Steven Joseph Hilton, born in 1961 in Los Angeles, California, is the son of Samuel Hilton, a Holocaust survivor from Warsaw, Poland, who endured five concentration camps and was the sole family survivor, later immigrating to the United States. Raised initially in the Los Angeles area, Hilton moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 12, where he attended Chaparral High School and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts in accounting and finance. In 1985, he co-founded Monterey Homes in Arizona, the predecessor to Meritage Homes Corporation, which went public in 1997 under his leadership. He served as co-chairman and co-CEO from 1997 to 2006, then as chairman and CEO until retiring from the CEO role on January 1, 2021, continuing as executive chairman of the board. Hilton has overseen Meritage's growth into a leading U.S. homebuilder, constructing over 130,000 homes and earning recognition as an industry leader in energy-efficient construction, including multiple U.S. EPA ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year awards. He is also Chairman of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. His board service includes the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGEN) Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale Foundation, and previously Banner Health Foundation (chairman 2021-2023) and Western Alliance Bancorporation (2004-2022). He is also a board member of Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Hilton married Suzanne Dube in 2003; they have four children. In 2022, he sold his longtime home in Scottsdale's Silverleaf community.