Stewart Rahr Biography

Stewart Rahr was the owner of pharmaceutical and generics wholesaler Kinray, which was the largest privately owned pharmaceutical distributor in the world. Kinray was bought out by Cardinal Health in 2010.

Early life and education

Born and raised in a Jewish family in Queens he worked at his father's retail pharmacy store in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with a B.A. from New York University and attended New York University Law School before dropping out to take over the family business which then had $50,000 in sales.

Career

As the family business also served as a wholesaler for several other pharmacies, Rahr focused on this side of the business eventually expanding it into a wholesale operation named Kinray Inc that served over 4000 pharmacies in the Northeastern United States with revenues of over $5 billion. Rahr was able to grow the business so rapidly through the stockpiling of pharmaceuticals relying on drug price inflation to maximize his profit margin when he sold the extra inventory to retail pharmacies at a later date. Such speculative buying has been criticized for contributing to drug cost inflation by adding an incentive for manufacturers to continuously raise their prices; for giving drug makers false signals that their products were in demand causing them to manufacture excess product; and by exacerbating regional shortages of pharmaceuticals. Distributors contended that the stockpiling was necessary because pharmacies did not want to carry excess inventory and the contribution to drug price inflation was minimal. Pharmaceutical manufacturers now monitor their distributors to ensure that they do not hold more than one month's supply of any given drug. In 2010, Rahr sold Kinray to Cardinal Health for $1.3 billion.

Philanthropy

He is the largest individual donor to the Metro New York chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. In 2013, Rahr donated $10 million to the Make A Wish Foundation, the largest contribution in its history. In 2012, Rahr donated $640,000 to the Israel Cancer Research Fund, the single largest source of private funds for cancer research in Israel. In 2012, Rahr donated $100,000 to the Salvation Army for Hurricane Sandy relief efforts. In 2012, he donated $50,000 to help repair the Russian American Jewish Experience (RAJE) in Brighton Beach which was also severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy. The RAJE was founded in 2006 to address the Jewish communal and educational needs of young Russian American Jews.

Personal life

In 1969, he married Carol K. Rahr. They have two children. In 2012, they announced that they were divorcing. In 2013 Rahr agreed to pay his ex-wife $250 million as a settlement.

According to the New York Post, Rahr, who calls himself "Stewie Rah Rah" and the "No. 1 King of All Fun," has been banned from the Nobu restaurants for life for harassing a hostess and has lost his handgun license pending an investigation of an elevator operator's claim Rahm pulled a handgun on him for not holding an elevator. He also handed a million dollar check (with the recipient space left blank) to an employee of the Sebonack Golf Club in Southampton in order to have them consider his membership.

He is also noted for the house he purchased in the Hamptons for $45 million, reportedly the highest price ever paid in the state for a single-family home.