Ken Behring - Career

Career

Out of college, Behring, a car buff, worked as a salesperson at a Chevrolet and Chrysler auto dealership. At age 21, he started a used car business called Behring Motors in Monroe, Wisconsin. He went on to own Car-a-Mat, a chain of car washes. A savvy businessman, he was earning $50,000 a year and had $1 million in assets by age 27.

Ken Behring moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1956 and started the Behring Construction Company. He became a land developer, founding Tamarac Lakes, a new active-adult (which later became all-age) community in 1962. It was built on an area that was formerly wetlands, pastures, and fields. The new development was incorporated as Tamarac, Florida ("Car-a-Mat" spelled backwards) on July 25, 1963.

Behring's company eventually became the largest builder of single-family homes in Florida, and the tenth largest in the United States.

In 1972, Behring moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he was involved in developing the country club at Blackhawk, California, and later, the Canyon Lakes Development in San Ramon, California.

In 1988, Behring and partner Ken Hofmann purchased the NFL's Seattle Seahawks football team for $79 or $99 million (both numbers have been reported). They transferred the team's operations to Anaheim, California in 1996, a widely criticized move, although the team continued to play in Seattle. They sold the team to Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 1997, for $200 million.

Behring has been listed several times on the annual Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, including 1991, 1995, and 1997. In 1997, his last year on the list, he ranked #395, with an estimated net worth of $495 million. He's since been described in the press as a billionaire.

In 2004, Behring published a memoir called Road to Purpose: One Man's Journey Bringing Hope to Millions and Finding Purpose Along the Way (ISBN 0-9761912-0-2).

Behring was made a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in 2006.