Robert Kenneth Kraft was born on June 5,1941 and is an American billionaire businessman.
63 Facts About Robert Kraft
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Robert Kraft is the chairman and 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.
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Robert Kraft was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Sarah Bryna and Harry Robert Kraft, a dress manufacturer in Boston's Chinatown.
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Robert Kraft's mother was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia; his father was a lay leader at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline and wanted his son to become a rabbi.
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Robert Kraft attended the Edward Devotion School and graduated from Brookline High School.
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Robert Kraft attended Columbia University on an academic scholarship and he served as class president.
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Robert Kraft played tennis and safety on the school's freshman and lightweight football teams.
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Robert Kraft met Myra Hiatt at a delicatessen in Boston's Back Bay in 1962, and they married in June 1963.
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Robert Kraft graduated from Columbia that same year, and he received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965.
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Robert Kraft was elected chairman of the Newton Democratic City Committee when he was 27.
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Robert Kraft considered running against Representative Philip J Philbin in 1970 but chose not to, citing the loss of privacy and strain on his family that politics would have caused.
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Robert Kraft was further discouraged from entering politics by the suicide of his friend State Representative H James Shea, Jr.
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Robert Kraft began his professional career with the Rand-Whitney Group, a Worcester-based packaging company run by his father-in-law Jacob Hiatt.
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Robert Kraft has stated that he started the company out of a hunch that the increase in international communications and transportation would lead to an expansion of global trade in the late twentieth century.
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In 1991, Robert Kraft exercised his option to sell his shares for an estimated $25 million.
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Robert Kraft has been a Patriots fan since their American Football League days and has been a season ticket holder since 1971 when the team moved to Schaefer Stadium.
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Robert Kraft took advantage of the fact that the Sullivans owned the stadium but not the surrounding land, and it was the beginning of a quest to buy the stadium and the Patriots.
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In 1988, Robert Kraft outbid several competitors to buy the stadium out of bankruptcy court from Sullivan for $22 million.
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Robert Kraft placed a bid on the Patriots franchise as well, but he lost the bidding to Victor Kiam.
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Sullivan and Kiam then tried to move the team to Jacksonville, but Robert Kraft refused to let them break the lease.
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Orthwein would have been responsible for paying the costs of an all-but-certain legal battle over the lease, as Robert Kraft let it be known that he would go to court to enforce the covenant.
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Robert Kraft said that his passion for the Patriots led him to "break every one of my financial rules" in his pursuit of the team.
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Robert Kraft still keeps a Victory Tour poster in his office as a reminder of what set in motion the events that allowed him to buy the Patriots.
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In 1998, Robert Kraft considered moving the Patriots to Hartford, Connecticut based on an offer that the state of Connecticut would finance a new stadium, but he terminated the deal just before it became binding to instead build a new stadium in Foxboro with Massachusetts infrastructure funding.
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In 2002, Robert Kraft financed a $350-million stadium for the Patriots initially called CMGI Field but renamed Gillette Stadium.
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In 2007, Robert Kraft began to develop the land around Gillette Stadium, creating a $375-million open-air shopping and entertainment center called Patriot Place.
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On January 27,2000, Robert Kraft traded a first round draft pick to the New York Jets for the rights to hire Bill Belichick as head coach.
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In 2005, during a visit to Saint Petersburg, Robert Kraft gave Russian President Vladimir Putin his third Super Bowl ring.
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Robert Kraft released a statement some days after the visit claiming that it was a gift out of "respect and admiration" for the Russian people and Putin's leadership.
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Robert Kraft later said that he did not originally intend to give the ring as a gift and that his statement had been issued under pressure from the White House after Putin had kept the ring.
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Former Patriot Ryan O'Callaghan wrote in his book that Robert Kraft supported him when he publicly came out as gay in 2017.
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In 1996, Robert Kraft founded the New England Revolution, a charter member of Major League Soccer which began playing alongside the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium.
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Robert Kraft owned the San Jose Clash from 1998 to 2000.
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In November 2005, Robert Kraft met with Rick Parry, the Chief Executive of English Premier League team Liverpool.
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In October 2017, Robert Kraft said he was "still intrigued" by the possibility of buying a Premier League football club, but that he was concerned about the lack of a salary cap in British football.
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In 2017, Robert Kraft was named the Honorary Chairman of the board of directors for the successful joint Canadian-Mexican-American bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
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In 2019, Robert Kraft hired Bruce Arena as head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution.
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Blizzard Entertainment announced in July 2017 that Robert Kraft bought ownership in the Boston Uprising, one of the first seven teams for the professional esports Overwatch League.
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In 1989, Myra and Robert Kraft launched the Passport to Israel Fund, in collaboration with Center for Jewish Progress of Greater Boston, to help parents send their teenage children to Israel.
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In 2017, Robert Kraft announced a contribution of $6 million to build the first regulation size American football field in Israel.
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Robert Kraft has led additional "Touchdown in Israel" trips to Israel, with Patriots and Hall of Famers, since that 2017 trip.
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That same year, Robert Kraft funded a new van as part of the Robert Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in order to help combat the opioid crisis in Boston.
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In 2018, Robert Kraft donated $10 million to CJP for the renovation of its headquarters in downtown Boston.
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The match raised an estimated $4 million, with Robert Kraft personally contributing $1 million toward the fund.
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The next month, Robert Kraft pledged $100,000 to the families of seven motorcyclists killed in a crash the month before.
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Robert Kraft donated $20,000 and attended the memorial in Worcester to honor fallen firefighter Christopher Roy on the one-year anniversary of his death.
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In coordination with the REFORM Alliance, Robert Kraft invited more than 50 children to fly on the Patriots' team charter to attend the Patriots game against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium.
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In 2020, Robert Kraft partnered with Chinese company Tencent to purchase 1.2 million N95 masks to donate to medical workers in New York and Massachusetts to help combat the coronavirus pandemic, sending the New England Patriots' private team plane to China to pick up the supplies.
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Robert Kraft initially negotiated for 1.7 million masks, but only 1.2 million fit on board.
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In May 2020, Robert Kraft put his Super Bowl LI ring up for auction with proceeds designated to help feed those facing food insecurity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Robert Kraft lent the Patriots team plane to the University of Rhode Island Rams football team in October 2021 after the team's charter flight fell through.
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Robert Kraft covered all costs despite the URI Rams expecting to pay expenses through the team's budget.
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In June 1963, Robert Kraft married Myra Nathalie Hiatt, a 1964 graduate of Brandeis University and the daughter of the late Worcester, Massachusetts, businessman and philanthropist Jacob Hiatt.
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Robert Kraft died due to ovarian cancer, aged 68, on July 20,2011.
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In June 2012, Robert Kraft began dating actress Ricki Noel Lander.
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Robert Kraft was among 25 people facing first-degree misdemeanor charges for soliciting prostitution at a day spa in 2019.
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On October 30,2022, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, which was founded by Robert Kraft, sponsored an ad encouraging people to denounce hate against Jewish people.
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Robert Kraft has won various awards throughout his career in football, most notably becoming a six-time Super Bowl champion.
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In 1987, Robert Kraft received the John Jay Award from Columbia University.
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In 2015, Robert Kraft received an honorary doctorate in humane letters from Yeshiva University.
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In 2011, Robert Kraft was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
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In 2013, Robert Kraft was awarded the Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence.
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In June 2019, Robert Kraft received Israel's Genesis Prize Genesis Prize, a $1 million award given to an individual who is committed to Jewish values and is an inspiration to the next generation of Jews.