John Catsimatidis

John A. Catsimatidis (born September 7, 1948) is an American billionaire businessman and radio talk show host.

He is the owner, president, chairman, and CEO of grocery chains Gristedes and D'Agostino Supermarkets in Manhattan, as well as the Red Apple Group, a real estate and aviation company with about $2 billion in holdings in New York, Florida and Pennsylvania.

He is also the chairman and CEO of the Red Apple Group subsidiary United Refining Company.

Catsimatidis is also a talk radio show host.

He hosts The Cats Roundtable on WABC and the Cats at Night show.

Catsimatidis was born on the Greek island of Nisyros on September 7, 1948.

He came to the United States with his parents when he was six months old.

The family moved to West Harlem, where Catsimatidis grew up.

Catsimatidis' father had been a lighthouse operator in Greece but worked as a busboy in New York.

Catsimatidis graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1966.

He received a congressional nomination to West Point, but chose to study electrical engineering at New York University instead.

In 1971, Catsimatidis opened his first business in Manhattan's Upper West Side; it was the first Red Apple grocery store.

By the summer of 1981, Red Apple had 27 stores in the Bronx and Manhattan, with annual sales of around $40 million.

Red Apple's sales grew to $110 million in 1985.

In 1986, Red Apple purchased 36 Gristedes supermarkets and 11 affiliated Charles & Co. speciality-food stores from the Southland Corporation.

In 1986, Catsimatidis acquired United Refining Co., the owner of gasoline refineries in Pennsylvania and Alabama.

Shortly thereafter, he purchased another grocery store on 87th street just west of Broadway, naming it Red Apple.

Among his business innovations were keeping stores open late seven days a week, offering free delivery, and cashing checks for customers.

Catsimatidis has said that by the time he was 24, he had "built up ten stores and the business was doing $25 million a year", and that he was earning $1 million per year.

In 2008, Catsimatidis became engaged in efforts to take over SemGroup LP, a bankrupt oil, gas, and asphalt trading, storage and transportation company, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Catsimatidis gained control over a majority of the company's management committee, but his efforts were met by opposition from the company's existing management, who argued for selling off at least some of the company's assets, while Catsimatidis wanted to keep the company together.

(This compares to its 2008 and 2009 rank, both at 100th, 2010 at 78th, 2011 at 98th, and 2012 at 97th).

Catsimatidis is a minority investor in the political newspaper and website The Hill as referenced on the website's articles which mention him.

Catsimatidis shared his rags-to-riches story in his memoir How Far Do You Want To Go?: Lessons From A Common-Sense Billionaire; published by Matt Holt, in February 2023.

On Sunday mornings, Catsimatidis hosts the talk radio show The Cats Roundtable.

The show originated on WABC radio and is syndicated to other stations around the U.S. Catsimatidis also hosts the one-hour Cats at Night show, heard weeknights on WABC and also available as a podcast.

In 2009, it was reported that Catsimatidis's main holdings included 50 Gristedes supermarkets, 371 gas stations in three states, $500 million in real estate, and an expanding oil business.

In October 2009, Forbes magazine reported that United Refining Energy Corp., a publicly-traded special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by United Refining Company, was purchasing "privately held Chaparral Energy in a deal worth roughly $1.6 billion."

However, United Refining Energy Corp. shareholders did not approve the deal and it was terminated in December 2009.

Catsimatidis is the chairman and CEO of United Refining Co., which is a subsidiary of the Red Apple Group.

In February 2009, Catsimatidis was sued by a group of SemGroup executives, who sought the removal of Catsimatidis and his allies from the committee.

In July Catsimatidis reached a settlement with SemGroup, pursuant to which he acquired a piece of SemGroup's asphalt business and dropped his competing plan for the company's proposed reorganization.

Catsimatidis was the runner-up in the Republican nomination for mayor of New York City in the 2013 election.

While in college, Catsimatidis worked for the uncle of a friend, Tony, in a small supermarket on 137th Street which Tony and his uncle owned.

While Catsimatidis was still in college, Tony sold his half of the store to Catsimatidis.

Catsimatidis completed four years of college, but dropped out eight credits short of graduating.

In 2015, the Red Apple Group ranked 156th on Forbes magazine's list of "America's largest private companies", with revenue of $3 billion and 8,000 employees.

He acquired the WABC radio station in 2019.

In 2019, he acquired WABC for $12.5 million.

Catsimatidis and his wife have made contributions to a variety of both Republican and Democratic campaigns.