Robert Kraft

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, 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.

Business career

Kraft began his professional career with the Rand-Whitney Group, a Worcester-based packaging company run by his father-in-law Jacob Hiatt. In 1968, he gained control of the company through a leveraged buyout. 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. 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.

International Forest Products became a top 100 US exporters/importer in 1997 and in 2013 was ranked No. 20 on the Journal of Commerce's list in that category. Kraft said of the business in 1991 that, "We do things for a number of companies, including Avon, Kodak, cosmetics companies, candies, toys." The company produced both corrugated and folding cartons, which he stated, "are used to package everything from the Patriot missile, to mints, to Estee Lauder, Indiana Glass and Polaroid." Kraft acquired interests in other areas, and ultimately formed the Kraft Group as an umbrella for them in 1998.

Kraft was an investor in New England Television Corp., which gained control of WNAC-TV in 1982, and Kraft became a director of the board in 1983. The station then became WNEV-TV. In 1986, he was named president of the corporation. In 1991, Kraft exercised option to unload his shares for an estimated $25 million.

Boston Lobsters and early bids for sports teams

In 1974, Kraft and five others purchased the Boston Lobsters of World Team Tennis (WTT). The group spent heavily to lure a number of top players, including Martina Navratilova, and the Lobsters became one of the best teams in WTT. Following the 1978 season, Kraft announced that the franchise would fold. The league itself folded soon thereafter.

After the Lobsters folded, Kraft twice tried to purchase the New England Patriots, the first to try and purchase it from the bankrupt Sullivan family that owned the team before 1988, and was mentioned as a bidder for the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics.

New England 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 a 10-year option on Foxboro Raceway, a horse track adjacent to the stadium. The purchase prevented Patriots owner Billy Sullivan from holding non-Patriot events at Sullivan Stadium while races were being held. Kraft took advantage of the fact that the Sullivans owned the stadium, but not the surrounding land. It was the beginning of a quest to not only buy the stadium, but the Patriots as well. Sullivan's family was reeling from a series of bad investments, principally The Jackson Five 1984 Victory Tour, for which they had to pledge Sullivan Stadium as collateral. Those problems ultimately forced Sullivan to sell controlling interest to Victor Kiam in 1988. However, the stadium lapsed into bankruptcy.

In 1988, Kraft outbid several competitors, including Kiam, to buy the stadium out of bankruptcy court from Sullivan for $22 million. The stadium was considered to be outdated and nearly worthless, but the purchase included the stadium's lease to the Patriots, which ran through 2001. The lease was ironclad enough to end Sullivan's three-decade involvement with the Patriots. When he and Kiam tried to move the team to Jacksonville, Kraft refused to let them break the lease. As a result, when Kiam was nearly brought down by bad investments of his own, he was forced to sell the Patriots to James Orthwein.

Ever since Orthwein had bought the team in 1992, there had been constant rumors that he wanted to move the Patriots to St. Louis. In 1994, Orthwein offered Kraft $75 million to buy out the remainder of the team's lease at what was now Foxboro Stadium. Had Kraft accepted Orthwein's offer, it would have cleared the last significant hurdle to moving the team. However, Kraft turned it down.

By 1994, Orthwein was not interested in operating the team in New England long-term, and decided to sell it. Due to the terms of the operating covenant, any prospective buyers had to deal with Kraft. With this in mind, Kraft made an offer for an outright purchase of the team for $172 million, which Orthwein accepted. At the time, it was the highest price ever paid for an NFL team. Years later, Kraft said his passion for the Patriots led him to "break every one of my financial rules" in his pursuit of the team. Kraft has stated he keeps a Victory Tour poster among his mementos as a reminder of what allowed him to realize his longstanding dream of becoming a major league team owner.

Following the NFL's approval of the sale, the Patriots sold out their entire 1994 season – the first full sellout in franchise history. Every home game – including preseason, regular season, and playoffs – has been sold out ever since.

In 1998, Kraft considered moving the Patriots to Hartford Connecticut, based on an offer that the state of Connecticut would finance a new stadium in downtown Hartford. On April 30, 1998, Kraft terminated the deal just before it would become binding, choosing to instead build a new stadium in Foxboro with the state of Massachusetts infrastructure funding.

In 2002, a $350-million stadium for the Patriots was privately financed by Kraft, initially called the CMGI Field (later renamed Gillette Stadium). In 2007, Kraft began to develop the land around Gillette Stadium, creating a $375-million open-air shopping and entertainment center called Patriot Place. The development included "The Hall at Patriot Place presented by Raytheon," a multi-story museum and hall of fame attached to the stadium, and the "CBS Scene," a CBS-themed restaurant.

Under Kraft's ownership, the Patriots experienced newfound and sustained success. While the Patriots appeared in Super Bowl XX under their original owners, the Sullivans, this was one of only six playoff appearances in 34 years. Since Kraft bought the team, however, they have made the playoffs 18 times in 23 years. They won AFC East titles in 1996, 1997, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016; they represented the AFC in the Super Bowl that concluded each of the following seasons: 1996 (lost), 2001 (won), 2003 (won), 2004 (won), 2007 (lost), 2011 (lost), 2014 (won), and 2016 (won). The Patriots finished the 2003, 2004, 2010, and 2016 seasons with identical 14–2 regular-season records – after having never won more than 11 games prior to Kraft buying the team – and finished the 2007 regular season at 16-0 before losing to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

Kraft was principally involved in the 2011 NFL labor negotiations. 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."

In 2005, it was reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken one of Kraft's three Super Bowl rings. Kraft quickly issued a statement saying that he had given Putin the ring out of "respect and admiration" he had for the Russian people and Putin's leadership. Kraft later said his earlier statement was not true, and had been issued under pressure from the White House. The ring is on display with state gifts at the Kremlin.

Soccer

In 1996 Kraft founded the New England Revolution, a charter member of Major League Soccer which began playing alongside the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium.

In November 2005, Kraft met with Rick Parry, the Chief Executive of English Premier League team Liverpool. Kraft was rumored to be interested in investing money into the 2004–05 Champions League winners. Kraft told BBC Radio 5 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.

eSports

Blizzard Entertainment announced in July 2017 that Kraft has bought ownership in one of the first seven teams planned for the professional eSports Overwatch League. Kraft's team will be based in the Boston region.

Philanthropy

The Krafts have donated over $100 million to a variety of philanthropic causes including education, child- and women-related issues, healthcare, youth sports and American and Israeli causes. In 1990 Kraft, his wife, and his father-in-law funded a joint professorship between Brandeis University and Holy Cross College, forming the Kraft-Hiatt endowed chairs in comparative religion – the first inter-religious endowed chairs in the United States.

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. 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.

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 2017 Kraft announced a contribution of $6 million to build the first ever regulation size American football field in Israel. In June 2017, Robert Kraft, along with several NFL Hall of Famers, traveled to Israel for the grand opening of the new Kraft Family Sports Campus.

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."

In 2011, Kraft was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2012, he became the first NFL owner in the 43-year history of the honor to be selected for the George Halas Award by the Pro Football Writers of America. The award is presented annually to the NFL player, coach or staff member who overcomes the most adversity to succeed.

Following the April 15, 2013, Boston Marathon bombings, Kraft announced he would match up to $100,000 in donations made for the victims through the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation.

Personal life

In June 1963, Kraft married Myra Nathalie Hiatt, a 1964 graduate of Brandeis University and the daughter of the late Worcester, Massachusetts businessman and philanthropist Jacob Hiatt. She died from ovarian cancer, aged 68, on July 20, 2011. The Krafts were members of Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts. In her memory, all Patriots players wore a patch on their uniforms bearing Kraft's initials (MHK) throughout the 2011–2012 season. They had four sons:

In June 2012, Kraft began dating actress Ricki Noel Lander. In July 2012, Kraft assisted Lander in creating an audition video for a role in The Internship, a then-upcoming Vince Vaughn/Owen Wilson film. In the video, Kraft reads Wilson's lines for a bikini-clad Landers, dances briefly, curses, and throws a punch at another actor. After an anonymously supplied copy of the video was hosted on the Barstool Sports website, it went viral and became a subject of commentary on late-night television. Kraft issued a statement saying "I tried to help Ricki prepare an audition tape ... I never intended that it would be made public and I regret that it has. I think we can all agree that Owen Wilson has nothing to worry about. I am going to stick to my day job."

Awards and honors