Thaddeus N. Taube

Thaddeus N. Taube is an American businessman and philanthropist, founder and chairman of Woodmont Companies, founder and chairman of Taube Philanthropies, and president emeritus of the Koret Foundation. He lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Areas.^[3][4][5][6]

Early life and education

Tadeusz (Tad) Taube was born April 1, 1931, in Krakow, Poland, to Zygmunt (Zyg) Taube and Lola Popper Taube. Zyg Taube ran an import-export business based in Torun, Poland. While on a business trip in the U.S. in early 1939, Tad’s parents decided Poland had become too dangerous and sent for their young son, who journeyed with a family friend and arrived in New York via Ellis Island on February 23, 1939.^[3][7] The Taube family first settled in New York City, sending Tad to an upstate summer camp to learn English. In 1940 the family moved to Los Angeles.^[3][7] Through family connections, Taube had a brief career as a child actor (1942-43) with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, making short wartime propaganda films such as “The Greenie” (1943). He earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering in 1954 and a Masters of Science in Industrial Management in 1957, both from Stanford University. Through the ROTC program at Stanford, Taube entered the U.S. Air Force and served as a second lieutenant on the West Coast, installing low-visibility landing systems.^{[3][8][9][3][10]}

Career

In 1959 Taube worked briefly at Wesix Electric, engineering electrical systems for suburban developments. In 1963 he partnered with Jack Hubbs and Bill Jordan to found E.H. Research Laboratories, specializing in fast-pulse measuring technology, central to the development of the high-speed transistor, precursor to the Silicon Valley tech boom. The company grew rapidly, and in 1963 Taube sold his interest in the company and moved into the expanding field of real estate, founding Taube Associates, which morphed in 1968 into Woodmont Companies, providing diversified real estate investment and management services. Concurrently, Taube co-founded Siltec Corporation, an early manufacturer of silicon wafers.^[3][11]

In 1970, through his business associations with Joe and Stephanie Koret, Taube was invited to join the board of Koracorp Industries, Inc., a successful sportswear manufacturer. In 1973 he became chairman and CEO of Koracorp and was asked to turn the company around from some financial reversals. By 1979, he was able to negotiate a profitable sale of Koracorp to Levi Strauss.^{[3][4][12][13]} When Stephanie Koret died in the same year, Taube advised Joe Koret to put his wife’s estate into a foundation, which became the Koret Foundation. Upon Joe’s death in 1982, Taube was appointed President and served in that capacity until 2014.^[3] Taube sold his interest in Siltec Corporation in 1980 and returned to managing Woodmont Companies, which he continues to manage to date.^[14][15] In 1982 he became one of the founders of the short-lived United States Football League and Owner/President of the Oakland Invaders, 1983-85.^[16]

In 1981, Tad Taube began his own philanthropic career with the Taube Family Foundation, augmented in 2001 by the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture. His gifts focus on programs and initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area, Poland, and Israel, with the following areas of concentration: education and scholarship, Jewish cultural renewal, institution and community building, and public-policy initiatives.^[17][18]

Key grantees include Stanford University (e.g., the Taube Family Tennis Stadium, the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Hoover Institution, and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies), the San Francisco Opera, Ronald McDonald House at Stanford, Bay Area Jewish Community Centers, Commonwealth Club of California, the Taube Koret Campus for Jewish Life (Palo Alto), the Contemporary Jewish Museum (San Francisco), the USC Shoah Foundation (Los Angeles), Jewish Family and Children’s Services (San Francisco), POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Warsaw), Jewish Music Festival (Krakow), the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), and Jagiellonian University (Krakow), among many others.^[3][19][20]

Major grants in the 2015-2018 period include $15 million to Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion (Jerusalem campus),^[21][22] the largest Taube grant to a Jewish institution; and $10.1 million to the University of California, Berkeley, Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life for the acquisition of the Taube Family Arthur Szyk Collection, the largest acquisition of art in UCB history.^{[23][24][25][26]}

A new recent priority has been in the realm of medical research and treatment, including $3.75 million to establish a Neurodegenerative Research Collaborative between the Stanford University School of Medicine, the UCSF Gladstone Institutes, and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging; $14.5 million to Stanford School of Medicine and the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health to establish the Tad and Dianne Taube Youth Addiction Initiative and the Taube Stanford Children's Concussion Collaborative; and $20 million to Lucille Packard Children's Hospital for a new Dianne and Tad Taube wing (Taube’s largest gift to any institution).^[27][28][29]

Tad Taube’s grant-making philosophy is to leverage the impact of grants through collaborative relationships with sister foundations and individual philanthropists who share his overall vision and philosophy.^[30][31][32]

References

External links

• Official website