Background and career
John A. Catsimatidis ( KAT-sih-mə-TEE-deez; born September 7, 1948) is an American billionaire businessman, radio talk show host, and actor. He is the owner, president, chairman, and CEO of grocery chains Gristedes and D'Agostino Supermarkets in Manhattan, as well as the Red Apple Group, a real estate and aviation company with about $2 billion in holdings in New York, Florida and Pennsylvania. He is also the chairman and CEO of the Red Apple Group subsidiary United Refining Company. Catsimatidis hosts two talk radio shows, The Cats Roundtable on WABC and the Cats at Night show. He initiated purchase talks for the WABC radio station in 2019 which, after regulatory delays, was concluded in March 2020. Catsimatidis was the runner-up in the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City in the 2013 election.
Catsimatidis was born on the Greek island of Nisyros on September 7, 1948. He came to the United States with his parents when he was six months old. The family moved to West Harlem, where Catsimatidis grew up. Catsimatidis's father had been a lighthouse operator in Greece but worked as a busboy in New York. Catsimatidis graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1966. He received a congressional nomination to West Point, but chose to study electrical engineering at New York University instead. While in college, Catsimatidis worked for the uncle of a friend, Tony, in a small supermarket on 137th Street which Tony and his uncle owned. While Catsimatidis was still in college, Tony sold his half of the store to Catsimatidis. Catsimatidis completed four years of college, but dropped out eight credits short of graduating.
In 1971, Catsimatidis opened his first business in Manhattan's Upper West Side; it was the first Red Apple grocery store. Shortly thereafter, he purchased another grocery store on 87th street just west of Broadway, naming it Red Apple. Among his business innovations were keeping stores open late seven days a week, offering free delivery, and cashing checks for customers. Catsimatidis has said that by the time he was 24, he had "built up ten stores and the business was doing $25 million a year", and that he was earning $1 million per year. By the summer of 1981, Red Apple had 27 stores in the Bronx and Manhattan, with annual sales of around $40 million. Red Apple's sales grew to $110 million in 1985. In 1984, Catsimatidis made an investment in Capitol Air, a former charter airline that went out of business later that year. In 1992, Catsimatidis started a charter carrier, Capitol Air Express, that operated from 1993 to 1996 using the same livery as the defunct Capitol Air. In 1986, Red Apple purchased 36 Gristedes supermarkets and 11 affiliated Charles & Co. speciality-food stores from the Southland Corporation. In 2009, it was reported that Catsimatidis's main holdings included 50 Gristedes supermarkets, 371 gas stations in three states, $500 million in real estate, and an expanding oil business. In 1986, Catsimatidis acquired United Refining Co., the owner of gasoline refineries in Pennsylvania and Alabama. In October 2009, Forbes magazine reported that United Refining Energy Corp., a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by United Refining Company, was purchasing "privately held Chaparral Energy in a deal worth roughly $1.6 billion." However, United Refining Energy Corp. shareholders did not approve the deal and it was terminated in December 2009. Catsimatidis is the chairman and CEO of United Refining Co., which is a subsidiary of the Red Apple Group. In 2008, 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. 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 Catsimatidis wanted to keep the company together. In February 2009, Catsimatidis was sued by a group of SemGroup executives, who sought the removal of Catsimatidis and his allies from the committee. In July Catsimatidis reached a settlement with SemGroup, pursuant to which he acquired a piece of SemGroup's asphalt business and dropped his competing plan for the company's proposed reorganization. In 2015, the Red Apple Group ranked 156th on Forbes magazine's list of "America's largest private companies", with revenue of $3 billion and 8,000 employees. (This compares to its 2008 and 2009 rank, both at 100th, 2010 at 78th, 2011 at 98th, and 2012 at 97th). Catsimatidis was, until the early 2020s, a minority investor in the political newspaper and website The Hill as referenced on the website's articles which had mentioned him. Catsimatidis shared his rags-to-riches story in his memoir How Far Do You Want to Go?: Lessons from a Common-Sense Billionaire, published by Matt Holt in February 2023.
On Sunday mornings, Catsimatidis hosts the talk radio show The Cats Roundtable. The show originates on WABC radio (which is not associated with the Disney owned American Broadcasting Company) and is syndicated to other stations around the U.S. Catsimatidis also hosts the one-hour Cats at Night show, heard weeknights on WABC and also available as a podcast. In 2019, he announced an agreement to purchase WABC for $12.5 million, which, after regulatory delays, was finalized in March 2020. Catsimatidis's Red Apple Media has since purchased other radio stations in the region, including WRCR and WLIR. With the shutdown of CBS Radio Network in May 2026, RAG took the opportunity to initiate its alternative "World Wide News Network".
Catsimatidis and his wife have made contributions to a variety of both Republican and Democratic campaigns. Among Republicans, the Catsimatidises contributed over $60,000 to the Republican National Committee, and have also made significant contributions to the National Republican Congressional Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Mitt Romney, Eric Cantor, Olympia Snowe, Richard Lugar, and others. Among Democrats handful of Democratic campaigns, including to Carolyn B. Maloney, Charlie Rangel, and Jerrold Nadler. In local New York City races, Catsimatidis has given to Bill de Blasio (while he was a city councilman), Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Cyrus Vance Jr., and Staten Island borough president James Molinaro. In the 1992 Democratic presidential primaries, Catsimatidis contributed $150,000 to the campaign of fellow Greek-American Paul Tsongas. 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. Catsimatidis has been described as a "longtime", "loyal", and "high-level Clinton donor". Catsimatidis donated a significant sum to the Clinton Presidential Center, thought to be between $100,000 and $500,000. Catsimatidis was a member of Hillary Clinton's finance team during her 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying in February 2007 of Clinton, "She's unstoppable. She's got such a machine." Catsimatidis hosted a number of fundraising dinners with Bill Clinton at his home in New York that in total raised well in excess of $750,000 for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Catsimatidis has said that he is friends with Bill Clinton and that the former president "often" has flown in one of Catsimatidis's two airplanes. Hillary Clinton attended Catsimatidis's daughter's wedding. In 2015, press reports indicated that Catsimatidis donated the use of a chartered jet valued at $70,000 to the Republican primary campaign of Scott Walker.
A donor to Bill Clinton during the Clinton years, Catsimatidis, while still enrolled as a Democrat, considered becoming a candidate in the 2009 mayoral election as a Republican. In May 2007, he was reported to be "systematically wooing local Republicans", attending various Republican fundraisers in Queens and Staten Island and stating that he would "probably have a press conference" to announce his intentions "sooner rather than later" and would consider spending between $30 million and $40 million if he ran. In 2008, Catsimatidis was viewed as a potential mayoral candidate. By July 2008, Catsimatidis formed an exploratory committee. In 2009, Catsimatidis spent nearly $300,000, much of it on polls and consultants, to explore a candidacy. He said he only agreed to drop out after Bloomberg informed him of his plans to seek a third term. Once the city term limits law was changed to allow Bloomberg to run for a third term, Catsimatidis quietly withdrew.
