Ernie Boch Jr.
Born
Ernest Alexander Boch Jr.

(1958-02-15) February 15, 1958
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Chairman and CEO of Boch enterprises
CEO of Subaru of New England
Known forAutomobile sales, philanthropy, Ernie and the Automatics

Ernest Alexander Boch Jr. (born February 15, 1958) is an American billionaire and businessman who is the former CEO of Boch Enterprises, a US$1 billion business consisting primarily of automobile dealerships in Norwood, Massachusetts[1] and the current CEO of Subaru of New England.[2]

Boch is a local celebrity in the Greater Boston area who has a passion for music, makes television cameos, and has a creative approach to advertising and selling cars.[3]

Early life and education

Ernie Jr.'s first car was a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle, British racing green. He bought it in 1974, when he was 16, from the used-car department at his family's Toyota dealership.[4]

He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Career

Ernie Boch Jr. inherited the automobile sales and service business started by his grandfather, Andrew Boch, who began the family business in 1945 by purchasing a Nash Motors franchise in Norwood, Massachusetts.[5]

After leaving Berklee, he went on the road with several bands. Eventually he returned to Norwood to work at one of his father's dealerships. “And I just got hooked,” he later said. Though he sold cars by day, by night he socialized with Boston celebrities and well known musicians. His lifestyle got his name in the newspapers and led to tensions between himself and his father, who “fired him from dealership jobs at least twice.” He inherited the business when his father died. Shortly after the death of Ernie Boch Sr., Boch Jr. appeared in a television commercial paying tribute to his father. Boch Jr. was in a car, watching images from an old commercial featuring his father, in the rear view mirror. Boch Jr. smiled and drove away.[6]

In October 2015, Boch Jr. sold the majority of his dealerships, although they retained the Boch name and he continued to be the public face of the dealerships.[7] He retained ownership of his Ferrari and Maserati dealership, and remained CEO of Subaru of New England.[7]

Philanthropy

Boch founded in 2005 "Music Drives Us", a regional project supporting music in New England. Its three focuses are music preservation, music education, and music awareness. It places instruments in and pays for music programs in about 200 public schools in Boston and around New England. “I’ve funded Boston public schools that had music programs without instruments, music programs literally in basements next to the water heater,” he said in 2017. Music “should be...standard stuff in schools, just like math.”

In 2005, Boch joined Berklee's board of trustees. He has since led several major fundraising campaigns for Berklee.[6]

On the invitation of National Geographic, Boch filmed a reality show in which he provided infrastructure and other resources for an impoverished Ugandan village.[6]

In 2016 he agreed to underwrite the organization that runs the Shubert and Wang theaters in Boston, which are now collectively known as the Boch Center.[6]

In January 2021 he made an unsolicited one-million dollar donation to the Barstool Fund, in support of their effort in helping small businesses through the coronavirus pandemic.[6]

Political views

Support for Republican Party

Boch, who had been a friend and supporter of Mitt Romney during his presidential campaign, supported Donald Trump in 2016. In the summer of 2015, he contacted Corey Lewandowski to look into throwing a fundraiser. “Lewandowski told him he didn’t know, since no one had thrown one yet.” So Boch met Trump at Trump Tower to discuss it. “I went up to his office. And he wasn’t president. But you could feel, like if I was going to go in there and negotiate with him about something, he would have killed me.” Boch held the fundraiser at his home in August 2015, charging $100 per person. He later told Boston Magazine that he “had been a fan” of Trump's “since the ’80s.” He explained: “If you were a business guy, Trump had character....He was a showman, a promoter.” He has also said that he supported Donald Trump's presidential candidacy because Trump knows how to run a business, spends money efficiently, and is transparent.[6]

Appearing on CNN, he compared his support for Trump to selecting which inebriated girl to take home at closing time. "It’s 2 a.m. and there’s a few girls at the bar,” he said. “You have to go home with one of them.” Later in the conversation, the billionaire said that he had talked his way out of a ticket by telling a police officer he supported Trump.[8]

Other ventures

Boch has formed a band, Ernie and the Automatics.[9] Ernie and the Automatics album Low Expectations was on Billboard's Top Blues Album chart for six weeks, debuting at #7. The band has opened for Deep Purple. He formerly sat on the Berklee College of Music's Board of Trustees.[1]

Boch appeared on the TV show, The Phantom Gourmet. On September 8, 2007 he was a guest judge for the cleavage contest at King Richard's Faire, along with drummer Sib Hashian. He appeared on WLVI-TV's Creature Double Feature playing "The Ghoul".

Boch has appeared in three episodes of the television show Rescue Me, "Black," "Animal" and "Satisfaction" as Captain Bernard, the coach of the NYPD hockey team.[10]

Boch also owned the Boston-based women's tackle football team, the Boston Militia.[9]

2009 bounty

In late 2009 a blogger for the web site bluemassgroup.com writing under the pseudonym "Ernie Boch III" (Boch has two children, neither of them named Ernie Boch III[11]) called for a boycott of companies running advertising during the Boston region political talk radio program The Howie Carr Show.[12]

After making contact with some of the advertisers, Boch, while a guest on an October 3 episode of The Howie Carr Show, offered a $2,000 bounty to any individual who would reveal the identity of the blogger, saying to the show's host, "I’m going to tell you who he is so you can terrorize him every afternoon."[13]

Personal life

He lives with his girlfriend, Enza Sambataro. They have a daughter together. He also has two children, Alex and Kelsey, by his ex-wife Kristen, whom he divorced in 2010.

His current residence began as a mansion that he bought in 1997 on a one-acre plot in Norwood. Over the next twenty years he bought up and tore down the homes of 17 neighbors and expanded his house into a 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) compound. “Back in Europe, they used to build houses that would last generations,” he explained. “Here, they build houses that are almost disposable. It’s disgusting!” He owns rare sports cars, collects guitars, a private jet, and a custom stretch limo.[6] In 2022, Ernie was granted permission by the Norwood Town Meeting to erect a mausoleum on the property.

References

  1. 1 2 Gonzalez, John (June 2005). "The Importance of Being Ernie". Boston Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-06-07.
  2. ↑ https://www.subaruofnewengland.com/
  3. ↑ "Ernie Boch Jr". Boston.com. 2006-10-30. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  4. ↑ "Thinking Big, Drive Time: Ernie Boch Jr". The Boston Globe. 2006-01-29. Archived from the original on 2009-06-26. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  5. ↑ Earls, Alan R. (2005-02-05). "Sweet Song of Success". Ward's Dealer Business. Archived from the original on 2011-07-19. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Van Zuylen-Wood, Simon (29 October 2017). "The Subtle Art of Being Ernie Boch Jr". Boston. ISSN 0006-7989. OCLC 137349939. Archived from the original on 29 December 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
  7. 1 2 Chesto, Jon (8 October 2015). "Amid auto boom, Boch cashes out while Chambers expands". The Boston Globe. ISSN 0743-1791. OCLC 66652431. Archived from the original on 27 January 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2020. Ernie Boch Jr. just sold five dealerships for an undisclosed amount to Dan Dagesse, a longtime dealer who has managed Boch's stores for several years, and Dagesse's son, Christopher. The new owners will keep the Boch name on the stores. ... Boch will continue to own his Ferrari and Maserati dealership in Norwood, and his lucrative Subaru of New England distributorship. Selling off the other dealerships will allow the 57-year-old Boch to spend more time on those businesses, as well as pursue his passions, including his Music Drives Us charity, which funds music education, and other "humanitarian projects" that he says are in the works.
  8. ↑ Fitzgerald, Craig. "Every Subaru Sold In New England Comes From This Guy". Car Talk. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  9. 1 2 Knight, Ken (2008). The Real Story of the History of the NFL Football Fan Support in New England!. New England Bandwagon Nation. p. 244. ISBN 978-1-59571-293-6. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  10. ↑ Beggy, Carol; Shanahan, Mark (2006-05-26). "Morning Jacket, Pops team up in style". boch.com. Retrieved 2011-01-04. Ernie Boch joins 'Rescue' party
  11. ↑ Fee, Gayle; Raposa, Laura (2009-10-01). "Ernie Boch Jr.: Lefty Web blogger is no child of mine!". Boston Herald, Inside Track. Retrieved 2011-01-04.
  12. ↑ Vennochi, Joan (2009-10-04). "Howie Carr's mysterious liberal foil". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
  13. ↑ Raposa, Laura (2009-10-03). "Ernie Boch Jr. offers $2,000 for ID of Howie Carr hater". The Boston Herald. Retrieved 2009-10-04.
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