Boston Billionaires Flashcards
Abigail Johnson
Background: President of Financial Services at Fidelity Investments
Net Worth: $17.2 billion
Source of Wealth: money management, inherited and growing
Residence: Milton, MA
Notes: Donated $29 million in charities in 2011. Board membership includes Edward C. Johnson Fund, Fidelity Foundation, and Alzheimer Research Forum. Abigail is likely successor for her father’s role as CEO of Fidelity Investments.
Edward (Ned) Johnson III
Background: Ned is Chair and CEO of Fidelity Investments
Net Worth: $9.3 billion
Source of Wealth: investments, inherited and growing
Residence: Boston, MA
Notes: Donated $29 million in charities in 2011. Board membership includes Edward C. Johnson Fund, Fidelity Foundation, and Alzheimer Research Forum.
Jim Davis & Family
Background: Chairman, New Balance
Net Worth: $3.1 billion
Source of Wealth: New Balance, self-made
Residence: Newton, MA
Notes: Davis bought New Balance on the day of the Boston Marathon in 1972. In the past 40 years, the company has expanded beyond running shoes into clothing and equipment for soccer, field hockey and lacrosse. His wife, Anne Davis, joined New Balance in 1977 as its first human resources manager and today serves as vice chairman. In addition to the Boston Landing project, Davis owns a number or properties in Gloucester, Mass including the original Birds Eye plant.
Amos Hostetter
Background: Chair of Pilot House Associates
Net Worth: $2.9 billion
Source of Wealth: cable television, self-mad
Residence: Boston, MA
Notes: Hostetter invested $3,000 in cable company in 1963. Continental Cablevision eventually became nation’s largest privately held cable company before being sold to US West for $11 billion in 1996. He later bought it back, renamed it MediaOne and sold it for $44 billion in cash and stock to AT&T in 2000. He now owns Boston’s Lewis Wharf and is investor in cable companies, broadband startups, Nantucket real estate. He recently pledged $50 million to local climate change prevention efforts. Heads the $800 million endowed Barr Foundation, the largest source of nonprofit funding in the region. Board Members of the Isabella Stewart Gardener Museum, WGBH, Museum of Fine Arts, and Amherst College, among others.
Robert (& Myra) Kraft
Background: Owner, New England Patriots & the Kraft Group
Net Worth: $2.9 billion
Source of Wealth: New England Patriots, self-made
Residence: Brookline, MA
Notes: Bob & Myra gave away more than $100 million during their five decades together. Since Myra’s death in 2011, Bob and his four sons are continuing the tradition. Son Josh is currently serving as President/CEO of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston. Board memberships include Robert and Myra Kraft Family Foundation, MRK Foundation, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and New England Patriots Charitable Foundation.
Phillip Ragon
Background: InterSystems
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Source of Wealth: health IT, self-made
Residence: Boston, MA
Notes: Phillip Ragon, known as Terry, has quietly built Cambridge, Mass-based InterSystems into a thriving company selling the guts of electronic health records: databases that can easily ramp up and allow doctors to quickly retrieve patient information. He is founder, CEO and sole owner of InterSystems, which had $443 million in 2012 revenues. Epic Systems, a leading vendor of digital health records software founded by Judy Faulkner (also on The Forbes 400), is the company’s biggest customer. In 2009 Ragon and his wife Susan, who’s an executive at InterSystems, pledged $100 million over 10 years to establish the Ragon Institute of MGH (Massachusetts General Hospital), MIT and Harvard. It is pursuing the development of an HIV vaccine.
Valentin Gapontsev (& family)
Background: IPG Photonics
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Source of Wealth: lasers, self-made
Residence: Worcester, MA
Notes: Valentin Gapontsev is considered by Russians to be the father of the fiber-optic laser industry. In 1990, at age 51, he founded IPG Photonics, which produces high-power fiber-optic lasers for cutting materials and telecommunications. The company is based in Oxford, Mass., but operates all over the world. He studied laser physics at the Soviet Academy of Science’s Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics. Gapontsev holds Russian and U.S. citizenships.
Seth (& Beth) Klarman
Background: President/CEO, The Baupost Group; Philanthropist
Net Worth: $1.05 billion
Source of Wealth: investments, self-made
Residence: Chestnut Hill, MA
Notes: He set up his Klarman Family Foundation, which has $255 million in assets, to back scientific research, promote access to music learning and support causes in Israel. Gave $32.5 million to the Broad Institute in 2012 to fund an extensive research project to understand the wiring of human cells. Board memberships include Klarman Family Foundation, Broad Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and McLean Hospital National Council.
Bill (& Joyce) Cummings
Background: Founder, Cummings Properties; Director, Cummings Properties
Net Worth: Very active in philanthropy, but are reticent about divulging their net worth
Source of Wealth: commercial real estate
Residence: Winchester
Notes: The first Massachusetts residents to sign the Giving Pledge. They have started by handing out 100 grants of $100,000 each to local nonprofits.
