13 Facts About Fred Wilpon

Fred Wilpon was born on November 22,1936 and is an American real estate developer and former baseball executive.

Fred Wilpon was principal owner of the New York Mets from 1987 to 2020.

Fred Wilpon attended Lafayette High School in Brooklyn, where he was responsible for getting his friend, Sandy Koufax, to join the baseball team.

Fred Wilpon was a big fan of baseball and pitched his freshman year in college until he was injured.

Fred Wilpon had a right of first refusal in the event of a sale and threatened to exercise it.

Fred Wilpon served as president of the team between 1980 and 2002, CEO from 1980 to 2020, and chairman of the board from 2002 to 2020.

Fred Wilpon was one of the investors who invested a significant amount of money with Bernard Madoff which was lost when the Ponzi scheme collapsed in December 2008.

Since then Fred Wilpon has said that his losses were "substantially less" than that figure.

On May 26,2011, it was reported that Fred Wilpon has agreed to sell a minority share of the Mets to David Einhorn, president of the hedge fund Greenlight Capital, but ended negotiations on September 1.

On March 19,2012, Fred Wilpon agreed to settle Picard's lawsuit for $162 million.

Fred Wilpon is married to Judy Kessler whom he met in college.

Fred Wilpon is a 1958 graduate of the University of Michigan.

Fred Wilpon's son Bruce Wilpon is a partner at Sterling Equities and was married to Yuki Oshima-Wilpon, daughter of Japanese billionaire Kenshin Oshima.