the 41st and current Mayor of Los Angeles, California, the third Mexican American to have ever held office in the city of Los Angeles and the first in over 130 years. He is also the current president of the United States Conference of...
and Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein is the senior U.S. Senator from California. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served in the Senate since 1992. She also served as 38th Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988....
(according to public campaign finance records.)
Family life
Karatz lives in Los Angeles and has three adult children, Elizabeth, Matthew and Teddy, and four grandchildren. He was married from 2001 to 2005 to Sandra Lee. Currently, he is married to Lilly TartikoffLilly Tartikoff
Lilly Tartikoff Karatz is an American cancer activist and fundraiser. She has raised more than $80 million for cancer research.- Early life :...
, a leading cancer activist best known for co-founding the annual Revlon Run/Walk events in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Los Angeles and Revlon/UCLA Women's Cancer Research Program, which helped raise more than $80 million for cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
research.
External links
- Keep Your Home Foundation Foundation set up by Bruce Karatz to help families facing home foreclosure.
- Bruce Karatz biography at Keep Your Home Foundation