Here are five things you should know about him, his family, and their ties to New England.
Metropoulos was born to a family of farmers in rural Tripoli, Greece, who mostly raised their own food and had a simple life. Metropoulos and his family followed the 1950s immigration boom and came to the US when he was 10-years-old, settling in Watertown.
After high school, he went to Babson College in Wellesley for his bachelor’s and masters degrees. He has said he chose the school because of its unique focus on entrepreneurship.
After pursuing a PhD at Columbia University, Metropoulos got a job at GTE International, a predecessor company of Verizon. He fell in love with the nonstop travel and business deals, and by the time he was 25, he became the company’s youngest chief finance officer, overseeing its business across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa while residing in Switzerland.
In 1981, he shifted to private equity and made his first venture in the US: buying cheese company Stella in Vermont, where his wife, Marianne, was from.
Over the next four decades, he would go on to acquire more than 80 companies as chief executive of Metropoulos & Company.
Metropoulos has earned a title of “brand savior” after developing a pattern of finding ailing food and beverage companies and flip their reputation, and revenue.
One of his notable acquisitions was a collaboration between Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. in which the companies bought Hostess Brand, known for the sugar-packed Twinkies, out of bankruptcy in 2013 for $410 million. Then, two years ago, they sold the company for a heaping $5.6 billion to J.M. Smucker.
In another major acquisition, Metropoulos bought Pabst Brewing Company in 2010 for $250 million. In 2014, he reportedly sold Pabst for more than $700 million.
Other brands his company has owned over the years include the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company, Chuck E. Cheese, Bumble Bee Foods, and Vlasic Pickles.
Metropoulos & Co. is headquartered in Greenwich, Conn.
His son, Daren Metropoulos, also has an appetite for iconic investments. In the past 19 years, he reportedly spent about $326 million on properties such as Hugh Heffner’s Playboy mansion, a hurricane-proof bunker in Florida, and a $148 million mansion in Palm Beach, Fla.
In 2022, Metropoulos was part of an investment group with billionaires Alec Gores and Mat Ishbia that sought to buy the Denver Broncos. The team was eventually sold to Walton-Penny Family Ownership group for $4.65 billion.
Metropoulos partially resides with his wife in Greenwich, Conn., though he also spends time in Palm Beach, Fla.
Despite his worldly travels, he has frequently praised his upbringing and education at Babson. Last year, he helped fund the establishment of the C. Dean Metropoulos Institute for Technology and Entrepreneurship at his alma mater.
The center is focused on integrating technological advancements with entrepreneurial education through AI and data-driven innovation.
As of Thursday, Metropoulos is ranked No. 990 on Forbes’ Billionaires list, and has a net value of $4.1 billion.
The Patriots’ deal still needs to be approved by the NFL’s finance committee.