Background and career
Robert Hearth Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American businessman. He is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) 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. Since 1994, Kraft has owned the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL). He also owns the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS), which he founded in 1996. In 2017, he founded the Boston Uprising, an Overwatch League esports team that competed from 2017 until it disbanded in January 2024. According to Forbes, he had an estimated net worth of $11.1 billion as of July 2024.
Kraft was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of Sarah Bryna (Webber) and Harry Kraft, a dress manufacturer in Boston's Chinatown. His 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. The Krafts were a Modern Orthodox Jewish family. Robert attended the Edward Devotion School and graduated from Brookline High School. As a child, he sold newspapers outside Braves Field in Boston. 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 on an academic scholarship and he served as class president. He played tennis and safety on the school's freshman and lightweight football teams. During that time, Kraft lived in Carman Hall. He met Myra Hiatt at a delicatessen in Boston's Back Bay in 1962, and they married in June 1963. Kraft graduated from Columbia that year, and in 1965 he received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
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. Kraft remains the chairman. In 1972, he founded International Forest Products, a trader of physical paper commodities. The two companies are the largest privately held paper and packaging companies in the United States. Kraft has said 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 20th century. International Forest Products became a top 100 US exporter/importer in 1997 and in 2001 was ranked 7th on the Journal of Commerce's list in that category. In 1991, Kraft said of the business, "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 said were "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 the channel 7 license for Boston in 1982, and he became a director of the board in 1983, after the newly licensed station, WNEV-TV, signed on, replacing the former WNAC-TV. In 1986, Kraft was named president of the corporation. In 1991, he exercised his option to sell his shares for an estimated $25 million.
In 1974, Kraft, Harold Bayne, Herbert Hoffman, Bob Mades, and Paul Slater purchased the Boston Lobsters of World TeamTennis (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. After the 1978 season, Kraft announced that the franchise would fold. The league itself folded soon thereafter. After the Lobsters folded, Kraft was also mentioned as a bidder for the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Celtics.
Kraft has been a New England Patriots fan since their American Football League days and had been a season ticket holder since 1971, when the team moved to Schaefer Stadium. In 1985, he bought a 10-year option on Foxboro Raceway, a horse track adjacent to the stadium, and the purchase prevented Patriots owner Billy Sullivan from holding non-Patriot events at the 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 buy the stadium and the Patriots. 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 of the team in 1988, while the stadium lapsed into bankruptcy. In 1988, Kraft outbid several competitors to buy the stadium out of bankruptcy court from Sullivan for $22 million. The stadium was considered outdated and nearly worthless, but the purchase included the stadium's lease to the Patriots, which ran through 2001. Kraft bid on the Patriots franchise as well, but he lost to Victor Kiam. Sullivan and Kiam then tried to move the team to Jacksonville, but Kraft refused to let them break the lease. Kiam was nearly brought down by bad investments of his own and was forced to sell the Patriots to James Orthwein in 1992. In 1994, Orthwein offered Kraft $75 million to buy out the remainder of the team's lease at Foxboro Stadium so he could move it to St. Louis, but Kraft declined. Orthwein was no longer interested in operating the team in New England and decided to sell it. But the operating covenant required that any potential buyer negotiate with Kraft. With this in mind, Kraft launched what amounted to a hostile takeover, offering $172 million for an outright purchase. Future St. Louis/Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke offered more money ($200 million) with the intent to move to St. Louis. But Orthwein would have been saddled with all relocation expenses and any legal expenses from breaking the lease. When Kraft made known that he would go to court to enforce the covenant and force Kroenke to stay in Foxboro, Orthwein had little choice but to accept Kraft's offer, the highest ever made for an NFL team at the time. Kraft said that his passion for the Patriots led him to "break every one of my financial rules" in pursuit of the team. He still believes he "overpaid" for the franchise. Kraft 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. After the NFL approved the sale, the Patriots sold out their entire 1994 season, the first full sell-out in franchise history. Every Patriots home game–preseason, regular season, and playoffs–has been sold out since. In 2023, the Patriots were one of the NFL's most valuable franchises, estimated by Forbes to be worth $7 billion.
In 1998, 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, instead building a new stadium in Foxborough with Massachusetts infrastructure funding. In 2002, Kraft financed a $350-million stadium for the Patriots initially called CMGI Field but renamed Gillette Stadium. In 2007, he began to develop the land around Gillette Stadium, creating Patriot Place, a $375-million open-air shopping and entertainment center. 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. On January 27, 2000, Kraft traded a first round draft pick to the New York Jets for the rights to hire Bill Belichick as head coach. The trade was criticized but proved successful: Belichick led the Patriots to six Super Bowl championships, nine conference championships, and 16 division titles. In the sixth round of the 2000 draft, the Patriots acquired quarterback Tom Brady, who would be the team's starter from 2001 to 2019. The relationship between Kraft, Belichick, and Brady has been credited with producing one of the most successful sports dynasties in football, although in later years the personal relationship between the three grew strained.
