Jim Crane

After graduating from college, Crane went into the insurance business. He moved to Houston in 1980, and in March 1984, Crane borrowed $10,000 from his sister and founded Eagle USA Airfreight, an air-freight logistics business.[10][11]

Eagle USA Airfreight later became Eagle Global Logistics, and then EGL, Inc., and moved into the supply-chain management and information-services business. In August 2007, EGL merged with United Kingdom-based CEVA Logistics, owned by American private equity capital management and leveraged-buyout firm Apollo Management L.P. Crane owned about 17.6% of EGL's stock at the time of the merger. He had wanted to do a leveraged, management, or combination buyout of EGL, prior to the merger with CEVA, but was unable to obtain financing on acceptable terms. Later, after Crane obtained equity backing, he initially offered $36 per-share for EGL, but Apollo then engaged in a bidding war and the shareholders eventually went with the Apollo/CEVA offer of $47.50 per share. He was opposed to the EGL and CEVA merger.[12]

Crane took his profits from EGL and formed Crane Capital Group. He also became a director and shareholder (less than 1%) in Western Gas Holdings, LLC, the general partner in Western Gas Partners, LP, a midstream (mainly pipelines and natural gas gathering assets) energy company operating in the southeastern Rocky Mountain region and southern Mid-Continent area (Oklahoma and Texas) of the United States. Western Gas Holdings and Western Gas Partners were acquired by Anadarko Petroleum.[11] Crane is also the majority shareholder in Crane Worldwide Logistics LLC, chairman of the board for CargoJet,[13] and director of both Nabors Industries[14] and natural gas company Western Midstream.[7][15]

In May 2011, Crane reached an agreement to purchase the Houston Astros of Major League Baseball (MLB) from Drayton McLane for a reported $680 million.[16] He was unanimously approved by MLB on November 17, 2011.[17] MLB Commissioner Bud Selig intended for Houston to change divisions from the six-club National League Central to the four-club American League West. Crane received $35 million bumps from McLane and the MLB in exchange for this league-change stipulation, which was previously committed to by McLane.[18]

When Crane purchased the team, they were coming off a season in which they won only 56 games.[19] During his tenure as owner, the Astros experienced a turnaround in which they had three consecutive 100-win seasons,[20] including a World Series victory in 2017.[21]

Crane opened two restaurants in Houston in 2017, Osso and Kristalla, and Potente, named for his children.[22][23] That year, he also started a commercial safety supply and training company called Crane Safety, and acquired Davaco, a company that manages and executes high-volume remodels and technology deployments. Also in 2017, Crane started a software company called Modiant to focus on digitizing freight and transportation management.[24] In 2019, he partnered with winemaker Jesse Katz at Aperture Cellars, a winery in Sonoma County.[25]

A scratch golfer, Crane has been ranked as the nation's top CEO golfer. In April 2010, he purchased the Floridian National Golf Club from Wayne Huizenga. The Floridian in Palm City, Florida, recently completed major renovations and additions under the supervision of architect Tom Fazio.[26]

"It was two things (owning a team and a golf course) that I never thought I would be able to accomplish," Crane mused at his Floridian National Golf Club's reopening. "I was able to pull it together and I am very happy about it."[27]

In 2000, Eagle USA was subject of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation regarding hiring practices of minorities and women.[28] Jim Crane was named personally in the lawsuit. An outside claims administrator later ruled that only 10% of claims had any validity, and the court returned $6M of the settlement fund to the company as they maintained denial of the allegations.[29][30]

Eagle USA was also sued four separate times for allegations of war profiteering, and settled three cases between 2006 and 2008. Two officials pled guilty to different charges,[31] but Crane himself was not named in those investigations.[29]

In Commissioner Rob Manfred’s statement on the Houston Astros sign stealing scandal, he noted, “Jim Crane was unaware of any of the violations of MLB rules by his Club.”[32] In response to the scandal, Crane fired the team's general manager, Jeff Luhnow, and manager A. J. Hinch.[33] In a press conference a month after the commissioner announced his findings, Crane said, "[stealing signs] didn't impact the game." At the same press conference, less than a minute later, he denied having said that,[34] referencing the Commissioner's report and saying, "It's hard to determine how it impacted the game, if it impacted the game, and that's how we're going to leave it."[35]