Steve Bisciotti

Background

Steve Bisciotti came from a working-class Italian-American family in a Baltimore suburb. His parents, Bernard and Patricia Bisciotti, moved to Severna Park, Maryland, in March 1961.

Growing up, Bisciotti loved sports. His father took the children to Baltimore Orioles and Colts games. In his senior year at Severna Park High School, he played on the football team, though he has said he "wasn't much of a high school athlete."

In 1982, Bisciotti graduated from Salisbury State University in Maryland with a degree in liberal arts. A year later, at 23, he and his cousin Jim Davis started Aerotek, a staffing company in the aerospace and technology sectors. Running the company out of a basement office with secondhand equipment, Bisciotti and Davis produced $1.5 million in sales in the first year. Aerotek grew into the Allegis Group, which is now the largest privately held staffing firm in the United States and 4th in the world. Bisciotti's involvement in the sports business has brought more attention to his once low-profile company.

Sports ownership

On March 27, 2000, NFL owners approved the sale of 49% of the Ravens to Bisciotti. In the deal, Bisciotti had an option to purchase the remaining 51% for $325 million in 2004 from Art Modell. On April 9, 2004 the NFL approved Steve Bisciotti's purchase of the majority stake in the club.

One of the first projects Bisciotti directed as owner of the Ravens was to build the team's state-of-the-art training and practice facility, dubbed "The Castle," which opened in October 2004.

His stewardship of the Ravens has been calm, professional, and trusting in the management of GM Ozzie Newsome. However, Bisciotti showed he was willing to take strong actions when he fired Brian Billick after the 2007 season, although Billick's eight years as the Ravens' head coach included the team's win in Super Bowl XXXV. He then surprised many observers by selecting John Harbaugh as his new coach, despite Harbaugh's peak of previous experience being a single year as a defensive backs coach after several successful years as the special teams coach for the Philadelphia Eagles.

In 2012, the Baltimore Ravens capitalized off a 10-6 season to go on to win Super Bowl XLVII against the San Francisco 49ers on February 3, 2013.

In 2005, Bisciotti ranked 378 among the Forbes 400, a list of the richest Americans.

Aerotek lawsuit

In 2009, Aerotek, the company Biscotti co-founded, reached a $1.2 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 1,000 Aerotek workers who worked at a Verizon Internet Services call center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, which was closed in December 2006. The company then was sued to settle claims that the workers were not paid in a timely fashion for accrued personal time and were not paid all of the wages that were due in accordance with the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act and Fair Labor Standards Act, according to Berkeley County Circuit Court records.

Personal life

Bisciotti is a devout Roman Catholic, and on the board member for both Associated Catholic Charities and Mother Seton Academy. He and his wife Renée (Foote) have two sons, Jason and Jack. The family lives on the Pointefield Landing of the Severn River in Maryland.