Josh Harris (businessman)

Josh Harris (businessman)
Joshua Jordan Harris (born December 1964) is an American investor, sports team owner, and philanthropist. He is the co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management and the principal owner and managing partner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL's New Jersey Devils, and the NFL's Washington Commanders. Harris is also a general partner of the English football club Crystal Palace and a minority owner of Joe Gibbs Racing. He holds a net worth of over $7 billion.
Harris was born in Chevy Chase, Maryland, later graduating with a degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1986. He worked two years at the former investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert before leaving for Harvard Business School to earn an MBA. Harris founded Apollo with Leon Black and Marc Rowan in 1990 and led its day-to-day operations until stepping down in 2022 to focus on sports management and philanthropic pursuits.
Harris led investment groups that acquired the 76ers in 2011, the Devils and Prudential Center in 2013, and the Commanders and FedExField in 2023. Other companies he founded include Harris Philanthropies with his wife Marjorie in 2014, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment with investment partner David Blitzer in 2017, and the alternative assets firm 26North in 2022. Harris is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and formerly served on the United States Olympic Committee.
Early life and education
Harris was born in December 1964 in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He grew up playing several sports and considers them as having developed work ethic. He cited his favorite sport as wrestling after winning a summer camp tournament at the age of nine. Harris graduated from The Field School in Washington D.C. in 1982 and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences. He transferred to Penn's Wharton School as a freshman due to an affinity for statistics and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics in 1986. As a student, Harris was a member of the Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternities and represented the Penn Quakers in collegiate wrestling. He managed lemonade stands in Washington, D.C. in locations such as Farragut North station and the National Zoo during his freshman and sophomore summer vacations.
Career
Private equity
After graduation, Harris worked at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert as a financial analyst in their mergers and acquisitions department, frequently working 100-hour weeks. He left after two years to attend Harvard Business School (HBS), where he graduated with an MBA in 1990 as a Baker Loeb Scholar, an honor given to the top 5% of the school's graduating class. Drexel had filed for bankruptcy earlier that year due to illegal junk bond activity amid a recession, with Harris working at Blackstone for two months before leaving to establish the private equity firm Apollo Global Management with former Drexel partners Leon Black and Marc Rowan. By 2004, he had led the acquisitions of companies such as Sirius Satellite Radio, WMC Mortgage, Pacer International, Nalco Water, and Borden. Harris also led a $2 billion investment into the multinational chemical company LyondellBasell in 2008 before selling in November 2013 for a profit of $9.6 billion, one of the largest gains in private equity history. In April 2009, Harris was ordered to pay $30 million in a settlement with Huntsman Corporation after Apollo was sued for backing out of a merger the previous year. He was among several businessmen in 2017 that met with Trump administration officials to financially advise their $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan, with senior advisor Jared Kushner considering him for a potential White House job.
In May 2021, Harris announced he was stepping down from his day-to-day responsibilities at Apollo after being passed over as CEO for Marc Rowan, with his large personal focus on sport investments also reportedly becoming a source of tension within the company. The position had been made available after Leon Black announced he would be stepping down due to an investigation finding he had paid $158 million to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2012 and 2017 for advice on taxes and estate planning. He left Apollo in January 2022 and remained on their board of directors until his term ended in October 2022. The same year, Black included Harris in a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) lawsuit, alleging that he led a group within Apollo attempting to tarnish his reputation after his ties to Epstein were reported. Harris denied the claims, with federal judge Paul Engelmayer dismissing the suit in June 2022 for lack of evidence. Black would appeal before the dismissal was upheld in March 2023. He founded the alternative asset firm 26North in September 2022, hiring former senior executives from companies such as Centerbridge Partners and Goldman Sachs. The firm held $9.5 billion in assets by the end of 2022.
Harris is a board member of Mount Sinai Hospital, Harvard Business School, and Wharton School, and serves on the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served on the Investor Advisory Committee on Financial Markets (IACFM) for the New York Federal Reserve, the United States Olympic Committee, as the vice president and treasurer of the Allen-Stevenson School, and on the boards of Berry Global, Constellium, and LyondellBasell. His family office, HRS Management, bought a majority stake in gym operator US Fitness in June 2018. The office was also the largest investor in The Hill, an American political newspaper, until selling to Nexstar Media Group in August 2021. In July 2022, HRS formed a joint venture with Canvas Property Group to buy more than $1 billion worth of apartments. In January 2022, Harris invested $10 million in Mosaic Development Partners, a Philadelphia-based real estate company. He, alongside Mark Penn, James Tisch, and Thomas Peterffy, contributed to a $50 million investment fund in The Messenger, a news website that launched in May 2023.
Sports and entertainment
Harris began contemplating investing in sports after meeting senior Blackstone executive David Blitzer in 2008 at The Punchbowl, a public house in London. Those talks led to the pair forming an investment group that bought the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from Comcast Spectacor for 280 million in 2011. Other initial members of the group included Art Wrubel, Jason Levien, Adam Aron, Martin Geller, David Heller, James Lassiter, Marc Leder, Michael Rubin, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Erick Thohir. Harris presided over an era in 76ers history known as "The Process", in which the team tanked for better NBA draft lottery odds. Agreeing to a plan formed by general manager Sam Hinkie, the 76ers went 19–63 during the 2013–14 season, 18–64 in 2014–15, and 10–72 in 2015–16, the latter being the third-worst record in NBA history. The Process was unpopular with NBA executives and team owners, who lobbied league commissioner Adam Silver to step in due to the 76ers' poor performance affecting league revenue sharing. Harris would eventually agree to a suggestion by Silver to hire Jerry Colangelo, former owner of the Phoenix Suns, as team chairman in December 2015, which led to Hinkie stepping down in April 2016. The Process led to the 76ers drafting future NBA MVP Joel Embiid, with the team having made five straight postseason appearances starting with the 2017–18 season. The franchise was valued at $3.15 billion by Forbes in 2023.
In 2013, Harris and Blitzer bought the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League (NHL) and their arena, the Prudential Center, from Jeff Vanderbeek for $320 million. The franchise was valued at $825 million by Sportico in 2022. He bought a 18% stake in the English football club Crystal Palace in December 2015, which is operated as a general partnership alongside Blitzer, Steve Parish, and John Textor. In September 2016, Harris and Blitzer bought the esports organizations Dignitas and Apex Gaming and merged them under the Dignitas brand. In September 2017, the pair founded Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE) to consolidate their sports ventures. In addition to the 76ers and Devils, the company also owns the 76ers-affiliated Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA G League and the Devils-affiliated Utica Comets of the American Hockey League, as well as HBSE Real Estate, the venture capital firm HBSE Ventures, and the event and marketing firm Elevate Sports Ventures. In June 2020, Harris bought a 5% stake worth $140 million in the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL). In 2022, he led a group consisting of Blitzer, airline executive Martin Broughton, politician and Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe, tennis player Serena Williams, and racing driver Lewis Hamilton that pursued a bid to purchase Chelsea of the Premier League before it was sold to Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital for billion ($4.5 billion). He pursued another bid that year for the New York Mets of Major League Baseball (MLB) before it was sold to Steve Cohen for $2.4 billion. In January 2023, Harris and Blitzer purchased a controlling interest in Ripken Baseball, a youth baseball brand founded by MLB hall of famer Cal Ripken Jr., and merged it with Cooperstown All Star Village, a baseball resort in Cooperstown, New York. The same year, Harris and Blitzer explored buying minority stakes in Manchester United.
In 2023, Harris led a group that purchased the NFL's Washington Commanders and FedExField from Daniel Snyder for $6.05 billion, the highest price ever paid for a sports team. He contributed $2 billion in cash, with the rest being raised from 20 limited partners including Danaher and Glenstone founder Mitchell Rales, basketball hall of famer and entrepreneur Magic Johnson, and DC businessman and Washington Kastles owner Mark Ein. Harris and Johnson had bid on the NFL's Denver Broncos the previous year before it was sold to a group headed by Walmart heirs Rob Walton and Greg Penner. He was the third limited partner of the Steelers to become majority owner of another NFL team since 2012, joining Jimmy Haslam of the Cleveland Browns and David Tepper of the Carolina Panthers. Around the same time, he bought a minority stake in Joe Gibbs Racing by way of HBSE.
Harris employs general managers and presidents to operate his teams and venues, with diversity, equity, and inclusion and employee empowerment being promoted within his workplace culture. Harris also invests heavily in sports science and analytics, with 76ers' president of basketball operations Daryl Morey being a leading proponent of the field. He was among the first sports owners to announce that part-time staff would continue to be paid for any games canceled due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports, which saw the NBA and NHL suspend operations for most of 2020. Due to public criticism, Harris would reverse a decision to temporarily reduce the salaries of HBSE, 76ers, and Devils employees making under $100,000 during the hiatus by 20%.
Personal life
Harris is Jewish. His father Jacob was an orthodontist and his mother Sylvia was a schoolteacher; he has a younger brother named Gabe. He married Marjorie Harris (née Rubin) in 1995. The couple met while attending Harvard Business School and have three sons and two daughters together; Hannah, Stuart, Thomas, Pierce, and Bridget. Harris and fellow Chevy Chase native and businessman Mark Ein have been close friends since elementary school; they later attended Wharton and Harvard together and shared beach houses on Long Island during their time on Wall Street.
Harris grew up a fan of local Washington sports teams, frequently attending Washington Redskins games at RFK Stadium and Washington Bullets games at the Capital Centre with his family. As a youth, he placed third in a Maryland state wrestling tournament and once matched with future Olympic gold medalist Bobby Weaver. Harris received the Outstanding American Award from the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2013. He also competes in marathons and triathlons, finishing the 2010 New York City Marathon in 3:53:41 while later running in the 2011 Philadelphia Marathon. Harris threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Washington Nationals game in September 2023.
Harris was inducted into Kappa Beta Phi, a Wall Street fraternity, in 2011. In November 2017, he bought the Dommerich Mansion, a 21,000-square-foot townhouse in the Upper East Side of New York City, for $52 million. In July 2021, he bought a 9,119-square-foot mansion in Miami from Bolivian businessman Marcelo Claure for $32 million and sold it in December 2022 for $66 million. Harris was included on Sports Business Journal "Most Influential: Dealmakers & Disrupters" list in 2022. Harris frequently takes private helicopters to attend games. Due to a scheduling error, he once caused the cancellation of a youth soccer match held at Newark's St. Benedict's Preparatory School as the field is sometimes used as a helipad. His net worth was estimated in October 2023 to be $7 billion by Forbes and $8.58 billion by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. $2.54 billion was derived from his shares in Apollo .
Philanthropy and community endeavors
Harris and his wife founded Harris Philanthropies in 2014. He donated $5 million to the Icahn Genomics Institute in New York in 2015 and established the Harris Center for Precision Wellness. From 2015 to 2020, he donated a total of $3.5 million to the Philadelphia Police Athletic League, $648,950 to the Republican Party, and $190,150 to the Democratic Party. He has been partnered with After-School All-Stars since 2016, providing a $1 million grant for six schools in Newark, Philadelphia, and Camden. He has also supported the University of Pennsylvania with several donations, including $1 million to the Penn Quakers wrestling program, establishing the Harris Family Endowed Scholarship program for undergraduate students from the Washington, D.C. area, and establishing the $10 million Harris Family Alternative Investments program. He has also participated in forums and panels hosted by organizations such as the Milken Institute, the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, and the Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
Harris has contributed to socioeconomic causes in Israel through sports, including founding a youth basketball league known as the 48ers and funding a project integrating Ethiopian immigrants. He donated more than $7 million worth of food, medical supplies, and other COVID-19-related equipment to several Philadelphia-based groups and organizations by April 2020. HBSE committed $20 million to fight racial injustice later that year, with Harris donating an additional $2 million to The Bridgespan Group to expand their nonprofit programs in Philadelphia and Camden. In 2022, he donated $5 million to Harvard Business School to establish the Harris Family Fund for Sports Management and Alternative Investments, as well as donating to the Reform Alliance, several Philadelphia-area homeless shelters, and mobile cancer clinics to the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. The same year, he donated $1 million to Fund for Health, a health inequity collaboration fund by Penn Med and Wharton, with another million to Penn Med to promote student diversity in clinical medicine and biomedical research.
References
External links
1964 births
20th-century American businesspeople
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American businesspeople
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American philanthropists
American billionaires
American business executives
American chairpersons of corporations
American chief executives of professional sports organizations
American company founders
American financial company founders
American investors
American Jews from Maryland
American soccer chairmen and investors
American sports businesspeople
Apollo Global Management people
Businesspeople from Maryland
Chairmen and investors of football clubs in England
Crystal Palace F.C. directors and chairmen
Drexel Burnham Lambert
The Field School alumni
Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment
Harvard Business School alumni
Jewish American sportspeople
Living people
NASCAR team owners
New Jersey Devils owners
Penn Quakers wrestlers
People from Chevy Chase, Maryland
Philadelphia 76ers owners
Philanthropists from Maryland
Private equity and venture capital investors
Sportspeople from Montgomery County, Maryland
Washington Commanders owners
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania alumni