36 Facts About John Catsimatidis

John A Catsimatidis was born on September 7,1948 and is an American billionaire businessman and radio talk show host.

John Catsimatidis is the owner, president, chairman, and CEO of Gristedes Foods, a grocery chain in Manhattan, and the Red Apple Group, a real estate and aviation company with about $2 billion in holdings in New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

John Catsimatidis is the chairman and CEO of the Red Apple Group subsidiary United Refining Company.

John Catsimatidis was runner-up for the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City in the 2013 election.

John Catsimatidis was born on the Greek island of Nisyros on September 7,1948.

John Catsimatidis came to the United States with his parents when he was six months old.

John Catsimatidis' father had been a lighthouse operator in Greece but worked as a busboy in New York.

John Catsimatidis received a congressional nomination to West Point, but chose to study electrical engineering at New York University instead.

John Catsimatidis completed four years of college, but dropped out eight credits short of graduating.

In 1971, John Catsimatidis opened his first business in Manhattan's Upper West Side; it was the first Red Apple grocery store.

In 2008, John Catsimatidis became engaged in efforts to take over SemGroup LP, a bankrupt oil, gas, and asphalt trading, storage and transportation company, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

John Catsimatidis gained control over a majority of the company's management committee, but his efforts were met by opposition from the company's existing management, who argued for selling off at least some of the company's assets, while John Catsimatidis wanted to keep the company together.

In February 2009, John Catsimatidis was sued by a group of SemGroup executives, who sought the removal of John Catsimatidis and his allies from the committee.

On June 26,2019, John Catsimatidis entered into an agreement to purchase radio station WABC from Cumulus Media for $12.5 million in cash under the "Red Apple Media" name; John Catsimatidis indicated with the purchase his intention to acquire additional stations in the New York City market to complement the conservative talk radio-formatted station.

John Catsimatidis is a minority investor in the political newspaper and website The Hill as referenced on the website's articles which mention him.

In local New York City races, John Catsimatidis has given to Bill de Blasio, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Cyrus Vance Jr.

John Catsimatidis put on a fundraiser in 2006 with Michael Bloomberg for Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to support his third party run as an independent after Lieberman lost the Democratic primary nomination for reelection to the Senate.

John Catsimatidis donated a significant sum to the Clinton Presidential Center, thought to be between $100,000 and $500,000.

John Catsimatidis has said that he is friends with Bill Clinton and that the former president "often" has flown in one of John Catsimatidis' two airplanes.

In 2015, press reports indicated that John Catsimatidis donated the use of a chartered jet valued at $70,000 to the Republican primary campaign of Scott Walker.

In 2008, John Catsimatidis was viewed as a potential mayoral candidate.

In 2009, John Catsimatidis spent nearly $300,000, much of it on polls and consultants, to explore a candidacy.

John Catsimatidis said he only agreed to drop out after Bloomberg informed him of his plans to seek a third term.

John Catsimatidis suggested that he would support New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, but when Kelly repeatedly denied any intention to run, Catsimatidis expressed his own interest.

In December 2012, John Catsimatidis established an exploratory committee to consider running for mayor.

John Catsimatidis hired a campaign consulting firm, Millennial Strategies LLC, that mostly works on Democratic campaigns.

John Catsimatidis could have chosen to contest the general election on two other ballot lines, either that of the Liberal Party of New York and of a third-party line he created in summer 2013, but two days after his primary, he announced that he would withdraw from the race.

John Catsimatidis contributed to Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, and is a vocal Trump supporter.

Between February and July 2020, John Catsimatidis contributed $50,000 of the party's $52,000 of income.

John Catsimatidis said he considered running in the 2021 New York City mayoral election.

John Catsimatidis originally suggested he'd run as a Democrat, but retracted that and suggested he would either run again as a Republican or as a member of the Liberal Party.

On October 2,1988, John Catsimatidis married Margaret "Margo" Vondersaar at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in New York; the two had met when she became his secretary in 1972.

John Catsimatidis was for five years president of the Manhattan Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

John Catsimatidis has been on the board of directors of the Police Athletic League of New York City, and the Drum Major Institute.

John Catsimatidis was the vice-chairman of the Ellis Island Awards Foundation of the National Ethnic Coalition Organization, and received an Ellis Island Medal of Honor from that organization.

In light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, John Catsimatidis created the WABC Radio Foundation to provide humanitarian relief for Ukrainians in need.