push yourself."
Kaplan himself concurs that he is
always "encouraging others to be all
they can be, and pushing people to
strive, to shoot higher. I tell them
not to accept mediocrity, but to
always shoot for A-plus."
Kaplan's parents divorced when he
was 2. His father is Birmingham attor-
ney David Kaplan, with whom he has
remained close. Kaplan's mother Linda
Eder Ross, who often struggled on a
tight budget as a single parent until
she remarried when Kaplan was 9,
raised him and his older brother,
Robert. Now 34, Robert has followed
his younger sibling to California.
Kaplan attended Covington Middle
School in Birmingham and Detroit
Country Day School in Beverly Hills.
He said he first became intrigued by
economics while at Country Day, and
began his lifelong habit of reading
Business Week magazine.

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Recalling His Roots

After completing law school, Kaplan
worked as an investment banker and
corporate lawyer in Chicago and
California, a calling he decided was
not for him.
"Randall worked for us as a sum-
mer clerk when he was in law
school," recalled David Page of
Honigman, Miller.
"He's a contemporary of both of
my sons," Page added, "so I saw him
growing up. We would have liked to
see him join the firm, but I realized
he wanted to make his mark in the
world of big business."
Kaplan remembered this about
Page: "I once came to see him and
was told he was in the middle of a
meeting. But when he found out I
was there, he left the meeting, came
out, and met with me for an hour.
He wouldn't take any other calls. He
told them, 'Don't bother me.' I was
19 at the time. Can you imagine how
important he made me feel?"
Kaplan also worked for Taubman
as a file clerk in the property-man-
agement division. "I was collecting
rents for seven malls, so I knew
which stores were healthy and which
were not," Kaplan said.
The day Kaplan turned 27 he was
hired, with no experience, as an assistant
to Eli Broad. The pay was $132,000 a
year, plus stock options. This year, Forbes
magazine rated Broad No. 43 on its list
of the 400 wealthiest Americans.
Although Kaplan didn't make the list
this year, just give him another year or
two. After all, he's still only 31.

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10/27
2000

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