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Jim Rappaport of Waban is an attorney, real estate developer, entrepreneur, and political activist.
After graduating from the Wharton School in 1977, Rappaport earned his law degree from Boston University School of Law. Among his many business ventures, Rappaport was a founder and member of the Board of Directors for Corporate Kids, Inc., a start-up daycare provider, that grew to revenues of over $4 million and over 100 employees before it was sold to Mulberry Child Care Centers in 1995. In addition, some other ventures include Park Transit Displays, an out-of-home advertising company, with revenues of over $15.5 million and employing 22 people, and Silent Systems, Inc., a manufacturer of the world's first silent personal computer, with revenues of over $8 million per year, before it was sold to Molex, Inc., a NASDAQ company.
Rappaport has developed several major real estate projects. He bought several projects in the 1980's in Hawaii and successfully marketed and repositioned them for later sale, turning $24 million in acquisitions into $40 million. He ran the day-to-day operations of Charles River Park for several years, bringing the occupancy levels from the low 90's to the very high 90's. In 1993, with his brother and father, he formed New Boston Fund, Inc., which has raised over $800 million in equity and has a portfolio of over $1.6 billion and over 16 million square feet of office, research and development, flex space, warehouse/distribution and residential real estate in the Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Indiana, Florida, Virginia, Chicago, and North Carolina markets. Jim currently serves as Vice Chairman of New Boston Fund, Inc.
In 1985, Rappaport was elected Chairman of the Mass Taxpayers Committee, an organization that provided political education for fiscally responsible Massachusetts legislators. In 1991, Rappaport helped organize and became Co-Chairman of LIMITS, a grass-roots movement to establish limits on the number of terms served by incumbent elected officials.
In 1990, Rappaport was the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, receiving almost one million votes. He was Chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party and a member of the Republican National Committee from 1992 to 1997. He is a well-known fund-raiser for Republicans throughout the country, and has served as a regional Chair of the Republican National Committee Finance Committee and was national Finance Chair for Kasich 2000, Congressman John Kasich's Presidential Committee. In 2002, he ran for the Massachusetts Republican nomination for Lt. Governor. Rappaport is heard and read regularly in the media for his political and economic views.
Rappaport is a past member of the Board of the Jewish Vocational Service of Boston, the Board of the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Social Planning and Allocations Committee of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies. He is a member of the Board of Trustees for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and Combined Jewish Philanthropies, as well as the Board of Overseers for Children's Hospital. He is Chairman of the Leadership Gifts Committee at Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and serves on the Government Affairs Committee and various other Committees for both institutions. He is a major fund-raiser for numerous charitable and scholastic organizations, ranging from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital to the Roxbury Latin School, the Fenn School, the Concord Museum, and the United Way of Massachusetts. In the last six years, he has raised and funded over $2.2 Million for the Joshua Rappaport Pediatric Oncology Fellowship at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Joshua Rappaport Surgical Fellowship at Children's Hospital, via the Pan Massachusetts Challenge (a 200-mile bike ride which he does each year) and various other fund raising efforts and events.
Rappaport and his wife, Cecelia, live in Waban. He has three children, James, Jessica, and Joshua. |
