Christopher Drake Heinz (born 1973) is an American

businessman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for th ...

and investment manager. He is an

heir Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officiall ...

to the

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...

fortune to the family food company

Heinz The H. J. Heinz Company is an American food processing company headquartered at One PPG Place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company was founded by Henry J. Heinz in 1869. Heinz manufactures thousands of food products in plants on six conti ...

Family

Chris Heinz is the youngest son of

United States Senator The United States Senate is the Upper house, upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives being the Lower house, lower chamber. Together they compose the national Bica ...

Henry John Heinz III (d. 1991) and

Teresa Heinz Kerry Teresa Heinz (born Maria Teresa Thierstein Simões-Ferreira; October 5, 1938), also known as Teresa Heinz Kerry, is a Portuguese-American businesswoman and philanthropist. Heinz is the widow of former U.S. Senator John Heinz and the wife of fo ...

. He is the great-great-grandson of the industrialist and founder of the H.J. Heinz Co. He has two brothers, H. John Heinz IV (born 4 November 1966) and Andre Heinz. He and his brothers served on the board of The Heinz Endowments chaired by their mother. His father was killed in the 1991

mid-air collision In aviation, a mid-air collision is an aviation accident, accident in which two or more aircraft come into unplanned contact during flight. Owing to the relatively high velocities involved and the likelihood of subsequent impact with the ground o ...

of a helicopter and plane (

Merion air disaster In southeastern Pennsylvania on April 4, 1991, a Piper Aerostar propeller-driven aircraft Mid-air collision, collided in mid-air with a Bell 412 helicopter over Merion Elementary School in Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, Lower Merion Township ...

). Chris Heinz is a stepson of former

U.S. Secretary of State The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...

and former presidential candidate

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party (Unite ...

, and stepbrother of

Alexandra Kerry Alexandra Forbes Kerry (born September 5, 1973) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is a partner at Locomotive Films and co-founder of Fictional Pictures, a film production company based in New York and Los Angeles. She is married to conte ...

and

Vanessa Kerry Vanessa Bradford Kerry (born December 31, 1976) is an American physician, health care administrator, and doctor. She is a founder of the non-profit Seed Global Health. Her father is John Kerry, who served as the 68th United States Secretary of ...

. Heinz married Alexandra Lewis in February 2007. They have two children.

Career

In 2004 when his stepfather John Kerry, was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, Heinz quit his job working as a venture capitalist to work as a fundraiser and surrogate speaker for Kerry’s campaign. Heinz worked on his stepfather's Presidential campaign, and spoke at the

2004 Democratic National Convention The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter (now the TD Garden) in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Car ...

where he was considered a plausible candidate for a 2006 seat in the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

. In 2005, he co-founded Rosemont Capital (named for the family’s

Fox Chapel Fox Chapel is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, and is an affluent suburb of Pittsburgh located northeast of downtown. The borough continually garners national prominence and is home to many of the wealthiest and most powerful p ...

property near Pittsburgh) until departing in 2014. He was a partner in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

firm Rosemont Seneca from its founding in 2009 until 2014, when he ended his working relationship with

Hunter Biden Robert Hunter Biden (born February 4, 1970) is an American attorney who is the second son of President of the United States, U.S. President Joe Biden and his first wife Neilia Hunter Biden. He is also a hedge fund, venture capital, and privat ...

, after Biden took a board position on

Burisma Holdings Burisma Holdings Limited ( uk, Бурісма Холдингс) is a holding company for a group of energy exploration and production companies. It is registered in Limassol, Cyprus, but based in Kyiv, Ukraine. Burisma Holdings has operated in t ...

(a Ukrainian

fracking Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frack ...

gas company), which was owned by

Ukrainian oligarch Ukrainian oligarchs (Ukrainian: українські олігархи, romanized: ukrayins'ki oliharkhy) are business oligarchs who emerged on the economic and political scene of Ukraine after the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum. This peri ...

Mykola Zlochevsky Mykola Vladislavovich Zlochevsky ( uk, Микола Владиславович Злочевський; born 14 June 1966) is a Ukrainian oil and natural gas businessman, politician, and an oligarch. Zlochevsky was Minister of Ecology and Natu ...

, the former Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources. In 2015, he relocated to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. He has served on the board of the Navy SEAL Foundation. He is a former member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heinz, Christopher 1973 births Yale University alumni Harvard Business School alumni Businesspeople from Pittsburgh Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. Heinz family Living people