Zygi Wilf - Biography

Zygmunt "Zygi" Wilf (born April 22, 1950) is the principal owner of the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League.

Early life

Zygi Wilf was born in Germany on April 22, 1950. His parents, Joseph and Elizabeth Wilf, are both Holocaust survivors from Poland. The Wilf family immigrated to the United States from Europe in the early 1950s and settled in Hillside, New Jersey. After a brief stint as used car salesmen, Joseph and his brother Harry Wilf began purchasing apartment buildings and renting units. Eventually, the brothers began building single-family homes and founded Garden Homes. A successful real estate developer, his two main family-run businesses, Garden Homes and Garden Commercial Properties, have constructed some 25,000 homes in 39 states across the country since 1955; the two entities and their subsidiaries own and manage in retail and business property.

Education

Zygi Wilf attended Fairleigh Dickinson University, earning a bachelor's degree in economics, and later graduated from New York Law School in Manhattan.

Career

After working as an attorney, Wilf joined the family business and became head of one of the company's subsidiaries, Garden Commercial Properties. Wilf has grown the company from four shopping centers in Northern New Jersey to over a hundred properties, including several large malls. In addition to the commercial properties, the Garden companies also own 30,000 apartment units around the country.

Wilf and five partners purchased the Minnesota Vikings of the National Football League from Red McCombs in 2005 for a reported 600 million Forbes estimates the 2009 value of the franchise at 835 million, or 31st of the 32 NFL teams. The team generates about 200 million in revenue each year.