Robert Kenneth Kraft (born June 5, 1941) is an American billionaire 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, he has owned the New England Patriots of National Football League (NFL). Kraft also owns the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS), which he founded in 1996, and the esport-based Boston Uprising, which he founded in 2017. he has a net worth of $10.6 billion. 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 of Braves Field in Boston. During high school, he 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, he 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. He graduated from Columbia that same year, and he received an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1965. Kraft was elected chairman of the Newton Democratic City Committee when he was 27. He 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. He was further discouraged from entering politics by the suicide of his friend State Representative H. James Shea, Jr. 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. He still serves as this company's chairman. In 1972, he founded International Forest Products, a trader of physical paper commodities. The two combined companies make up the largest