Steve Belkin is an American businessman who is the founder of Trans National Group, travel and other services, especially to affinity groups. And a former owner of Atlanta Thrashers and

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its home games at ...

Biography

Belkin was born in

East Grand Rapids, Michigan East Grand Rapids is a city in Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,694. The city is part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area and is surrounded by Grand Rapids and Grand Rapids Township, ...

where he attended

East Grand Rapids High School East Grand Rapids High School is a public secondary school located in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States. It serves grades 9–12 for the East Grand Rapids Public Schools. Athletics The EGRHS Pioneers compete in the Ottawa-Kent Conferen ...

. He is of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. Later he graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1969 with a BS degree in

industrial engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information a ...

, and later served on the Board of Trustees and was named Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year in 2004. He also finished Harvard Business School and earned an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

in 1971. In 1973 launched his first business, marketing discount vacation packages to members of the

American Nurses Association The American Nurses Association (ANA) is a 501(c)(6) professional organization to advance and protect the profession of nursing. It started in 1896 as the Nurses Associated Alumnae and was renamed the American Nurses Association in 1911. It is b ...

and essentially inventing what is now called affinity travel and

affinity credit card An affinity credit card program allows an organization to offer its members and supporters—those who have an "affinity" for that organization—a credit card branded with the organization's brand and imagery. An affinity credit card program may pa ...

s. Since then, he has founded 29 other companies, including Trans National Group in 1974. The companies currently affiliated with Trans National Group include Trans National Communications, TNT Vacations, TN Real Estate, TN Marketing, Charlesgate West Management and Belkin Family Lookout Farm in Natick, Massachusetts. In 2004, he became the largest individual shareholder and principal owner of

Atlanta Spirit, LLC Atlanta Hawks, LLC (formerly known as Atlanta Spirit LLC) was an Atlanta, Georgia-based parent company formerly the holder of the franchise of the Atlanta Hawks, a professional basketball team in the NBA, and the Atlanta Thrashers, a former prof ...

; the group that owned the Atlanta Thrashers and

. Belkin currently serves as a National Commissioner and Honorary Life Member of the ADL, on the Board of Overseers of the

Museum of Fine Arts Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, and a Trustee of the Sports Museum of New England. He lives with his wife Joan and two children in

Weston Weston may refer to: Places Australia * Weston, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra * Weston, New South Wales * Weston Creek, a residential district of Canberra * Weston Park, Canberra, a park Canada * Weston, Nova Scotia * ...

, an affluent

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 ...

suburb.

Recognition

Throughout his career, Belkin has received several awards and recognition for his philanthropic endeavors. * Temple Beth Elohim: Tikkun Olam Award, 2015 * Robert F. Kennedy Children’s Action Corps: Embracing the Legacy Award, 2010 * Human Relations Services: Community Service Award, 2009 * ADL: Distinguished Community Service Award, 2003. * Reach Out and Read National Center: Literacy Champion Award, 2002 * New England Assoc. of Healthcare Philanthropy: Distinguished Service Award, 2001 *

Cornell University College of Human Ecology The New York State College of Human Ecology at Cornell University (HumEc) is a statutory college and one of four New York State contract colleges located on the Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York. The College of Human Ecology is compila ...

: Alumni Award for Outstanding Volunteerism, 1998

References

External links

NBA.com biography

Steve Belkin is a True EntrepreneurHBS Entrepreneurs Oral History Collection: Interview with Steve Belkin (2001)
Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management alumni Harvard Business School alumni American sports businesspeople National Basketball Association executives National Basketball Association owners National Hockey League executives National Hockey League owners Living people Jewish American sportspeople People from Weston, Massachusetts 1947 births 21st-century American Jews {{US-business-bio-stub