James Joseph Pallotta (born March 13, 1958) is an American billionaire businessman.[4] In 2009, he founded Raptor Group, a private investment company.[citation needed] 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 from 2011 to 2020;[5] co-owner and executive board member of the National Basketball Association's
Boston Celtics,[6] and co-owner of esports franchise
Fnatic.[7]
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.[citation needed]
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.[9]
After becoming one of the owners in 2011,[10] in August 2012, Pallotta became the chairman of club, succeeding
Thomas R. DiBenedetto, and becoming the 23rd in the club's history.[11] 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,[12] which earned Pallotta the nickname of “King of capital gains”.[13] This financial approach to football, coupled with one of AS Roma's longest period without winning any trophies,[14] as well as what many considered an undeserved dismissal of AS Roma icons
Francesco Totti and
Daniele De Rossi,[15][16] 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.[17][18]
In December 2019, Pallotta was in final negotiations to sell the team for $872 million, to American businessman
Dan Friedkin.
[19] In August 2020, Friedkin signed the preliminary contract to agree to pay $591 million to Pallotta, the main shareholder of Roma.[20] 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.[21][22][23]
Pallotta is a member of the board of trustees for the
Santa Fe Institute[24] and the board of trustees for
Northeastern University.[25] Pallotta serves on the board of directors for
New Profit Inc.[26] as well as the board of advisors for Tulco, LLC.[27] He is also a member of the advisory council for the
MIT Media Lab[28] and the external advisory committee for the Center for Brains, Minds and Machines (CBMM) at MIT.[29]