Stephen Charles Whitkoff is an American billionaire, investor and real estate developer, lawyer, US Special Envoy to the Middle East, de facto personal ambassador of the US President to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, founder and chairman of the Witkoff Group.
Place of Birth, Education
He was born onMarch 1 5, 1957 in Bronx County, New York, to Jewish parents Martin Alvin Witkoff and Lois Witkoff.
He spent his childhood in Baldwin Harbor and Old Westbury on Long Island.
In 1980, he graduated from Hofstra University with a bachelor’s degree.
In 1983, he received his Juris Doctor degree from the Hofstra School of Law.
Career
After graduating in 1983, Witkoff began working at the New York law firm Dreyer & Traub. Among his clients was businessman Donald Trump, with whom he developed a friendly relationship while working together on one of the business deals.
Until 1986, he continued to practice real estate law at the New York firm Rosenman & Colin.
In 1985, he moved to the ownership and management of real estate. Together with his colleague Larry Gluck, who also worked at Dreyer & Traub, he founded Stellar Management. They started by purchasing low-cost apartment buildings in Washington Heights, Manhattan, and the Northwest Bronx. At a certain stage, their portfolio included 85 buildings with more than 3 thousand apartments.
In 1995, Whitkoff expanded its operations in Lower Manhattan by purchasing several affordable office buildings.
In 1996, he received financing from Credit Suisse First Boston to buy 33 Liberty Street, a 27-story tower. The following year, he leased the top 13 floors of the building to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for a period of 25 years.
After that, he built a close business relationship with Credit Suisse First Boston and continued to buy new properties, usually using a minimum of his own funds. Among these objects is the Daily News Building skyscraper in the East Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan.
In 1997, Witkoff left Stellar Management and founded his own company, the Witkoff Group, taking over as CEO. After that, he expanded his activities in the direction of housing construction and reconstruction.
In 1998, together with partner Rubin Schron, he purchased the Woolworth Building in the Tribeca area for $ 138 million. In the same year, he expanded his portfolio by buying properties in Chicago, Dallas, and Philadelphia.
As of October of the same year, the Witkoff Group managed 11 million square feet of commercial and retail real estate, had shares in 7.5 thousand apartments, and participated in several land and hotel development projects.
In 1998, a planned IPO of the company worth about $ 2 billion was canceled due to the collapse of the real estate market. After that, the partnership between Witkoff and Gluck was terminated: Gluck received the residential facilities, and Witkoff kept the office buildings.
In 2013, Whitkoff, together with developer Harry McLow, purchased the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan for $ 660 million. That same year, together with Fisher Brothers, he bought a plot of land in Tribeca for $ 223 million, on which a 792-foot-tall residential tower was subsequently erected.
As of 2014, the developer owned 30 properties in the United States and London.
By 2019, the Witkoff Group’s portfolio had grown to nearly 50 locations in the U.S. and abroad.
The Witkoff Group also acquired a resort and casino construction project for $600 million. The institution was planned to open in 2020 under the name The Drew – in honor of Witkoff’s late son, Andrew. However, work was eventually suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February 2021, the property was acquired by Koch Real Estate Investments. The hotel opened in December 2023, and the total cost of construction was $3.7 billion. This, in turn, made it the second most expensive resort in Las Vegas.
Civil Service
In April 2020, during President Trump’s first term, Witkoff joined the Great American Economic Revival Industry Group , an advisory group created to combat the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.
On November 9, 2024, he was elected co-chair of the President’s Inauguration Committee for Trump’s second term, along with former Senator Kelly Leffler.
On November 12, Trump appointed Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East.
In January 2025, the official took part in negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage exchange between Israel and Hamas. He was invited to the process by the chief negotiator of the Joe Biden administration, Brett McGurk. The talks were also held with the participation of Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed.
On February 11, 2025, Trump sent Witkoff to Moscow, where he met with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. During the negotiations, they discussed the exchange of prisoners, in particular, the release of US citizen Mark Vogel in exchange for Russian Alexander Vinnik.
By March, Witkoff had actually become the main channel of communication between the Trump administration and the Russian dictator.
Witkoff about Ukraine
In a series of interviews, Witkoff voiced positions that coincided with Russian propaganda and questioned the territorial integrity of Ukraine. He stated that the regions occupied by Russia were allegedly Russian-speaking and that the so-called “referendums” held there showed the desire of the local population to come under the control of the terrorist country.
He also justified the Russian invasion and the Russian dictator himself.
Marital Status
In 1987, he married Lauren Jill Rappoport, who at that time worked as a lawyer at the Manhattan firm Botein, Hays & Sklar. The couple raised three sons:
- in 2011, their 22-year-old son, Andrew, died of an oxycontin overdose at the Sunset Plaza Drive sobriety facility in California;
- son Zach is a co-founder of the cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial;
- Oleksandr holds the position of co-CEO of Witkoff Group.
