Robert Frank Agostinelli (born May 21, 1953) is an American billionaire financier who is the chairman and co-founder of

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

firm

Rhône Group Rhône Group is a global private equity firm with approximately $11 billion of assets under management, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, and partnerships with particular focus on European and trans- ...

. ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

'' estimates Agostinelli's net worth to be $1.0 billion, ranking him as the 416th richest American. Agostinelli was ranked #124 amongst the richest people in the United Kingdom by the

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and has been published as a magazine supplement by British national ...

in 2012 through to 2018 with a net worth of £689 million.Article title
/ref> In 2018 ''

Financial News ''Financial News'' is a weekly financial newspaper published in London and news website, founded in 1996. It is published by eFinancial News Limited, and provides news and opinions regarding the financial services sector, and information ab ...

'' ranked Agostinelli as the 18th richest financier in the United Kingdom.

Early life

Agostinelli was born to Italian immigrant parents outside of

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, and attended the

Aquinas Institute The Aquinas Institute of Rochester is a Catholic, private, college-preparatory, co-educational school educating in the Basilian tradition. The school is located in Rochester, New York, and was established in 1902. The Aquinas Institute was foun ...

. He obtained his BA from

St. John Fisher College St. John Fisher University is a private university in Rochester, New York in the United States. It is named after John Fisher, an English Catholic cardinal and saint. It was named St. John Fisher College until July 1, 2022. History St. John F ...

in 1976 and then his MBA at

Columbia Business School Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a Private university, private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and one of ...

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. Agostinelli is a

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

Career

Agostinelli began his career in financial services at the

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

Jacob Rothschild Nathaniel Charles Jacob Rothschild, 4th Baron Rothschild (29 April 1936 – 26 February 2024), was a British hereditary peer, investment banker and member of the Rothschild banking family. Rothschild held important roles in business and Britis ...

in Switzerland from 1981 to 1982 and subsequently joined

Goldman Sachs The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered in Lower Manhattan in New York City, with regional headquarters in many internationa ...

becoming a

senior partner A partnership is an agreement where parties agree to cooperate to advance their mutual interests. The partners in a partnership may be individuals, businesses, interest-based organizations, schools, governments or combinations. Organizations m ...

where he worked for five years and founded the firm's international

mergers and acquisitions Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

business in London and then moved to

Lazard Freres Lazard Inc. (formerly known as Lazard Ltd and Lazard Frères & Co.) is a financial advisory and asset management firm that engages in investment banking, asset management and other financial services, primarily with institutional clients. It is ...

as Senior Managing Director in charge of international banking affairs where he was involved in a number of the largest transactions in European takeover history. In 1995 Agostinelli and Steven Langman started their own firm, the

where he has been actively involved in all aspects of the group's strategy and development since its creation, while maintaining and extending the firm's broad base of relationships with private families, key corporate decision makers, institutional investors and senior sovereign government officials. He is actively engaged in the sourcing and monitoring of investments across all industries and leads the firm's investor relations activities. He sits on the supervisory board of

Eurazeo Eurazeo is a French private equity firm and investment group headquartered in Paris. It holds a diversified portfolio of €35 billion in assets under management, including €23 billion from third parties, invested in more than 600 companies. ...

Politics and philanthropy

Agostinelli is a director and advisor for several European and American philanthropic and civic institutions. He is a member of the

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank focused on Foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Founded in 1921, it is an independent and nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organi ...

, and a leading supporter of

neoconservative Neoconservatism (colloquially neocon) is a political movement which began in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist Democratic Party along with the growing New Left and ...

causes. He is a founding member of the

Friends of Israel Initiative The Friends of Israel Initiative (FOII) is an international effort, to "seek to counter the attempts to delegitimize the State of Israel and its right to live in peace within safe and defensible borders", initiated and led by former Prime Minis ...

. He is former vice-chairman of the

Council for the United States and Italy The Council for the United States and Italy (CONSIUSA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1983 whose purpose is to foster better ties between the United States and Italy, with a focus on economy and finance. David Rockefeller and Gianni Agne ...

(CONSIUSA), a member of the Investment Committee of Corporate World Opportunities of

BSI Group The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the national standards body of the United Kingdom. BSI produces technical standards on a wide range of products and services and also supplies standards certification services for business and person ...

. In 2008 Agostinelli, provided substantial funding to the presidential campaigns of

John McCain John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...

and

Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...

. Agostinelli is a friend of former French President

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

and former Spanish Prime Minister

José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spai ...

. He is a senior member of the

Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation {{unreferenced, date=July 2016 The Marine Corps Scholarship Foundation is a privately funded, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that provides academic scholarships to children of United States Marines and Navy Corpsmen. The Scholarship Foundation i ...

led by the American Patriots Campaign Cabinet, and a senior board director on the American Italian Cancer Foundation. Agostinelli is on the board of trustees of the National Review Institute and the

American Veterans Center The American Veterans Center is a non-profit educational organization and one of two programs of the American Studies Center. The mission of the American Veterans Center is "to preserve and promote the legacy of America’s servicemen and women of ...

Agostinelli is known for writing articles in the ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' and ''

The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...

'' on various political, economic and social issues. Agostinelli was listed in 1997 as a member of the

Bilderberg Group The Bilderberg Meeting (also known as the "Bilderberg Group", "Bilderberg Conference" or "Bilderberg Club") is an annual off-the-record forum established in 1954 to foster dialogue between Europe and North America. The group's agenda, originally ...

. He has been quoted "pursue happiness and the American dream and not “fall prey to the tyranny of false deities” such as

critical race theory Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between Social constructionism, social conceptions of Race and ethnicity in the United States census, race and ethnicity, Law in the United States, social and political ...

, the “Marxist Black Lives Matter organization,” feminism and “gender confusion.”

Friends of Israel Initiative

A delegation of the

, which included Agostinelli, met with President

Shimon Peres Shimon Peres ( ; ; born Szymon Perski, ; 2 August 1923 – 28 September 2016) was an Israeli politician and statesman who served as the prime minister of Israel from 1984 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996 and as the president of Israel from 2007 t ...

Beit HaNassi The President's House, known in Hebrew as Beit HaNassi (בֵּית הַנָּשִׂיא) and Mishkan HaNassi (מִשְׁכָּן הַנָּשִׂיא), is the official residence of the President of Israel. It is located in the Talbiya neighborhoo ...

in Jerusalem in July 2011. The delegation included former Spanish Prime Minister

José Aznar José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , ...

, former US Ambassador to the United Nations

John R. Bolton John Robert Bolton (born November 20, 1948) is an American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator. He served as the 25th United States ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, and as the 26th United Sta ...

, and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

laureate Lord

David Trimble William David Trimble, Baron Trimble, (15 October 1944 – 25 July 2022) was a Northern Irish politician who was the inaugural First Minister of Northern Ireland from 1998 to 2002 and leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) from 1995 to 20 ...

. The president held a working meeting with the group and presented an overview of the situation in Israel and the region at large. Agostinelli stated: "Israel is a fundamentally important part of the Western world. It is a democracy under fire, and we must be resolute in defence of its legitimacy."

Personal life

Agostinelli is based between New York City and Palm Beach, and he maintains additional homes in London and Paris, all of which have interiors designed by

Jacques Grange Jacques Grange (born 27 June 1944) is a French interior designer. Biography After completing his training at the École Boulle and the École Camondo, Grange made a career as a decorator in France and abroad from the 1970s. His main customers in ...

. In 2014 Agostinelli reportedly purchased the first landmarked estate in Palm Beach known as "La Loma" built by Gustav Maass and John Volk, which was on the market for $14.5 million through

Sotheby's International Realty Sotheby’s International Realty is a luxury real estate brand founded in 1976 by Sotheby's fine art dealers. Sotheby's International Realty operates as a franchise focusing on brokering and marketing of residential real estate. As of 2018, th ...

and sold for $12 million. According to the

Sunday Times Rich List 2015 The ''Sunday Times'' Rich List 2015 is the 27th annual survey of the wealthiest people resident in the United Kingdom, published by ''The Sunday Times'' on 26 April 2015. ''The Guardian'' reported that the collective wealth of Britain’s 1,000 ...

, Agostinelli is 'building a home in Henley-on-Thames. In 2017 ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' reported that Agostinelli spent £25 million on a home in

South Kensington South Kensington is a district at the West End of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with the advent of the ra ...

, London. He counts

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician and businessman who was the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Bush family and the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he i ...

Jeb Bush John Ellis "Jeb" Bush (born February 11, 1953) is an American politician and businessman who served as the 43rd governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. A member of the Bush family, Bush political family, he was an unsuccessful candidate for pre ...

and

as close friends. He is the father of the Swiss-based artist

Massimo Agostinelli Massimo Agostinelli (born 25 September 1987) is a Switzerland-based Italian Americans, Italian American artist, businessman and activist who uses text, word play and found objects in his works with a particular focus on Art intervention, interven ...

. He is married to Francesca Lana.

Associated publications

*''Bowing to Beijing'', by Brett M. Decker and William C. Triplett II. (2011) *'' The Politically Incorrect Guide'' to the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

, by H. W. Crocker III. (2011) *'' The Last Tycoons'', by William D. Cohan. (2007)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agostinelli, Robert 1953 births Living people American billionaires American art collectors American people of Italian descent New York (state) Republicans Columbia Business School alumni St. John Fisher University alumni Goldman Sachs people