Robert Kraft

Kraft was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, in an observant Jewish family. His father, Harry Kraft, was a dress manufacturer and a lay leader at Congregation Kehillath Israel. As a child, Kraft sold newspapers outside Braves Field, and his religious observance limited his participation in school sports because of Hebrew studies and the Sabbath.

Kraft attended Brookline High School before entering Columbia University on an academic scholarship. He served as class president and played tennis and football during his freshman and lightweight years. He graduated from Columbia in 1963 and earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 1965.

Kraft began his professional career with the Rand-Whitney Group, a Worcester-based paper-packaging company controlled by his father-in-law, Jacob Hiatt. He gained control of the company in 1968 and founded International Forest Products in 1972 to trade in paper, pulp, wood, and related commodities. The two businesses became the foundation of his broader corporate interests.

In 1998, Kraft organized those interests under the Kraft Group, whose portfolio spans paper and packaging, sports and entertainment, real estate, and venture and private-equity investments. His business holdings have included Rand-Whitney Group, International Forest Products, Gillette Stadium, the New England Patriots, and the New England Revolution.

Kraft had supported the Patriots since their American Football League years and became a season-ticket holder in 1971. His path to ownership began in 1985, when he acquired an option on land surrounding Sullivan Stadium in Foxborough. He bought the stadium out of bankruptcy in 1988, creating leverage over the team's lease and preventing efforts to move the Patriots away from New England.

In January 1994, Kraft acquired the Patriots from James Orthwein after rejecting an offer to buy out the remainder of the team's stadium lease. The team immediately returned to the playoffs after an eight-year absence, and it reached the Super Bowl in 1996. The franchise's transformation accelerated in 2000, when Kraft acquired the rights to hire Bill Belichick as head coach. Belichick's tenure and the performance of quarterback Tom Brady helped produce six Super Bowl championships for the Patriots during Kraft's ownership.

Kraft financed the construction of Gillette Stadium, which opened in 2002, and later developed Patriot Place, a mixed-use retail, dining, hotel, and entertainment complex beside the stadium. In 2024, he inducted Tom Brady into the Patriots Hall of Fame and announced the retirement of Brady's number 12.

Kraft and his family founded the New England Revolution in 1996 as a charter member of Major League Soccer. The club played its home matches alongside the Patriots at Foxboro Stadium and later at Gillette Stadium. Kraft also owned the San Jose Clash, later known as the San Jose Earthquakes, from 1998 to 2000.

Kraft has supported the expansion of soccer in North America and served as honorary chairman of the successful Canadian-Mexican-American bid for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. In 2019, he hired Bruce Arena as the Revolution's head coach and sporting director. In 2017, the Kraft Group became the owner of the Boston Uprising, one of the original teams in the Overwatch League. The Uprising finished third in the league's inaugural season.

Kraft's charitable work has focused on education, healthcare, youth sports, cultural diversity, interfaith understanding, and Jewish and Israeli causes. He and his family have supported institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Business School, Brandeis University, the College of the Holy Cross, Yeshiva University, Boston College, Tufts University, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston.

With Myra Kraft, he launched the Passport to Israel Fund in 1989 to help teenagers visit Israel. He also supported American football in Israel, including Kraft Family Stadium in Jerusalem and the Kraft Family Sports Campus. In 2019, Kraft received the Genesis Prize and pledged to establish a foundation dedicated to combating antisemitism and efforts to delegitimize Israel.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kraft used the Patriots' team plane to transport N95 masks from China for distribution to medical workers in New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. He also supported food relief, vaccination efforts, criminal justice reform, addiction treatment, cancer care, and educational fellowship programs.

Kraft married Myra Nathalie Hiatt in 1963. They had four sons, Jonathan, Daniel, Joshua, and David Kraft. Myra died of ovarian cancer in 2011, and the Patriots wore a patch bearing her initials during that season.

Kraft became engaged to ophthalmologist Dana Blumberg in 2022, and they married in New York City in October of that year.

Kraft was elected chairman of the Newton Democratic City Committee at age 27 and considered running for Congress in 1970, but decided not to pursue the campaign. He is a member of the Democratic Party while also having financially supported candidates from both major parties.

Kraft has had a longtime friendship with Donald Trump dating to the 1990s and contributed to Trump's 2017 inauguration celebrations. His support for Trump has drawn criticism from figures including basketball coach Gregg Popovich, who questioned the combination of that political support with Kraft's advocacy for social justice.