William Ingraham "Bill" Koch (born May 3, 1940) is an American businessman, sailor, and collector. His boat was the winner of the
America's CupThe America’s Cup is a trophy awarded to the winner of the America's Cup match races between two yachts. One yacht, known as the defender, represents the yacht club that currently holds the America's Cup and the second yacht, known as the challenger, represents the yacht club that is challenging...
in 1992. His last name is pronounced "coke." Per
ForbesForbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
William Koch's net worth was $3.4 billion in 2010 on
oilAn oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
and other investments
Early life and business career
William Ingraham Koch is the son of Mary (née Robinson) and
Fred C. KochFred Chase Koch was an American chemical engineer and entrepreneur who founded the oil refinery firm that later became Koch Industries, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States....
, founder of
Koch IndustriesKoch Industries, Inc. , is an American private energy conglomerate based in Wichita, Kansas, with subsidiaries involved in manufacturing, trading and investments. Koch also owns Invista, Georgia-Pacific, Flint Hills Resources, Koch Pipeline, Koch Fertilizer, Koch Minerals and Matador Cattle Company...
, a business empire based on oil refining that became the largest privately owned company in America. He attended
Culver AcademiesThe Culver Academies is a college preparatory boarding school and summer camp in the United States. The Culver Academies is composed of three entities: Culver Military Academy for boys, Culver Girls Academy , and the Culver Summer Schools and Camps . Collectively known as Culver Academies located...
in
Culver, IndianaCulver is a town in Marshall County, Indiana, United States. Culver is part of Union Township that also includes the communities of Burr Oak, Hibbard, Maxinkuckee and Rutland. The population was 1,353 at the 2010 census...
. and worked in his family's company, but eventually sold his share to his brothers,
CharlesCharles de Ganahl Koch is co-owner, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries Inc., the second-largest privately held company by revenue in the United States according to a 2010 Forbes survey...
and
DavidDavid Hamilton Koch is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and chemical engineer. He is a co-owner and an executive vice president of Koch Industries, a conglomerate that is the second-largest privately held company in the U.S...
, after a long legal battle.
Various legal disputes between the brothers lasted some two decades. Bill and another brother, Frederick, sided with J. Howard Marshall III, J. Howard Marshall II's eldest son, against Charles and David at one point, in order to take over the company. In 2001, Bill Koch reached a settlement in a case where he had charged the company was taking oil from federal and Indian land. This settlement ended all litigation between the brothers. CBS News reported that Koch Industries settled for $25 million, and Bill received one-third of the settlement for bringing the suit.
An engineer by training, Koch graduated with a bachelors of science, master’s, and doctoral degree in chemical engineering all from
MITThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.. After leaving Koch Industries, he became the founder and president of the Oxbow Group, an energy development
holding companyA holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies' outstanding stock. It usually refers to a company which does not produce goods or services itself; rather, its purpose is to own shares of other companies. Holding companies allow the reduction of risk for the owners and can allow...
based in
West Palm Beach, FloridaWest Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...
. Koch was also an investor in the ill-fated
Kendall Square ResearchKendall Square Research was a supercomputer company headquartered originally in Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986, near MIT. It was co-founded by Steven Frank and Henry Burkhardt III, who had previously helped found Data General and Encore Computer and was one of the original...
.
Koch also co-chairs the
Alliance to Protect Nantucket SoundThe Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is a 501 nonprofit self-styled environmental organization dedicated to the opposition of the Cape Wind project and to the long-term preservation of Nantucket Sound...
, a group formed to fight the
Cape WindThe Cape Wind Project is an approved offshore wind farm, on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, proposed by a private developer, Cape Wind Associates, the brainchild of Jim Gordon and a Limited Liability Company set up as a joint business venture...
project to build an offshore
wind farmA wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electric power. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines, and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other...
of 130 turbines. He became involved due to his ownership of a home in
Osterville, MassachusettsOsterville is one of the seven villages within the Town of Barnstable, Massachusetts. The village of Osterville is located on the south side of Barnstable on Nantucket Sound...
. In 2005, Koch contributed $500,000 in donations to the Alliance directly and more than $1 million toward lobbyist efforts to defeat the project.
America's Cup
Koch won the America's Cup in 1992 with the yacht
America³America is the name of both a racing yacht and syndicate that vied for the America's Cup in 1992 and 1995.-1992 Cup victory:The program was operated by Bill Koch and Harry "Buddy" Melges in the 1992 America's Cup...
, defeating an Italian team four races to one. Its overall record including trials was 28-10. Koch reportedly spent around $65 million on his effort and though an amateur, sailed on the crew himself, assisted by veteran sailors like
Buddy MelgesHarry "Buddy" Melges, Jr., is one of the most successful competitive sailors in history, with dozens of national and international championships in many different classes, including ice-boating as well as conventional sailing...
.
In 1995, he financed another team to compete for the cup. This time the crew consisted entirely of women except for tactician David Dellenbaugh, on a yacht named
Mighty Mary. However, the boat lost to
Dennis ConnerDennis Conner is an American yachtsman, noted for winning the bronze medal at the 1976 Olympics, two Star World Championships, and four wins in the America's Cup.-America's Cup:...
's
Stars & StripesStars & Stripes is the name of a series of racing yachts operated by Dennis Conner to compete in the America's Cup. The name "Stars & Stripes" refers to the nickname often used for the flag of the United States.- 12-metre class yachts :1987 America's Cup...
in the trials.
Koch is an avid supporter of the Sea Scout program of the
Boy Scouts of AmericaThe Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
, biannually hosting the William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup.
Koch was inducted into the
America's Cup Hall of FameThe America's Cup Hall of Fame, located at the Herreshoff Marine Museum of Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, honors individuals for outstanding achievement in the America's Cup sailing competition...
in 1993.
Koch's collections
Koch is an avid collector of art and wine, and especially of maritime memorabilia. He is currently engaged in litigation with regard to his purchase at auction of what were reputed to be wines originally owned by
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
and which Koch now asserts are fraudulent.
His collection of maritime memorabilia includes model ships, antique nautical instruments, and paintings of ships and seascapes. A 2005 show at the
Museum of Fine ArtsThe Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
in Boston featured his various collections, including both the
America³ and the ship it defeated,
Il Moro di VeneziaIl Moro di Venezia was the name for five International America’s Cup Class boats built for the 1992 Italian team, Il Moro Challenge, headed by industrialist Raul Gardini...
, displayed on the front lawn. (Koch had bought
Il Moro after the competition.) The show was also criticized, however, for glamorizing Koch at the expense of the museum's educational function. Koch had helped finance the show, including paying the cost to move the boats from Rhode Island. He previously owned the former French Class America F1 - IACC F1 renamed later USA-2.
The boats were in Rhode Island because Koch had placed them with a small maritime museum there. Despite the considerable expense of building them, he said "they have absolutely no value" once their racing life is over. Koch, a native of
Wichita, KansasWichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...
, donated the ship he used in qualifying for the America's Cup races,
The Jayhawk, to the Wichita Boathouse. He also supplied money for the city to use in repairing the yacht.
On June 26, 2011, he purchased a 130-year-old photo of the legendary outlaw
Billy the KidWilliam H. Bonney William H. Bonney William H. Bonney (born William Henry McCarty, Jr. est. November 23, 1859 – c. July 14, 1881, better known as Billy the Kid but also known as Henry Antrim, was a 19th-century American gunman who participated in the Lincoln County War and became a frontier...
for the amount of $2.1 million at a Denver auction. It is currently the only authenticated photo of the outlaw known to exist.
Personal life
Koch's personal life has also received public attention. In 1995, he filed a lawsuit against his former lover,
Catherine de CastelbajacCatherine "Kate" de Castelbajac is a former model and fashion journalist who now works as an image consultant and educator...
, to evict her from his $2.5 million condominium at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. He said he had allowed her to move in the previous year so she could attend
Simmons CollegeSimmons College, established in 1899, is a private women's undergraduate college and private co-educational graduate school in Boston, Massachusetts.-History:Simmons was founded in 1899 with a bequest by John Simmons a wealthy clothing manufacturer in Boston...
, as he seldom used the apartment. In 1994 Koch married Joan Granlund, with whom he had a son. When he tried to end the relationship, de Castelbajac refused to move out and claimed he had broken his promises to her. A jury ruled in Koch's favor after a trial noted for its disclosure of torrid letters and faxes between the two.
A complaint by Koch's subsequent wife, Angela, led to his arrest in 2000 based on allegations of domestic violence. The charge was dropped after Angela refused to testify, and the couple later divorced. Koch's third marriage in 2005 was to Bridget Rooney, granddaughter of
Pittsburgh SteelersThe Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC...
founder
Art RooneyArthur Joseph "Art" Rooney, Sr. , often referred to as "The Chief", was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football franchise in the National Football League.-Family history:...
. By this time, Koch had fully reconciled with his brother, David, who served as best man.
In 2009, Koch went to his former high school, Culver Military Academy, to give a talk about entrepreneurship as part of Culver's School for the Entrepreneur program.
Activism
Koch donated $1.5 million to
Alliance to Protect Nantucket SoundThe Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound is a 501 nonprofit self-styled environmental organization dedicated to the opposition of the Cape Wind project and to the long-term preservation of Nantucket Sound...
. Its goal is to prevent the construction of
Cape WindThe Cape Wind Project is an approved offshore wind farm, on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, proposed by a private developer, Cape Wind Associates, the brainchild of Jim Gordon and a Limited Liability Company set up as a joint business venture...
, a
wind powerWind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....
project located in
Nantucket SoundNantucket Sound is a roughly triangular area of the Atlantic Ocean offshore from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is long and wide, and is enclosed by Cape Cod on the north, Nantucket on the south, and Martha's Vineyard on the west. Between Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard it is connected to the...
, near Koch's
Cape CodCape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...
house.
External links