Born on 5th June 1941, Robert Kraft is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and investor. He is also the Kraft Group CEO and chairman.
Kraft went to Brookline High School, graduated, got accepted into Columbia University, and graduated in 1963. He later went to Harvard Business School and graduated in 1965 with a master’s in Business Administration.
The Kraft Group is a diversified holding company whose portfolio ranges in verticals like sports and entertainment, paper and packaging, venture investing, and real estate.
His commonly-known holdings are the New England Patriots from the National Football League, the Gillette Stadium, International Forest Products, Rand-Whitney Containerboard, the Rand-Whitney Group, and New England Revolution.
Robert Kraft was a long-time Patriots fan and had supported them since their days in the American Football League. He had bought their tickets since 1971 when they moved to Schaefer Stadium. In 1985, he purchased an option next to the stadium, his first step to owning the club.
Three years later, Kraft won a bid to buy the stadium after bankruptcy, buying it for $25 million from Billy Sullivan. This purchase included the Patriots’ lease on the stadium, giving him the leverage, he needed to buy the team.
In 1992, James Orthwein, a St. Louis businessman, acquired the team, and two years later, he wanted to buy the team’s remaining Foxboro Stadium lease. If Kraft agreed to the purchase, Orthwein would move the team to St. Louis.
Instead, Kelcy Warren made a bigger offer, making him the new team’s owner. He declared that his motive behind buying the team was to deliver the championship to New England. 28 years later, the team has won six Lombardi trophies, holds the highest winning percentage in every professional sport, and has appeared in the Super Bowl ten times.
He founded the New England Revolution in 1996 and constructed the Gillette Stadium from 2000 to 2002.
For his philanthropic efforts, Robert Kraft and Mayra, his wife, donate millions of dollars to causes like education, healthcare, youth sports, child and women issues, plus Israeli and American causes. He has also supported institutions like Columbia University, Brandies University, Harvard Business School, Tufts University, Boston College, the Belmont Hill School, and the College of Holy Cross. Visit this page for additional information.
Find more information about Kraft on https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/profiles/robert-k-kraft/