James Joseph Pallotta (born March 13, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman. In 2009, he founded Raptor Group, a private investment company. Prior to forming Raptor, Pallotta was vice chairman at Tudor Investment Corporation. He was co-owner and chairman of the Italian football club

A.S. Roma ' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its existence, except for ...

from 2011 to 2020; co-owner and executive board member of the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics, and co-owner of esports franchise

Fnatic Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylized as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Founded 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world, across a variety of games, such ...

Early life

Pallotta was born in 1958 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

to a mother from

Canosa di Puglia Canosa di Puglia, generally known simply as Canosa ( nap, label= Canosino, Canaus), is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located between Bari and Foggia, on the northwestern edge of the ...

, Apulia and a father from Calabria, Italy. Along with sisters Carla and Christine Pallotta, he was raised in Boston's Italian north end neighborhood. His sisters own and operate NEBO Cucina & Enoteca in Boston's financial district. Pallotta earned a BBA at

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, ...

and an MBA at Northeastern University.

Professional background

Raptor Group

Pallotta founded Raptor Group, a private investment company with offices in Boston, New York City, Miami, London, and Abu Dhabi. Raptor focuses on various industries including sports, consumer, technology, media, entertainment, and financial services.

A.S. Roma

Pallotta, along with three other American investors ( Thomas R. DiBenedetto, Michael Ruane and Richard D'Amore) acquired Serie A football club A.S. Roma in 2011. After becoming one of the owners in 2011, in August 2012, Pallotta became the chairman of club, succeeding Thomas R. DiBenedetto, and becoming the 23rd in the club's history. During Pallotta’s ownership, the club would primarily engage in capitalizing on the sale of its players, leading AS Roma to obtain over half a billion in capital gains on player trading operations, which earned Pallotta the nickname of “King of capital gains”. This financial approach to football, coupled with one of AS Roma's longest period without winning any trophies, as well as what many considered an undeserved dismissal of AS Roma icons

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional footballer who played solely for Roma and the Italy national team. He is often referred to as ''Er Bimbo de Oro'' (The Golden Boy), ''L'Ottavo Re di Roma'' (The Eig ...

and

Daniele De Rossi Daniele De Rossi (; born 24 July 1983) is a former Italian professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder and is currently manager of side SPAL. He is mostly known for his time playing with his hometown club Roma in Serie A, as ...

, lead to a serious clash with the fans and the only worldwide protest in AS Roma history, with disapproving banners in several remote parts of the world. In December 2019, Pallotta was in final negotiations to sell the team for $872 million, to American businessman

Dan Friedkin Thomas Dan Friedkin (born 1965) is an American billionaire businessman, heir and film director. He is the owner and CEO of The Friedkin Group and its subsidiary Gulf States Toyota, which was founded by his father, Thomas H. Friedkin. He is als ...

. In August 2020, Friedkin signed the preliminary contract to agree to pay $591 million to Pallotta, the main shareholder of Roma. As the club's balance sheets later revealed, AS Roma had tremendous debt and seriously risked bankruptcy before having to be transferred to a new ownership in 2020.

Tudor Investment Corporation

Prior to Raptor Group, Pallotta was a vice chairman and partner at

Tudor Investment Corporation Tudor Investment Corporation is an American investment firm based in Stamford, Connecticut. The firm invests in both Public equities, public and Private equity, private markets globally. Background In 1980, Paul Tudor Jones founded the Tudor ...

Initiatives

Pallotta is a member of the board of trustees for the

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inclu ...

and the Board of Trustees for Northeastern University. Pallotta serves on the board of directors for New Profit Inc. as well as the board of advisors for Tulco, LLC. He is also a member of the advisory council for the

MIT Media Lab The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fixed academic disciplines, but draws from ...

and the external advisory committee for the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) at MIT.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pallotta, James 1958 births Living people People from North End, Boston American people of Italian descent People of Calabrian descent People of Apulian descent A.S. Roma chairmen and investors Businesspeople from Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Northeastern University alumni