Business leader and "venture philanthropist" Eli Broad was honored at the USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development's 19th annual Ides of March dinner, Monday evening, March 19, at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

USC trustee Edward P. Roski, president and CEO of Majestic Realty Co, and Bruce E. Karatz, chairman and CEO of KB Home, were co-chairs of the black-tie fund-raiser. Proceeds from the event provide scholarships for students pursuing master's degrees in public administration, public policy, health-care administration, international public policy and management, planning and real estate development.

Roski and Karatz, along with USC President Steven B. Sample and USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development Dean Daniel A. Mazmanian, presented Broad with the "Julius Award" for his years of outstanding public service.

The Julius Award, which is named in honor of Julius Caesar, recognizes both the rewards and sacrifices of public life. Established in 1983, the award aims to encourage strong, ethical public leadership, as well as to inspire the next generation of world leaders.

At the event, Broad said: "I am deeply grateful to USC for bestowing this honor on me. It is especially gratifying because it comes from the School of Policy, Planning, and Development."

USC President Sample said: "Eli believes in Los Angeles, in the greatness of the city today, and its potential for tomorrow. His enthusiasm and the changes he has brought to the city already are making believers out of many other people as well."

The son of Lithuanian immigrants, 2001 honoree Broad was born in New York and, after graduating cum laude from Michigan State University in 1954, began his career as the youngest CPA in the state of Michigan. By the age of 30 he was not only a millionaire, but had also created one of the most successful homebuilding companies in the world, Kaufman and Broad Home Corp.

Kaufman and Broad acquired Sun Life Insurance Company of America (now SunAmerica) in 1971, and in 1989 the two companies diverged. Broad refocused SunAmerica’s efforts on retirement savings and investment products and services, leading the company to list the highest performing stock on the NYSE from 1990 until 1999, when it merged with American International Group Inc. (AIG). Now chairman of SunAmerica, Broad also serves on the board of directors and investment committee of AIG, world leaders in insurance and financial services, operating in approximately 130 countries worldwide.

Passionate about Los Angeles and a staunch supporter of the effort to build a social core downtown, Broad spearheaded the efforts to raise $265 million for the construction of the Walt Disney Concert Hall at The Music Center of Los Angeles County. He was the founding chairman of the board of trustees of The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and led the successful effort to bring the Democratic National Convention to Los Angeles in 2000. He is a director and former chairman of the Los Angeles World Affairs Council and serves on the board of the Los Angeles Business Advisors.

An avid supporter of higher education and the arts, Broad and his wife, Edythe, established The Broad Art Foundation in 1984. The foundation runs an active "lending library," which loans works from its collection of contemporary art to museums and university galleries in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Asia.

In 1999, the Broad family also established The Broad Foundation, with an initial commitment of $200 million, to improve governance, management and labor relations in the nation’s largest urban school districts.

Broad recently made a major contribution to the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture for the construction of a new visual arts facility to be named the Edythe and Eli Broad Art Center. Broad is a member of the board of trustees of Caltech, where he recently gave the cornerstone gift to create the Broad Center for the Biological Sciences. In 1991, Broad endowed The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management at Michigan State University.

Among his numerous awards and civic honors, Broad was named Chevalier in the National Order of the Legion of Honor from the Republic of France in 1994. In 1999, he received the first Visionary Award from KCET-Los Angeles.

Past Julius Award honorees are, in order from 1983: Tom Bradley, Gerald R. Ford, Peter V. Ueberroth, Robert and Elizabeth Dole, Henry A. Kissinger, Paul A. Volcker, Art Buchwald, William F. Buckley Jr., Jack F. Kemp, Pete Wilson, Dick Cheney, George J. Mitchell, George Bush, Richard Riordan, Bill Bradley, William J. Bennett, Colin Powell and George P. Schultz.