Koret Foundation


The Koret Foundation, along with the Koret Fund, is a private foundation based in San Francisco, California.

History

The foundation was organized in 1978 by Stephanie and Joseph Koret, along with Tad Taube, their family friend and Chief Executive Officer of their women's sportswear company, Koret of California, Inc. The foundation, endowed initially with the Korets' clothing fortune, primarily supports education, arts, hunger and nutrition and culture, and Jewish causes in the San Francisco Bay Area, and economic development in the state of Israel.
The foundation's assets grew from $172 million in 1990 to approximately $400 million in 2008. After Joseph Koret's death in 1982, Susan Koret was named chairperson and director for life due to the wishes of her husband who had written: "I have given much thought to the future of the Koret Foundation and it is my desire, as well as Susan’s, that she prepare herself to become a director and moving force in the foundation." In 1986, Susan Koret sued Tad Taube and board member Richard Greene who she believed had centralized decision making in themselves. Despite the appointment of an independent legal counsel to implement changes to prevent any director from wielding too much power, Susan continued with her lawsuit alleging that the Polish-born Taube had a personal agenda to promote his homeland to the detriment of other causes and that he had replaced outgoing board members with people who also served on his foundation, the Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture. The board countersued stating that Susan Koret is "incompetent, unproductive and disruptive to the organization" and that her "only contribution is opening and adjourning each board meeting." In April 2016, after an acrimonious trial, a settlement was reached and both Koret and Taube were forced to retire from their duties.