Robert Kraft

Early life and education

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 also 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 same year, and he received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965.

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. Kraft remains the 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 exporter/importer in 1997 and in 2001 was ranked No. 7 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 the channel 7 license for Boston in 1982, and he became a director of the board a year later, 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, Kraft exercised his option to sell his shares for an estimated $25 million.

Sports ownership

Boston Lobsters

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. Following 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.

New England Patriots

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, and 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 to be outdated and nearly worthless, but the purchase included the stadium's lease to the Patriots which ran through 2001. Kraft placed a bid on the Patriots franchise as well, but he lost the bidding 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 turned it down. Orthwein was no longer interested in operating the team in New England and decided to sell it. However, due to terms in the operating covenant, any potential buyer would have to 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 intent to move to St. Louis. However, Orthwein would have not only been saddled with all relocation expenses, but any legal expenses from breaking the lease. When Kraft let it be known that he would go to court to enforce the covenant and force Kroenke to stay in Foxboro, Orthwein was in an untenable position. He 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 his pursuit of the team. Indeed, Kraft still believes he "overpaid" for the franchise. Kraft still 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. Following the NFL's approval of 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 ever since. In 2023, the Patriots were one of the most valuable franchises in the NFL, estimated by Forbes to be worth $7 billion.

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. Kraft also owned the San Jose Clash (later San Jose Earthquakes) from 1998 to 2000.

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. He 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." However, the club was eventually sold to American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks. Liverpool is now owned by Fenway Sports Group, owners of fellow Boston-based sport team the Boston Red Sox.

In October 2017, Kraft said that he was "still intrigued" by the possibility of buying a Premier League football club, but that he was concerned about the lack of a salary cap in British football.

In 2017, Kraft was named the Honorary Chairman of the board of directors for the successful joint Canadian-Mexican-American bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

In 2019, Kraft hired Bruce Arena as head coach and sporting director of the New England Revolution. In 2020, the team had their first playoff win in six years.

Esports

Blizzard Entertainment announced in July 2017 that Kraft bought ownership in the Boston Uprising, one of the first seven teams for the professional esports Overwatch League. They played in Season 1 of the Overwatch League. Preseason for the league began December 6, 2017, and the regular season started on January 10, 2018. Boston Uprising finished third in the Overwatch League's inaugural season.

Philanthropy

The Krafts have donated hundreds of millions of dollars to philanthropic work including education, child- and women-related issues, healthcare, youth sports and American and Israeli causes. Among the institutions the Krafts have supported are Columbia University, Harvard Business School, Brandeis University, the College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Tufts University, Rice University, Yeshiva University, the Belmont Hill School, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.

In 1989, Myra and Robert Kraft launched the Passport to Israel Fund, in collaboration with Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (CJP), to help parents send their teenage children to Israel. 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 1990, Kraft, his wife, and his father-in-law funded a joint professorship between Brandeis University and the College of the Holy Cross, forming the Kraft-Hiatt endowed chairs in comparative religion – the first inter-religious endowed chairs in the United States.

In 2000, Kraft donated $11.5 million to construct the Columbia/Barnard Hillel which is made of the same white stone used in Jerusalem. In 2007, after a $5 million payment to 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.

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. The Krafts supported the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

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

In 2017, Kraft announced a contribution of $6 million to build the first regulation-size American football field in Israel. In June 2017, Kraft, along with several NFL Hall of Famers, traveled to Israel for the grand opening of the new Kraft Family Sports Campus. He has led additional "Touchdown in Israel" trips to Israel, with Patriots and Hall of Famers, since that 2017 trip. That same year, Kraft funded a new van as part of the Kraft Center for Community Health at Massachusetts General Hospital in order to help combat the opioid crisis in Boston. The vans allow those with opioid addiction to seek health services in their own neighborhoods.

Politics

Kraft was elected chairman of the Newton Democratic City Committee when he was 27. Kraft considered running against Representative Philip J. Philbin in 1970 but chose not to, citing the loss of privacy and strain on his family that politics would have caused. Kraft was further discouraged from entering politics by the 1970 suicide of his friend State Representative H. James Shea Jr.

Kraft is a member of the Democratic Party, but has supported candidates of both major parties (Democrats and Republicans) financially.

Kraft has had a longtime friendship with Donald Trump that dates back to the 1990s. In 2017, he donated $1 million to Trump's inauguration day celebrations. Kraft had made donations to Trump's presidential campaign as well. In 2020, NBA coach Gregg Popovich called Kraft "hypocritical" for supporting Trump while claiming to advocate for social justice. It was reported that Kraft had initially distanced himself from Trump in the years following the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. However, in early 2025 reports emerged that the two had resumed speaking to each other. and they were once again being described by media as being allies. In February 2025, Trump named Kraft's wife, Dana Blumberg, to the board of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Blumberg was appointed to replace Carlos Elizondo on the board as part of a greater effort by Trump to purge members of the board and exert control over it.

Since 2017, Robert Kraft has owned two Boeing 767 private jets used by the New England Patriots. As of June 2022, one of these jets had been used for at least 3 flights deporting migrants from the United States to Honduras. Neither Kraft nor the Patriots commented on this revelation, but they later cancelled their contract with the charter airline that had operated these flights; in 2024, they signed a new charter contract with Omni Air International, which also operates deportation flights on behalf of ICE.

Support for Israel

In June 2019, Kraft received Israel's Genesis Prize. While at the event in Jerusalem, Kraft pledged $20 million to establish a foundation that will fight antisemitism and combat the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

When awarded the Genesis Prize, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said: "Israel does not have a more loyal friend than Robert Kraft."

In April 2024, during the Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University, Kraft stopped funding the university "over the treatment of Jewish students and faculty during pro-Palestinian protests at the campus", citing "virulent hate." According to Adam Saifer and Fahad Ahmad, Kraft is among "billionaire donors" who "have used their vast wealth—and the threat of withdrawing it—to demand a severe crackdown on student protesters expressing solidarity with Palestine" since October 2023.

Kraft led efforts to remove Macklemore from Ed Sheeran's 2026 Loop Tour after he made "free Palestine" statements onstage and performed the song "Hind's Hall", a song inspired by the Gaza solidarity protests at Columbia University and the "Hinds Hall" occupation of Hamilton Hall, renamed by protestors in honor of Hind Rajab. Kraft called Sheeran to say he would not be allowed to perform at Gillette Stadium, which is owned by the Kraft Group, if Macklemore was not removed from the tour.

Hours after Macklemore posted a detailed account of his perspective on being removed from the tour on social media, Kraft released a statement in which he spoke of his long fight against antisemitism, agreed with Macklemore on the suffering of the Palestinians, evoked the responsibility of Hamas, invited Macklemore to meet, and said they had "peace for all people" as a common goal.

According to Philissa Cramer in Haaretz, "Kraft inherited the position as the most prominent Jewish billionaire supporting Israel in the United States" from Sheldon Adelson, though she contrasts his approach from Adelson's position that "Palestinian is an invented identity, unworthy of recognition."

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 on July 20, 2011, of ovarian cancer, at the age of 68. The Krafts were members of Temple Emanuel in Newton, Massachusetts. A patch bearing Kraft's initials (MHK) appeared on the Patriots' uniform jersey throughout the 2011 season. The couple had four sons: Jonathan Kraft, Daniel Kraft, Joshua Kraft, and David Kraft.

In June 2012, Kraft began dating actress Ricki Noel Lander, who was 38 years his junior. In July 2012, Kraft assisted Lander in creating an audition video for a role in The Internship. Lander and Kraft broke up in 2018.

In 2019, Kraft was among 25 people facing first-degree misdemeanor charges for soliciting prostitution at a day spa. His attorney electronically entered a not-guilty plea, and later submitted a court filing where Kraft waived arraignment, pled not guilty to all charges and requested a jury trial. A memo filed by Kraft's attorneys revealed that hidden cameras had been installed when investigators entered the facility under the guise of suspected human trafficking. A Palm Beach County judge ruled that prosecutors could not use the videos in their case, citing privacy concerns. A Florida appeals court also ruled that Kraft's constitutional rights were violated, and all the charges were dropped. U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz ordered the videos to be destroyed.

In 2026, it was revealed that Kraft had kept a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and that Epstein had recommended Kraft use his lawyer to defeat the charges.

In early 2022, Kraft's engagement to New York City-based ophthalmologist Dana Blumberg (who is 33 years Kraft's junior) was announced by Tommy Hilfiger at the inaugural amfAR Gala Palm Beach event. Kraft and Blumberg reportedly had begun dating in 2017. They married in New York City in October 2022. Ed Sheeran performed at the wedding.

Awards and honors

NFL

Six-time Super Bowl champion (as the owner of the Patriots: XXXVI, XXXVIII, XXXIX, XLIX, LI, LIII)

George Halas Award (2012)

NCAA

Theodore Roosevelt Award (2006)

John Jay Award from Columbia University (1987)

Alexander Hamilton Medal from Columbia University (2004)

Columbia University football field renamed Robert K. Kraft Field.

Honorary doctorate in humane letters (2015) from Yeshiva University.

MLS

New England Revolution (as the owner): 2021 Supporters Shield, 2007 U.S. Open Cup, 2008 North American SuperLiga

Organizational

Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2011).

Carnegie Hall Medal of Excellence (2013)

Genesis Prize (2019)