Bruce Karatz
| Bruce Karatz | |
|---|---|
| Born |
October 10, 1945 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Education |
Boston University (B.A.) USC Gould School of Law (J.D) |
| Known for | Chairman and CEO of KB Home |
| Spouse(s) | Janet Dreisen (divorced) Sandra Lee (divorced) Lilly Tartikoff |
| Children | Elizabeth Karatz Matthew Karatz Teddy Karatz |
Bruce Karatz (born 1945) is an American businessman and philanthropist. He is noted for his role as Chairman and CEO of KB Home, and for his philanthropic efforts to help re-build both Los Angeles after the L.A. Riots and New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. During the 20 years Karatz served as CEO, KB Home grew revenues from $491 million to $11 billion and grew annual home deliveries from 4,500 homes in 1986 to over 39,000 homes in 2006. Karatz now operates BK Capital LLC and is based in Beverly Hills, California. In March 2013, Karatz was a recipient of The Malibu Times' 23rd Annual Dolphin Awards.
Karatz was born in Chicago, 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.
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 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.
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