Robert Kraft – Billionaire
Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American businessman. He 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. His sports holdings include the National Football League’s New England Patriots, Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, and the stadium in which both teams play, Gillette Stadium.
Early life
Kraft was born in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, Harry Kraft, a dress manufacturer in Boston’s Chinatown, was a respected Jewish lay leader at Congregation Kehillath Israel in Brookline and wanted his son to become a rabbi. The Krafts were an observant Orthodox Jewish family. Robert grew up in Brookline, where he attended the Edward Devotion School and in 1959, he graduated from Brookline High School, where he was senior class president. During high school, Kraft was unable to participate in most sports because it interfered with his after-school Hebrew studies and observance of the Sabbath.
Kraft attended Columbia University, where he served as class president. While at Columbia, Kraft joined Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity and played running back and safety on the school’s freshman and lightweight football teams. On February 2, 1962, Kraft met Myra Hiatt at a delicatessen in Boston’s Back Bay. They married in June 1963. That same year, Kraft graduated from Columbia, and in 1965, he received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
At the age of 27, Kraft was elected chairman of the Newton Democratic City Committee. He considered running against Massachusetts’s 3rd congressional district Representative Philip J. Philbin in 1970, but chose not to, citing the loss of privacy and strain on his family entering politics would have caused. He was further discouraged from entering politics by the suicide of his friend, State Representative H. James Shea, Jr.
Source:wikipedia