Jeffrey Hart Brotman (September 27, 1942 – August 1, 2017) was an American businessman, investor, lawyer, and philanthropist. Brotman was the cofounder and chairman of Costco Wholesale Corporation.

Early life and education

Brotman was born in a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, the son of Pearl and Bernie Brotman.History Link: "Brotman, Jeffrey H. (b. 1942) and Susan R. (b. 1949)"
retrieved August 28, 2015 His grandparents were

emigrants from the

Kingdom of Romania The Kingdom of Romania () was a constitutional monarchy that existed from with the crowning of prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen as King of Romania, King Carol I of Romania, Carol I (thus beginning the Romanian royal family), until 1947 wit ...

, now

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

; his parents immigrated to the US and settled in Tacoma. His father was an owner of ''Seattle Knitting Mills''. Along with his uncles, he owned a chain of 18 retail stores in Washington and Oregon named ''Bernie's''. In 1965, the family moved to Seattle. Brotman graduated from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

in 1964 with a degree in political science and in 1967 with a J.D. He was a member of the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at the University of Washington.

Career

After college and law school, he and his brother, Michael, founded a women's jeans store named ''Bottoms''; and in the 1980s, they founded the ''Jeffrey Michael'' chain of men's clothing stores, which they operated into the 1990s. In 1982, Brotman cofounded Costco Wholesale Corporation with Jim Sinegal,Costco About
accessed March 1, 2012 a protégé of Sol Price, the founder of PriceSmart. He served as chairman from the company's inception until his death, except during a stretch from 1993 to 1994 when he was vice chairman. In 2017, Costco operated 736 warehouse stores. Brotman was also an early investor in

Howard Schultz Howard D. Schultz (born July 19, 1953) is an American businessman and author who was the chairman and chief executive officer of Starbucks from 1986 to 2000, from 2008 to 2017, and interim CEO from 2022 to 2023. Schultz owned the Seattle SuperS ...

Starbucks Corporation Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

Philanthropy

Brotman served on the boards of several public companies and according to ''

Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

'' magazine, was "connected to 13 board members". He sat on the board of directors of the Million-Dollar Roundtable at the

United Way United Way is an international network of over 1,800 local nonprofit organization, nonprofit fundraising affiliates. Prior to 2015, United Way was the largest nonprofit organization in the United States by donations from the public. Individual Un ...

of King County. He also served on the boards of Seafirst Bank,

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

, and was a trustee at the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

. He and his wife Susan donated to numerous causes, especially at the

, where they funded hundreds of student scholarships. They also endowed the Jeffrey & Susan Brotman Professorship at UW Law School, currently held by Steve Calandrillo.

Personal life

Brotman married Susan Thrailkill, a

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

native and a former retail executive who served on the board of

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American Luxury goods, luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and a seco ...

. They had two children, Justin Brotman, who became an activist and businessman, and Amanda Brotman-Schetritt. She is a

Barnard College Barnard College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college affiliated with Columbia University in New York City. It was founded in 1889 by a grou ...

graduate who is a businessman working in sustainability, philanthropy, and design. On August 1, 2017, Brotman died in Medina, Washington at the age of 74. He died in his sleep, possibly due to heart failure. He was a member of Temple Beth El in Tacoma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brotman, Jeffrey 1942 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American businesspeople American people of Canadian descent American people of Romanian-Jewish descent American retail company founders Businesspeople from Tacoma, Washington Costco people People from Medina, Washington University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni University of Washington School of Law alumni Washington (state) lawyers