A. Alfred Taubman

Growing up in Depression-era Detroit, Adolph Alfred Taubman began his career in retail at age 11 working at Sims department store after school near his family's home in Pontiac. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. But his freshman year was cut short by World War II and the call to military service. He enlisted in the Army and served with the Thirteenth Air Force in the Pacific theater. Returning to the University of Michigan on the GI Bill, Alfred studied art and architecture while creating a number of small on-campus business ventures to cover his expenses. Eager to start his family and his career, he proposed to his college sweetheart, transferred to night school at Lawrence Tech closer to home in Detroit, and went to work by day at the Charles N. Agree architectural firm.

In 1950, recognizing the explosive growth of the middle class in post-war America, Alfred decided to start a retail real estate development company. His first project was a freestanding bridal shop in Detroit. Alfred Taubman's merchandising instincts and his ability to assess and overcome threshold resistance - - a phrase he coined to describe the psychological and physical barriers that keep a shopper from entering a store - - guided The Taubman Company's planning and design over the next half century of what are to this day the most productive retail properties in the nation. The 1992 initial public offering of Taubman Centers, Inc. on the New York Stock Exchange is credited with setting in motion the securitization of America's commercial real estate.

As his shopping center business flourished across the country, Mr. Taubman served as a director of Manufacturers Bank of Detroit, Chase Manhattan Bank of New York, United Brands, R.H. Macy Co., and Getty Oil Company. He also broadened his personal investment interests in the 1970s and 1980s. The historic acquisition of California's Irvine Ranch, revitalizing the A&W Restaurant franchise, ownership of a professional football team, stewardship of the Woodward and Lothrop and John Wanamaker department store chains, and the dramatic repositioning of the venerable international auction house Sotheby's brought Taubman new levels of public recognition and success, along with controversy and challenge.

Today Alfred Taubman directs most of his attention and resources to civic and philanthropic initiatives. He established and funds the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute at the University of Michigan Medical School, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School, and Brown University's Public Policy and American Institutions program. He is the principal benefactor of the University of Michigan's College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Health Care Center, and Medical Library - - each of which bears his name - - and is a trustee of Detroit's College for Creative Studies, whose A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education opened in September 2009.

Mr. Taubman is president of the City of Detroit Arts Commission; chairman emeritus of The Archives of American Art of the Smithsonian Institution and member of the National Board of the Smithsonian Associates; founding member, Detroit Renaissance, Inc.; and a Governor of the Urban Land Institute Foundation. Mr. Taubman was the founding chairman and holds the title of chairman emeritus of the Advisory Board of the University of Pennsylvania's Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center. He is a former chairman of the National Realty Committee, the predecessor of the Real Estate Roundtable, Washington, D.C., and serves on the Advisory Board of the Brookings Institute.

Honors awarded Mr. Taubman include: Urban Land Institute Lifetime Achievement Award; Museum of Arts and Design Visionaries Award; Detroit Institute of Arts Lifetime Service Award; Doctor of Laws degree, conferred by the University of Michigan; Doctor of Business, conferred by Eastern Michigan University; Doctor of Architecture, conferred by Lawrence Technological University; Doctor of Education, conferred by Michigan State University; Doctor of Humanities, conferred by Northern Michigan University; Doctor of Fine Arts, conferred by the College for Creative Studies; Doctor of Public Service, conferred by Ferris State University; Harvard Business School Club of Detroit Business Statesman Award; Sportsman of the Year Award from both the United Foundation of Detroit and the Southeast Michigan Chapter - March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; and Detroit News Michiganian of the Year.