When Lenard Miller invested $10,000 in the Miami-based homebuilder, F&R, in 1954, it set in motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to his family acquiring a level wealth that would make them multi-millionaires. The Miami Herald estimated in 2014 that Lenard’s son and CEO successor of the Lennar Corporation, Stuart, was worth approximately $900 million. However, according to Bloomberg, this had grown to more than $1.2 billion, along with his two siblings, by 1997. The Miller family still controls 68 per cent of the homebuilder Lennar’s class B shares, with Stuart, who joined the company in 1982, holding the deciding vote. Named one of America’s most powerful people by Forbes in 2000, Miller’s total compensation as CEO in 2017 was $19.1 million, comprised of a base salary with cash-based and equity incentives. He became CEO in 1997, five years before the death of his father Lenard, who died in 2002 of liver cancer. His siblings, Leslie and Jeffrey Miller, are both involved in the family’s philanthropic efforts, which include extensive investment in higher education, particularly in their home state of Florida. In 2004, the family donated $100 million to the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami. In 2018, he stepped down from his role of CEO and was succeeded by Rick Beckwitt, though he remains involved in the company as Executive Chairman.
