Robert Theron Brockman (May 28, 1941 – August 5, 2022) was an American billionaire businessman and onceCEO ofOhio-basedReynolds & Reynolds software company.
Brockman was born inSt. Petersburg, Florida.[1] His father Alfred Eugene Brockman was a gas-station owner, and his mother, Pearl, was aphysiotherapist.[1] Thomas David Brockman was his brother.[1]
Brockman started his career in 1964 as a marketing trainee withFord Motors, and was aMarine Corps reservist at the same time.[3] From 1966 to 1970, he worked atIBM and was the leading U.S. salesman in IBM's service bureau.[3][4][5]
Brockman founded Universal Computer Systems, a computer systems and software provider for car dealerships, in 1970 in his living room. The company sold its first in-dealership computer system in 1982.[4] In the late 1980s, Brockman introduced what remains one of his core software operating systems, called Power.[6]
The company merged withReynolds & Reynolds on August 8, 2006.[7] He became the CEO after the merger.[8]
On September 5, 2018, IRS agents and Bermudan police executed a search warrant for a raid in Bermuda on the home office of Evatt Tamine ("Tamine"), a lawyer who worked closely with Brockman for 14 years and who, according to the Government, helped Brockman illegally conceal assets offshore.[9]
A 39-count indictment was filed against Brockman in September 2020 in theNorthern District of California.[10] Brockman was accused of engaging in a 20-year long scheme to hide around $2 billion in income from theIRS.[11] His charges included tax evasion,wire fraud,money laundering, and failure to disclose assets held overseas.[12][13] Brockman pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $1 million bond.[3] In October 2021, Brockman was among thoselisted in thePandora Papers revelations, which exposed offshoretax shelters of the financial assets of hundreds of politicians, business people, and celebrities.[14]
Brockman married at age 18 in Kentucky, and later divorced. He married Dorothy Kay Brockman in 1968; the couple lived in Houston.[1][5] He was a very private individual and refused public interviews.[4]
On August 6, 2022, Brockman's attorney Kathy Keneally confirmed that he had died the previous day. He was 81 years old.[11][27] Before his death, Brockman had been diagnosed with dementia.[27]
In July 2013,Centre College inDanville, Kentucky announced that it had received a $250 million donation from Brockman's charitable trust. This donation was later withdrawn, when a "significant capital market event", upon which the gift was contingent, did not occur.[28][29][30]
