Stephen Ross

Stephen Michael Ross (born May 10, 1940) is an American real estate developer, philanthropist, and sports team owner. Ross is the chairman of Related Companies, a global real estate development firm he founded in 1972. Related is best known for developing Deutsche Bank Center, as well as the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project. Ross had a net worth of $10.1 billion in 2020, ranking him 185 on Forbes Billionaires List in 2020. In 2026, his net worth was listed as $17 billion and he was ranked #59 on the Forbes list. Ross is also the principal owner of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium. Ross is a major benefactor of his alma mater, the University of Michigan; with lifetime contributions of $478 million to the university, he is the largest donor in the university's history. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, his higher education gifts rank behind only those of fellow American billionaire New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. The University of Michigan renamed its business school to the Ross School of Business in Ross's honor, in 2004, after he made a $100 million gift to fund a new business-school building. The Stephen M. Ross Academic Center was completed in January 2006. In September 2013, Ross donated $200 million to the university ($100 million to the business school and $100 million to Michigan athletics), the largest single gift in the history of the university; the University of Michigan announced plans to rename the university's athletics campus in his honor. In 2020, Ross announced an additional $100 million donation to kickstart fundraising for the construction of the University of Michigan Detroit Center for Innovation. Born and raised in Detroit, Stephen Michael Ross grew up in a Jewish family. He first attended Mumford High School in Detroit and later graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. He attended the University of Florida for two years before transferring to the University of Michigan, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1962. He later received a Juris Doctor from Wayne State University in 1965 and a Master of Laws in Taxation from the New York University School of Law in 1966. These later degrees were financed by a loan from his uncle, the businessman Max Fisher, whom Ross has called "the most important role model and inspiration for me in life." Ross began his career as a tax attorney at Coopers & Lybrand in Detroit. In 1968, he moved to New York City and accepted a position as an assistant vice president in the real estate subsidiary of Laird Inc., then worked in the corporate finance department of Bear Stearns. In 1972, he was fired from that company after clashing with a superior; living off $10,000 ($67,000 in 2021 dollars) lent to him by his mother, he utilized his federal tax law knowledge to organize deals for wealthy investors, allowing them to shelter income with the generous incentives granted by the federal government to promote the construction of federally subsidized affordable housing. Ross was very successful, earning $150,000 in his first year. In 1972, Ross founded Related Companies, a real estate development company. Related originally began as the Related Housing Companies, which built thousands of subsidized low and moderate income apartments nationwide. By the 1980s, Ross turned towards higher-profile projects. He hired architect Robert A.M. Stern in the 1990s to design The Chatham on the corner of 65th Street and Third Avenue. Headquartered in New York City, Related now has offices and real estate developments in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., South Florida, Abu Dhabi, and London. The company directly employs approximately 4,000 people. The company's existing portfolio of real estate assets, valued at over $60 billion, is made up of mixed-use, residential, retail, office, trade show and affordable properties in what the company calls "premier high-barrier-to-entry markets." Related is the largest owner of luxury residential rental properties with over 40,000 units in its portfolio and has developed mixed-use projects such as Deutsche Bank Center in New York, CityPlace in West Palm Beach, The Grand in Los Angeles (designed by Frank Gehry) and the 28-acre Hudson Yards project on Manhattan's west side. Hudson Yards is the largest and most expensive real-estate project in America — at almost a billion dollars an acre. Ross constructed an atrium inside Hudson Yards specifically to entice Coach into moving into the development. Related is also a major investor in Equinox Fitness Clubs, SoulCycle, and fast casual restaurant chains. The company announced in July 2024 that Ross would be stepping down as chairman of Related Companies to focus on his business ventures via Related Ross, the Miami Dolphins, and F1. Ross has continued as non-executive chairman of Related Companies. Ross is looking to invest $10 billion to turn West Palm Beach into a financial hub, with plans for six million square feet of office space, 1.4 million square feet of condos, and nearly 900 hotel rooms across the 70 acres of land he’s amassed over the last two decades. In December 2025, Related Ross received a $772 million loan, one of the largest construction loans in Florida history, for two office towers in West Palm Beach. In January 2026, Ross committed $50m to help develop a Vanderbilt University campus in West Palm Beach. On April 2, 2026, Related Ross broke ground for a 28-story condominium along the water in West Palm Beach. In February 2008, Ross bought 50% of the Miami Dolphins franchise, Dolphin Stadium (now known as Hard Rock Stadium), and surrounding land from then-owner Wayne Huizenga for $550 million, with an agreement to later become the Dolphins' managing general partner. On January 20, 2009, Ross closed on the purchase of an additional 45% of the team from Huizenga. The total value of the deal was $1.1 billion. This means Ross is now the owner of 95% of both the franchise and the stadium. Ross announced his intention to keep Bill Parcells as the director of football operations. Since buying the Dolphins, Ross has brought in Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, Venus Williams, and Serena Williams as minority owners of the team. In 2013, Roger Goodell made a pitch to the Florida legislature on Ross’ behalf in order to obtain multimillion-dollar public funding from the state to help renovate Hard Rock Stadium, the Dolphins' home field. The Dolphins wanted $3 million a year for the next 30 years, with Ross committed to funding 70% of the cost. However, Florida lawmakers rejected the proposal, despite granting over $100 million in subsidies to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. Ross ended up spending $500 million out-of-pocket to refresh the stadium. On March 27, 2017, Ross cast the only "no" vote in the NFL owners' 31–1 "yes" decision on the Oakland Raiders request for approval to move to Las Vegas starting in the 2020 season. Since 2019, the Miami Open has been hosted at the Hard Rock Stadium. On February 1, 2022, Ross and the Dolphins, among other teams, were cited in a federal class-action lawsuit brought forth by his former head coach Brian Flores, alleging that Ross offered Flores a $100,000 bonus for every game he lost in the Dolphins’ 2019 campaign. As of February 2, 2022, the NFL publicly denied all allegations against Ross and all others listed in the lawsuit, releasing in an official statement: "We will defend against these claims, which are without merit." On August 2, 2022, following a six-month independent investigation by Mary Jo White and a team of lawyers, it was announced that the NFL would strip the Dolphins of their 2023 first-round draft pick and a 2024 third-round draft pick for violating the league's anti-tampering policy on three occasions from 2019 to 2022 by engaging in impermissible conversations with quarterback Tom Brady and then-New Orleans Saints coach Sean Payton, both of whom were under contract with other teams. Ross, the team