Jim Koch
American businessman and founder of Boston beer company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles James Koch (/kʊk/ KUUK; born May 27, 1949)[1][2] is an American businessman who is the co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company, the producers of Samuel Adams beer. Koch is widely considered to be a founding father of the American craft brewing movement.[3]
May 27, 1949
Jim Koch | |
|---|---|
Koch in 2013 | |
| Born | Charles James Koch May 27, 1949 Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S. |
| Education | Harvard University (BA, MBA, JD) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Known for | Co-founder and chairman of the Boston Beer Company |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4 |
Early life
Koch was born in Cincinnati, Ohio,[4] to German-American parents Charles and Dorothy (née Kautz) Koch.[1] Charles was a fifth-generation brewer.[4] Koch earned Bachelor of Arts, Master of Business Administration, and Juris Doctor degrees from Harvard University.[5]
Career
Koch is a former consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. He was formerly an Outward Bound instructor. In 1984, Koch co-founded the Boston Beer Company, the producers of Samuel Adams beer.[6]
Koch took Boston Beer company public in 1995 and owns a 19.5% stake in the company, giving him a net worth of over $1 billion. In 2023 he was ranked #1905 in Forbes Billionaires 2023.[3]
In 2016, Koch published Quench Your Own Thirst: Business Lessons Learned Over a Beer or Two, in which he discussed how he left his career as a management consultant to start his own brewery using his great-great-grandfather's recipe.[7]
At an August 2018 dinner with U.S. President Donald Trump, Koch said the corporate tax cut of 2017 played a major role in making the Boston Beer Company more competitive in regard to foreign competitors: "When I started Sam Adams, American beer was a joke, and it pissed me off. And now, American brewers make the best beer in the world. And the tax reform was a very big deal for all of us, because 85 percent of the beer made in the United States is owned by foreign companies."[8][9][10] Koch faced criticism after he made the comments.[11][12][13][14][15]
Personal life
Koch's marriage to his first wife, Susan, ended around the time he started the Boston Beer Company.[16][17] He remarried to entrepreneur Cynthia Fisher in 1994.[16][5] He has two children from his first marriage and two from his second.[18] They live in Newton, Massachusetts.[19][20]
Koch is unrelated to Stone Brewing Co. cofounder Greg Koch.[21]