Alfred Hoffman Jr. (born March 27, 1934) is an American businessman and politician. He is a real estate developer and a former Ambassador to Portugal.

Early life

Hoffman was raised on the south side of Chicago, the youngest of seven children. His father, a Jewish Austrian, emigrated to the United States in 1906 and opened a poultry store, while his mother was a Scottish-American immigrant who grew up in Kentucky. Hoffman graduated from Morgan Park Military Academy in 1952, and was accepted to the United States Military Academy that same year. He became a captain in the Air Force, where Hoffman flew

F-100 F-100 or F100 may refer to: Aerospace and defense * North American F-100 Super Sabre, a fighter aircraft formerly in the service of the United States Air Force * Fokker 100, a regional jet * Pratt & Whitney F100, afterburning turbofan engine * ' ...

s. Instead of continuing his career in the air force, Hoffman attended

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

, where he became interested in real estate development.

Career

After leaving Harvard, Hoffman got a job for KB Homes, a developer in Detroit, Michigan. Hoffman rose to the rank of executive vice president. In 1967, Hoffman founded his own firm, Tekton Corp, which he sold to another company in 1970. In 1975, Hoffman founded another development company, Florida Design Communities, which bought land from struggling companies. In 1995, Hoffman and Don Ackerman bought Westinghouse Communities, which they renamed to

WCI Communities Lennar Corporation is a home construction company based in the census-designated place of Fontainebleau, Florida, with a Miami postal address. In 2021, the company was the second-largest home construction company in the United States based on the ...

. In 2002, '' The Washington Post'' described Hoffman as the most influential developer in the state of Florida. Hoffman's development activities were criticized by many environmentalists. Hoffman sold his stake in WCI in 2005 to become the Ambassador to Portugal, a post he held until 2007. In 2008, Hoffman founded Hoffman Partners, another real estate development company.

Other activities

Hoffman served as co-chair of

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

's 2000 campaign for president, and also served as finance chair of the Republican National Committee and the chairman of Florida Governor Jeb Bush's re-election campaign. Hoffman fundraised for

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American politician and United States Navy officer who served as a United States senator from Arizona from 1987 until his death in 2018. He previously served two terms ...

's 2008 candidacy and

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts f ...

's 2012 candidacy. Hoffman donated $1 million to Right to Rise, a Super PAC supporting Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential candidacy. Hoffman served as chairman of

Marco Rubio Marco Antonio Rubio (born May 28, 1971) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the senior United States senator from Florida, a seat he has held since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he served as Speaker of the Florida Hous ...

's successful 2010 Senate candidacy, but tried to dissuade Rubio from running for president in 2016. In 2010, Hoffman put his $10 million home in

Fort Myers, Florida Fort Myers (or Ft. Myers) is a city in southwestern Florida and the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 20 ...

up for auction, and moved to

Palm Beach, Florida Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from several nearby cities including West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoas ...

. Following a February 2018 school shooting in Florida, Hoffman publicized an email sent to Florida governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers, born December 1, 1952) is an American politician serving as the junior United States senator from Florida since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 45th governor of Florida from 2011 to 2019. Scott ...

and former governor Jeb Bush, among others, pledging to no longer fund legislative groups or candidates who were not actively working to ban sales of military-style assault weapons to civilians. "For how many years now have we been doing this — having these experiences of terrorism, mass killings — and how many years has it been that nothing's been done?" Hoffman said. "It's the end of the road for me."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Al Jr. 1934 births Living people American people of Austrian-Jewish descent American people of Scottish descent Morgan Park Academy alumni United States Military Academy alumni Military personnel from Illinois United States Air Force officers Harvard Business School alumni American real estate businesspeople Businesspeople from Chicago Businesspeople from Florida Florida Republicans American political fundraisers Jewish American government officials Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal People from Palm Beach, Florida American gun control activists 21st-century American Jews