Thaddeus (Tad) Taube’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Tad Taube is an American real-estate business executive, investor, and philanthropist. Based in San Francisco, California, he is the chairman of Taube Philanthropies and Woodmont Real Estate Services.

Early life and education

Tad Taube was born Thaddeus N. Taube on April 1, 1931 in Kraków, Poland. When he was around 8, his mother and father traveled to the United States for business, while Taube stayed in Warsaw with his grandmother. Shortly after, Taube immigrated to America with his father’s best friend who was traveling from Poland to New York. In America, Taube lived with his parents in New York until the family moved to Los Angeles.

His family had connections in the film industry through which Tad landed a role on Fred Zinnemann-directed short film, The Greenie (1942,) and Leslie Fenton-directed war drama film, Tomorrow, the World! (1944.)

Taube attended Stanford University, California, from where he received a Bachelor of science degree in industrial engineering in 1953, and later, a Master of science degree in industrial management, in 1957. Between his bachelor’s and master’s, he also served in the Air Force.

Career

After finishing his master’s education at Stanford University, Taube partnered with two Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory physicists to create E-H Research Laboratories. He left after the company’s IPO and used the proceeds to embark on a career in real estate. In 1963, he founded Woodmont Real Estate Services, a diversified real estate investment and management organization. In 2013, Woodmont merged with Washington D.C.-based Cassidy Turley Real Estate Services.

In 1973, Taube became the Chief Executive Officer of clothing company, Koret of California. Koret, at the time, was struggling financially, and its founder Joseph Koret (1900–1982) persuaded Taube to take over the CEO role, while he assumed the chairman emeritus position himself. The clothing company recovered and was bought by Levi Strauss & Company in 1979.

While working with Koret, Taube and Joseph Koret founded in 1978 a charity organization named Koret Foundation. After Koret’s death in 1982, Taube became president of the Koret Foundation, and Koret’s widow, his second wife, Susan, became board chair.

In 1986, Taube founded the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, a Stanford university interdisciplinary program for the study and understanding of Jewish cultures, literatures, languages, religion, politics, and history. In addition, he is the past chairman of the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR.)

In 2003, Taube established a philanthropic program – the Jewish Heritage Initiative in Poland (JHIP) – which supports the revitalization of Jewish culture in now-democratic Poland. In June 2004, at a ceremony in Warsaw, he was awarded the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, the country’s second highest distinction for a foreigner. In June 2015, then President of the Republic of Poland Bronislaw Komorowski awarded him the Commander’s Cross of the Star of the Order of Merit, Poland’s highest level official state distinction for a foreign civilian.

Taube continues to serve as the chairman of Woodmont Real Estate Services that he founded in 1968, and of Taube Philanthropies that he founded in 1981. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution and serves on its Executive Committee. His involvement in Stanford Athletics includes his family’s principal gift to Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium and his significant support of Stanford’s new football stadium, built in 2006. He has also served as trustee of the University of Notre Dame de Namur, the University of San Francisco, and as governor of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem.