Christopher G. Kennedy

Kennedy met Sheila Sinclair Berner (born December 4, 1962), an Illinois native and daughter of Sheila Reynolds and attorney Robert Berner, while both were attending Boston College.

Sheila's maternal aunt, Anne Reynolds Skakel, had been married to Kennedy's maternal uncle, Rushton Skakel, until her death, making Michael Skakel a first cousin to them both.

Through another maternal aunt, Sheila is a first cousin to Jenny Sanford.

Christopher George Kennedy (born July 4, 1963) is an American businessman who is the chair of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc. A member of the prominent Kennedy family, he is a son of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Kennedy was born on July 4, 1963, in St. Elizabeth's Hospital in the Brighton section of Boston, Massachusetts, to Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy (née Skakel), the eighth of their eleven children.

He is one of four grandchildren of George Skakel, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy born during the administration of his uncle U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

He grew up at his family home, Hickory Hill, in McLean, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., and attended the Potomac School along with his brother, Max, and his sister, Rory (not the Lady of Victory Catholic School), in McLean through the eighth grade.

Kennedy's political activism began at an early age, and in 1979 and 1980 he worked on his uncle U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy's bid for the 1980 Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. President.

Kennedy moved from Boston to Decatur to work for Archer Daniels Midland in the 1980s, and has spent his life working around issues of hunger, whether as the chairman of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, or now helping to run the non-profit he and his wife founded, Top Box Foods.

He transferred to Georgetown Preparatory School in North Bethesda, Maryland, also a suburb of Washington, and graduated in 1982.

While in high school, he volunteered at a home for runaway youth.

Kennedy graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science in 1986.

After graduating from college in 1986, Kennedy moved to Decatur, Illinois, and married Sheila in 1987.

He was also treasurer of the campaign committee for his brother Joe's reelection to the U.S. House in 1988.

Over the years he has organized numerous fundraising events in Chicago for his uncle Ted, his sister Kathleen, his brother Joe and his cousin Mark Kennedy Shriver.

The National Journal once quoted Kennedy as saying, "I have a lot to keep up with: a brother who might run for Congress, a sister and a brother considering races for governor, a cousin who might run for Congress, another in Congress, an uncle in the Senate and a cousin-in-law, Arnold [Schwarzenegger], who is thinking of running for governor."

The couple has four children, Katherine Berner Kennedy (born 1990), Christopher George Kennedy Jr. (born 1992) m. Erin Daigle, Sarah Louise Kennedy (born 1994) m. Jam Sulahry, and Clare Elizabeth Kennedy (born 1998), whom they raised in the Chicago suburb of Kenilworth.

His wife earned a J.D. degree from Northwestern University and practiced at Sidley & Austin in Chicago before taking time off to take care of their children.

In 1994, he graduated with a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kennedy is chairman of the Kennedy family investment firm Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc. He is treasurer of the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, he was on the Executive Committee for the Chicago Community Trust, and he has been a board member of the Catholic Theological Union, Interface, Inc. and Knoll Inc.

He is a member of the mutual fund board of trustees for Ariel Investments.

From 2000 until 2012, he was also president of Merchandise Mart Properties, a commercial property management firm based in Chicago.

Kennedy was the president of Merchandise Mart Properties in Chicago, Illinois, from 2000 until 2012.

The property was originally owned by the Kennedy family until it was sold to Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust.

The Merchandise Mart, one of the properties of Merchandise Mart Properties, is the largest commercial building in the world, serving as both a luxury wholesale design center and one of the leading international business locations in Chicago.

The Mart spans two city blocks and rises twenty-five stories for a total of 4.2 million square feet (390,000 square metres) Three million people come through the Mart each year to visit its retail shops, permanent showrooms, and office space as well as attend the numerous trade, consumer and community events hosted there.

Kennedy also served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Illinois.

Appointed by Governor Pat Quinn, Kennedy also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois from 2009 to 2015.

In May 2012, Kennedy started the Chicago-based non-profit Top Box Foods.

Top Box Foods is an anti-hunger not-for-profit community-based social business that sells high-quality groceries at affordable costs throughout the greater Chicagoland area.

Top Box as an organization purchases food, boxes it in various combinations and delivers it monthly to churches and organizations in mostly low-income neighborhoods.

The food items in the box change from month to month and include a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, meats, and frozen meals, with box prices ranging from $19 to $39.

The boxes can be ordered online or through the organizations where the boxes are delivered.

These organizations, otherwise known as Top Box "host sites," range from small neighborhood churches with a few dozen families to some of the Chicago's largest, including Trinity United Church of Christ and Salem Baptist Church.

Top Box has locations in Illinois in Chicago, Cook County, and Rockford, in Louisiana in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and in Atlanta, Georgia.

His gubernatorial appointment concluded in 2015.

In 2015, Kennedy won the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Spirit of Courage award for his involvement in the controversy.

Kennedy has partnered with CIP (the International Potato Center) and 2Blades in the fight against Phytophthora infestans in Africa, the same blight which brought some of his ancestors to the United States.

He is chairing the 2Blades African Potato Initiative which is developing and producing the seed potatoes to be sold in Uganda and Kenya.

He was a candidate in the Democratic Party primary for Governor of Illinois in the 2018 election.