The Koret Foundation and the Koret Fund are private philanthropic organizations run by independent boards of directors
Susan Koret, Board Chair
Susan Koret is lifetime chair of the board of the Koret Foundation.
Born in Seoul, South Korea, she immigrated to the United States where,
in 1979, she married Joseph Koret and converted to Judaism. Since the
death of her husband in 1982, she has sustained and enhanced his philanthropic
legacy through devoted commitment to the Foundation. She is an active investor and also serves
on the boards of the American Friends of the Hebrew University, the
Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning at the University of San Francisco,
and the Korean Center of San Francisco. She is an active supporter
of San Francisco's cultural community and minority ethnic communities,
involving herself in programs ranging from the arts to youth education.
Tad Taube, President
Tad Taube serves as president of the Koret Foundation and chairman of Taube Philanthropies. He is chairman and founder of the Woodmont Companies, a diversified real estate investment and management organization. He was chairman and CEO of Koracorp Industries (successor to Koret of California) from 1973 until its merger with Levi Strauss in 1979. He has 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.
At his alma mater, Stanford University, Mr. Taube is founder and advisory board chair of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies, established in 1986. He is a member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution and serves on its Executive Committee, and was founder and past chairman of the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). In addition, Mr. Taube is past chair of the Stanford Athletic Board. 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.
Mr. Taube was a founder of the United States Football League (USFL) in 1982 and was principal owner of the Oakland Invaders football franchise. A member of the Lincoln Club, the Commonwealth Club and numerous other civic organizations, he has received a number of prestigious service awards and recognitions, including the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award presented by United Way in 1998, the Scopus Award from the Hebrew University in 1985, and an honorary doctorate degree from Pacific Graduate School of Psychology in 1995.
In 2004, the President of the Republic of Poland awarded Tad Taube Poland’s highest civilian medal — The Commander’s Cross — and three years later, in 2007, the Republic of Poland named Mr. Taube Honorary Consul General for the San Francisco peninsula region.
Also in 2007, Mr. Taube received the Corporate Citizenship Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The Forward newspaper recognized him as one of its Forward Fifty most influential Jews in America.
Mr. Taube holds BS and MS degrees from Stanford University and served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He is married to Dianne Panos Taube and he has six children ranging in age from 5 to 50.
Richard Atkinson
Retired as the president of the University of California in 2003,
Richard Atkinson has also served as chancellor of the University
of California, San Diego. Appointed director of the National Science
Foundation by President Jimmy Carter, Dr. Atkinson’s national
and international science policies included negotiating the first memorandum
of understanding in history between the People's Republic of China
and the United States. He was a long-standing
faculty member at Stanford University, serving as a professor of psychology
and holding appointments
in the School of Engineering, the School of Education, the Applied
Mathematics and Statistics Laboratories, and the Institute for Mathematical
Studies in the Social Sciences.
Dr. Atkinson's research dealt with problems of memory and cognition. His theory of human memory has helped clarify the relationship between brain structures and psychological phenomena, explaining the effects of drugs on memory and formulation of techniques to optimize learning. He developed one of the first computer-controlled systems for instruction — a prototype for the commercial development of computer-assisted instruction, which focused primarily on reading for young school children. A co-founder of the Computer Curriculum Corporation, his scientific contributions resulted in his election to the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Education, and the American Philosophical Society. Past president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is former chair of the Association of American Universities. A mountain in Antarctica has been named in his honor.
Michael J. Boskin
Michael
J. Boskin is Tully M. Friedman Professor of Economics and senior fellow,
Hoover Institution, Stanford
University. He is
also research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research. An advisor
to governments and global businesses , Dr. Boskin serves on several
corporate and philanthropic boards of directors. He served as chairman
of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from 1989
to 1993. The independent Council for Excellence in Government rated
Dr. Boskin’s CEA one of the five most respected agencies (out
of 100) in the federal government. He chaired the highly influential
blue-ribbon Consumer Price Index Commission, whose report has
transformed the way government statistical agencies around the world
measure inflation, GDP, and productivity.
Dr. Boskin received his B.A. with highest honors in economics and the Chancellor’s Award as outstanding undergraduate in 1967 from the University of California , Berkeley, where he also received his M.A. in 1968 and his Ph.D. in 1971. In addition to Stanford and the University of California, he has taught at Harvard and Yale. The author of more than 100 books and articles, he is internationally recognized for his research on world economic growth, tax and budget theory and policy ; U.S. saving and consumption patterns ; and the implications of changing technology and demography on capital, labor, and product markets.
Dr. Boskin has received numerous professional awards and citations, including Stanford’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 1988, the National Association for Business Economists’ Abramson Award for outstanding research and its Distinguished Fellow Award, the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic in 1991 for his contributions to global economic understanding, and the 1998 Adam Smith Prize for outstanding contributions to economics.
William K. Coblentz
William K. Coblentz is a senior partner with the law firm of Coblentz,
Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP. A former chair of the Board
of Regents of the University of California, he presently serves on
the boards of the McClatchy Company, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, Children Now, University of California Press, and the University
of California , San Francisco Medical Center Foundation. He is
a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, San Francisco ; the American
Bar Association ; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; the
American Law Institute; and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Mr. Coblentz was formerly a member of the board of directors of the Pacific Telesis Group, the San Francisco Airports Commission, Vidal Sassoon, Inc., and Mervyns ; he was a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University, and an adjunct professor at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Anita Friedman
Jewish Family & Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin & Sonoma Counties, Executive Director
Dr. Anita Friedman has served for nearly 30 years as executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, one of the largest family service institutions in the United States, with 13 Bay Area offices in five counties serving more than 58,000 children, adults and seniors each year. She is a frequent lecturer and writer on issues of Jewish communal service, mental health and innovative business models for the provision of human services.
In addition to serving on the Koret Foundation Advisory Board, and on the board of the American Friends of Koret Israel Economic Development Funds, Dr. Friedman serves on various local, state, national and international boards and commissions. Among them are the Human Services Commission for the City and County of San Francisco and the International Board of Trustees for the World Council of Jewish Communal Service. She has consulted with the State of Israel’s Ministry of Social Affairs on best practices in serving children and families, and her breakthrough work to acclimate Soviet Jews to American life has won her accolades from dignitaries the world over.
A licensed clinical social worker specializing in mental health services for families and couples, Dr. Friedman has received high praise and numerous awards, including the State of California Family Service Council Leadership Award, the International Louis Kraft Award for Jewish communal service; the Myrtle Wreath Award, Hadassah’s highest honor; the Jewish Community Federation's Professional of the Year Award; and the Koret Prize for leadership in community service. She is a graduate of the prestigious Wexner Heritage Foundation fellowship.
Dr. Friedman completed undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley, and her doctoral degree in organizational psychology at the University of San Francisco. The daughter of Holocaust survivors, she and her husband live in San Francisco and have three sons.
Robert Friend
Robert Friend is president of Howard Properties of San Francisco,
a privately held real estate investment company. A graduate of the
University of California, Berkeley, he serves as president of the Friend
Family Foundation, chairman of UCSF’s Diabetes Advisory Committee,
and chairman of Summer Search San Francisco, a program that challenges
low-income high school students to develop character and leadership
by providing year-round mentoring, life-changing summer experiences,
college advising, and a lasting support network.
In addition, Mr. Friend is a member of the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee at UCSF and serves on the boards of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture, the Bernard Osher Foundation, and several other supporting foundations of San Francisco’s Jewish Community Endowment Fund.
Richard L. Greene
Richard
L. Greene is a specialist in tax law and a founding partner of the
law firm Greene, Radovsky, Maloney, Share & Hennigh. He is a frequent
lecturer in the tax field and a recipient of the V. Judson Klein Award
for outstanding contributions to the field of taxation. He has served
as co-chairman of the executive committee of the State Bar of California
Taxation Section, past president of the San Francisco Barristers Club’s
Tax Section, and president of the San Francisco Tax Litigation Club.
Mr. Greene has also served as adjunct professor at Boalt Hall School
of Law, conducted seminars at Stanford
University and Hastings College
of the Law, and taught courses at the University of San Francisco Law
School. He is the president of the board of trustees of the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art.
Mr. Greene is a trustee of the Berkeley Foundation ; a member of the advisory boards of the Bancroft Library and the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy ; and a director of the Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning. He also serves as a director of other private charitable foundations.
Stanley Herzstein
Stanley
Herzstein is former president of the men’s division of Koracorp,
a subsidiary of Koret of California, where he worked with Joseph Koret
for 30 years. He has served on the boards of the Jewish Home, San Francisco
; the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula,
Marin and Sonoma Counties; Pacific Bank; San Francisco State University
College of Business; American Committee for Shaare Zedek Medical Center;
Market Street Development Association; International Society of General
Semantics (now the Institute of General Semantics); and the San Francisco
City Task Force on Aging. He is past president of the San Francisco
Commission on Aging and a past president of the Institute on Aging.
Abraham D. Sofaer
Abraham
D. Sofaer is the George P. Shultz Distinguished Scholar and senior
fellow at the Hoover Institution. He previously served as a
federal district judge in New York and as legal adviser to the U. S.
Department of State. Prior to that time he was a professor of
law at Columbia University, where he focused on separation of powers
issues in the American system of government, including the power over
war. He has also served as assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern
District of New York and was a clerk to Judge J. Skelly Wright on the
U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., and to the Honorable William
J. Brennan Jr., associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States. Currently, he concentrates on issues related to terrorism,
international law, diplomacy, and national security.
He has written many articles on terrorism, the Middle East peace process, and the use of force in international affairs. When he was a professor at Columbia University, he wrote a book about the constitutional powers of Congress and the President to control or affect the use of force. As an administrative judge in New York state, he presided over the first major environmental action involving PCBs. After leaving the Department of State, he practiced law at Hughes, Hubbard and Reed in Washington, D.C. As U.S. district judge for the Southern District of New York, he handled several high-profile cases, including the libel action against Time magazine by then Israeli general and later prime minister, Ariel Sharon. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yeshiva University. He is president of the American Friends of the Koret Israel Economic Development Funds and is a founding trustee and chairman of the board of the Jazz Museum in Harlem. He serves on other corporate and charitable boards.