Special Report

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Son-in-law Jonathan
Aaron helps drive
transition team
of Davidson network.

Stories by Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

42-year-old lawyer from Oak Park has been thrust into
the limelight in the Jewish community's "worlds" of
business, synagogue life and philanthropy following
the death last month of William "Bill" Davidson, the prominent
international businessman, sportsman and philanthropist.
Jonathan S. Aaron of Bloomfield Hills, Davidson's son-in-law,
is moving up through the ranks at both Guardian Industries
Corp. in Auburn Hills and Congregation Shaarey Zedek of
Oakland County. He is now president of the William Davidson
Foundation, which is becoming one of Michigan's most promi-
nent and influential foundations.
Davidson was Guardian's owner, president and CEO, a long-
time member and past president of Shaarey Zedek and one of
the world's richest men, whose net worth was placed as $2.1 bil-
lion in Forbes magazine's 2009 list of billionaires. He died at 86
March 13 of complications of pneumonia.

"Bill firmly believed in making large gifts to a few institutions as opposed to the shotgun approach,"

says Jonathan Aaron.

In Line
Under a Guardian transition plan established by Davidson in
recent years, a five-member board of directors with a chairman
will replace him, eliminating the president and CEO positions.
Aaron had been assistant-to-the-president. "But the title will go
away; my role will change and I'll serve Guardian in a number
of other capacities:' declared Aaron in a JN interview. His wife,
Mary, is the daughter of Davidson's second wife, Karen.
Davidson's "second business" was philanthropy, Aaron
explains; and he'll head a five-person team to determine grant-
making decisions for the multi-million-dollar foundation.
Davidson also was majority owner of the Detroit Pistons fran-
chise in the National Basketball Association, now worth upwards
of $400 million; the Detroit Shock of the Women's NBA, and
Palace Sports & Entertainment, mainly the Palace of Auburn
Hills.
Aaron's office is on the first floor of Guardian's World
Headquarters, a modern, glass-dominated structure befitting
of one of the world's largest manufacturers of architectural and
auto glass, with 19,000 employees in facilities in 23 countries,
including a plant in Zippori, Israel; sales are about $5 billion
annually. The company's products are used in millions of cars

Rebounding on page A14

April 30 2009

A13