Robert Kraft

Robert K. Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American business magnate. He is the Chairman and was the Chief Executive Officer of The Kraft Group, a diversified holding company with assets in paper and packaging, sports and entertainment, real estate development and a private equity portfolio. His holdings include the National Football League's New England Patriots and Major League Soccer's New England Revolution, and Gillette Stadium.

Early life and career

Kraft attended Brookline High School in his hometown, graduating in 1959.^[2]

He is a 1963 graduate of Columbia University, which he attended on scholarship, and received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965. While at Columbia, Kraft played on the school's lightweight football team. He was married to the former Myra Hiatt, a 1964 graduate of Brandeis University and the daughter of the late Worcester, Massachusetts philanthropist Jacob Hiatt. She died from cancer, aged 68, on July 20, 2011. ^[3]

He began his professional career with the Rand-Whitney Group, a Worcester-based packaging company owned by Hiatt. He still serves as this company's chairman. In 1972, he founded International Forest Products, a trader of physical paper commodities. The two combined companies make up the largest privately held paper and packaging companies in the United States. International Forest Products is consistently among the top 100 US exporters/importers and in 2005 was No. 45 on the Journal of Commerce's list in that category.

In 1986, Kraft helped a minority business group acquire WNEV-TV, a CBS affiliate in Boston (now NBC affiliate WHDH-TV). He continued his investment in the entertainment field by buying several Boston radio stations. He is a member of a private equity group, which funded film, theatre, and television producer Scott Sanders' company, "Scott Sanders Productions."^[4]

Ownership of the Patriots

A Patriots fan since their American Football League days, Kraft has been a season ticket holder since 1971, when the team moved to the then-Schaefer Stadium.

In 1985, Kraft bought an option on the parcel adjacent to the stadium. The option would be the first in a series of steps which would culminate nearly a decade later in his eventual ownership of the team. Later, in 1988, Kraft outbid several competitors to buy the stadium out of bankruptcy court from Billy Sullivan for $25 million. The purchase included the stadium's lease to the Patriots – which would later provide Kraft leverage in purchasing the team.

In 1992, St. Louis businessman, James Orthwein, purchased the Patriots from Victor Kiam, who was facing bankruptcy and owed Orthwein several million dollars. For the next two years, rumors of a Patriots move to St. Louis were rampant, based on the fact that Orthwein wanted to return the NFL to his hometown, which had lost the Cardinals to Arizona in 1988.

In 1994, Orthwein offered Kraft $75 million to buy out the remainder of the team's lease at the Foxboro Stadium, which, if Kraft agreed, would free Orthwein to move the Patriots to St. Louis. However, Kraft rejected the offer and made a counter-bid—a then NFL-record $175 million for the outright purchase of the Patriots (a surprising move in that the Patriots were, at the time, among the least valuable franchises in the NFL), an offer Orthwein accepted.

The day after the NFL approved the sale in January 1994, Patriots fans showed their appreciation by purchasing almost 6,000 season tickets en route to selling out every game for the first time in the team's 34-year history. Every home game—regular season, postseason, and even preseason—has been sold out since. The Patriots responded by putting together a seven-game winning streak to end the 1994 season, making the playoffs for the first time since 1986. In 1996 Kraft founded the New England Revolution, a charter member of Major League Soccer which began playing alongside the Patriots at Foxboro.

After the failure of a number of stadium plans that included either revamping the area in Foxboro or relocating to Boston or a town near Boston, the Patriots nearly moved to Hartford, Connecticut, in 1999. They reached an agreement with then-Connecticut Governor John Rowland to move to a new stadium intended to be the cornerstone of downtown redevelopment. After Rowland lobbied the Connecticut legislature to approve state funds for the stadium the Patriots were given another opportunity to resume negotiations with the Massachusetts legislators who had initially balked on paying for site improvements for a new stadium in Foxboro. At the last minute the Massachusetts legislature approved the subsidies and hurdles were cleared for what became Gillette Stadium in the Patriots' longtime home of Foxboro. The $350 million stadium, privately financed by Kraft, opened in 2002 as CMGI Field, before financial difficulties for CMGI resulted in Gillette taking over naming rights.

In 2007, Kraft announced plans to develop the land around Gillette Stadium, creating a $375 million open-air shopping and entertainment center called Patriot Place. The development opened in stages through 2007, 2008, and 2009 and included "The Hall at Patriot Place," a multi-story museum attached to the stadium, and the "CBS Scene," a CBS-themed restaurant.

The Patriots appeared in Super Bowl XX under their original owners, the Sullivans. Yet, this was one of only six playoff appearances in 33 years. However, since Kraft bought the team, they have made the playoffs 12 times in 17 years. They have also appeared in more playoff games (25) than in the team's first 34 seasons combined (10). The team won AFC East titles in 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, and 2011 and represented the AFC in the Super Bowl in 1996 (lost), 2001 (won) 2002 (won) 2004 (won) and 2007 (lost). The Patriots finished the 2003, 2004, and 2010 seasons with identical 14–2 regular-season records, and also finished the 2007 regular season undefeated before losing to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Kraft was principally involved in the 2011 NFL labor negotiations. He was credited for being a bridgebuilder who brought the two sides closer together and a catalyst in negotiating a historic 10-year agreement. The deal was announced on Monday, July 25, 2011, while Kraft was still mourning the death of his "sweetheart," Myra Kraft, his wife of 48 years. In what became an iconic image of the CBA resolution, NFLPA representative and Indianapolis Colts center Jeff Saturday praised Kraft for his role in the negotiations, stating, "without him, this deal does not get done. . . . He is a man who helped us save football."^[5]

In Kraft's first 17 seasons as team owner the Patriots have won 180 regular season games and 17 playoff games (including Super Bowls XXXVI, XXXVIII and XXXIX). The team reached a milestone 200th win under Kraft ownership with their third win of 2011, against the Oakland Raiders.

Other activities

In 2005, a minor international incident was caused when it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had inadvertently taken one of Kraft's three Super Bowl rings. Kraft quickly cleared up the misunderstanding, stating that he had given Putin the ring out of "respect and admiration" he had for Putin and the Russian people.^[6]

In November 2005, Kraft met with Rick Parry, the Chief Executive of English football team Liverpool. Kraft was rumoured to be interested in investing money into the 2004-05 European Champions. Kraft told BBC Radio Five Live: "Liverpool is a great brand and it's something our family respects a lot. We're always interested in opportunities and growing, so you never know what can happen." Eventually, however, the club was sold to American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks.^[7]

Philanthropy

The Krafts have donated over $100 million dollars to a variety of philanthropic causes including education, child and women issues, healthcare, youth sports and American and Israeli causes. In 2011, the Krafts pledged $20 million to Partners HealthCare to launch the Kraft Family National Center for Leadership and Training in Community Health, an initiative designed to improve access to quality healthcare at community health centers throughout New England. Among the many institutions the Krafts have supported are Columbia University, Harvard Business School, Brandeis University, The College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Tufts University, the Belmont Hill School, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. One of their most distinctive projects is supporting American Football Israel, including Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem and the Kraft Family Israel Football League. In 2007, in recognition of a gift of $5 million in support of Columbia's intercollegiate athletics program, the playing field at Columbia's Lawrence A. Wien Stadium at the Baker Field Athletics Complex was named "Robert K. Kraft Field."

On October 1, 2011, Kraft was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious learned societies, founded by John Adams, James Bowdoin and John Hancock in 1780.

He has received numerous honorary degrees from several colleges and universities and was awarded the NCAA's highest honor when he received the Theodore Roosevelt Award, "presented annually to a distinguished citizen of national reputation and outstanding accomplishments."

References

External links

• New England Patriots biography
• New England Revolution biography
• The Kraft Group
• Forbes 2011: The 400 Richest Americans: #263 Robert Kraft
• Forbes 2008: The 500 Largest American Private Companies: #326 The Kraft Group
• Forbes 2011: The World's Billionaires: #833 Robert Kraft