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Go Rahr, Go!
The Sheet is dedicated to profiling New Yorkers who are determined to wield a difference in the aftermath of September 11—and who are willing to put their audacious energy, brains, and often big bucks on the bottom line to overcome the awesome challenges in rebuilding the greatest city on earth. So let me introduce Stewart Rahr, a New Yorker who epitomizes the call to arms and a veritable Pied Piper of the new millennium: The charismatic mogul first caught my eye at a charity gala hobnobbing with the likes of Donald Trump and Regis Philbin. I recently had the pleasure of co-hosting a special tribute with Rahr at Le Cirque in memory of the late New York Post columnist Neal Travis.
Several months ago, I dropped in at his state-of-the-art facility in Whitestone, Queens—an experience I’ll never forget. The tireless CEO heads Kinray, Inc.—the world’s largest privately-owned distributor of pharmaceuticals/generics and health & beauty care products. With support from his wife Carol and children Felicia and Robert, Rahr has amassed a thriving distributorship in a brutally competitive industry. Thirty-three years ago, with less than $1 million in sales and 10 employees, he took over the company reins from his dad: Now he’s pulling in revenues around $2.5 billion and employs 700. His mammoth 400,000-square-foot operation cranks out $1.25 million worth of product an hour—we needed a golf cart to navigate the warehouse, where Rahr greeted so many employees by name and schmoozed so easily with them, I was boggled by his recall! As friend Doug Crawford put it in a recent Crain’s article, “Stewart is one of those lucky people who discovered early in life what his real talent is: people. He can manage people, energize people, and excite people. He can get people to follow him to hell and back.”
Rahr is unabashedly proud of his company’s numerous milestones: Kinray was ranked 73rd on Forbes’ list of the top 500 American privately-held companies and 12th on Crain’s annual roster of the 250 top privately-held companies in the tri-state area. Also as reported in Crain’s: Kinray is debt-free, and analysis of its revenues and industry margins puts the company’s profits at approximately $50 million a year.
Rahr has also earned the unofficial title of “Patriotic Philanthropist”: When I drove up to headquarters I noticed every employee’s parked car boasted an American flag glued to the window. Says Rahr: “To display the American flag after 9/11 is the least I can do to never forget those heroes, as well as U.S. servicemen and women who’ve perished—so we can be free to enjoy this wonderful country.”
While Rahr contributes to countless charities—the American Cancer Society, Citymeals-on-Wheels, and FACES (Fight Against Childhood Epilepsy and Seizures), to which he contributed $48,000 for a walk-on role on HBO’s Sex and The City—those that top his list are the Make-a-Wish Foundation and any cause linked to 9/11. On September 12, he sent six vans packed with medical supplies to Ground Zero. Last April, he beat all Christie’s bids for the original print of three firefighters hoisting the American flag at Ground Zero. (Proceeds in excess of $90,000 went for disaster relief and The Bravest Fund.) This fall he led a memorial service at Kinray, presenting families of four firefighters and police officers with a $100,000 check from his employees’ and pharmacies’ donations, and from Rahr himself. It’s no wonder a petition is on file to rename the street of Kinray’s site Stewart Rahr Drive!
The Stewart, The Donald, Carol Rahr
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Another charitable recipient is The Rainforest Foundation, to which Rahr recently donated almost $200,000 for a two-day golf outing with Tiger Woods. He recently treated Donald Trump to a round of golf with Woods at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, California, at the Target World Challenge Cup, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation.
Rahr also aids those closer to home, helping many employees—he refers to them as his “Kinray family”—to become homeowners or bail out of debt. “If I could cut my heart out for him, I would,” says Lenny Romano, Kinray’s vice-president of operations. Rahr bought Romano a condo after he lost his house in a bitter and costly divorce. Bestowing time and money on those less fortunate is a way of life for this dynamo. Does this man ever sleep???
Kinray employees describe their leader as “a pit bull, a man who chooses not to relax.” I was ready to leave Stewart a voice message at his office at 6 am—and of course, he answered the phone! Every day he shows up at work with new lists of ideas he’s conceived the night before; he’ll explore any logical notion—his or any one of his employee’s. Yet you can often find him in jeans and boots: “I’m not for formal dress codes,” he says. “I think it stifles the carefree attitude of making instant decisions which we do daily without a formal board-meeting atmosphere.”
Rahr is also just as dedicated to battling injustice: This is the wrong man to anger. His iron will became evident in 1999, when he lost a $12 million stake in the Texas firm Continental Investment Corp. Rahr brought a civil case against two executives, alleging they deceived him and hundreds of shareholders into thinking Continental would profit by turning a rock quarry into a landfill. Rahr personally spent an additional $10 million in legal fees, which resulted in a $200 million jury award to him and other Continental shareholders, as well as federal indictments against the company executives for securities and tax fraud and money laundering. “They ruined plenty of lives, now they’ll never hurt anyone again,” says Rahr—though he’s unlikely to ever collect a dime from the now-defunct company.
Now the Hampton Hills Golf & Country Club is his current focus (he’s been a member for three years). Rahr alleges, “The club, owned and operated by Stanley Pine, Barry Biel, and Steve Katz, may have appropriated bond money in a questionable manner. I believe there are unfulfilled promises of capital improvements to the club and golf course, as well as an apparently ignored agreement to limit membership.” Then he adds, “I’m currently in litigation and confident that once members are aware of what the owners are attempting to do, I will legally prevail. The preservation of members’ rights is extremely important to me.”
Businessman, family man, philanthropist, with an intolerance for injustice … Stewart Rahr exemplifies the fighting and unsinkable spirit of New York!
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