JIM CRANE

Owner

Born: January 17, 1954; St. Louis, Missouri
Team Owned: Houston Astros (2011-Present)

St. Louis native Jim Crane is the owner and chairman of the 2017 World Champion Houston Astros. Jim purchased the Astros on Nov. 17, 2011, and in nearly six years, took the team from worst to first in spectacular fashion.

The Astros went from consecutive 100-loss seasons with one of the worst farm systems in baseball to World Series Champions with one of the most highly-touted talent pipelines in the industry.

Jim has also invested in making the fan experience at Minute Maid Park one of the best in baseball by renovating several major areas of the ballpark during his tenure.

As a young man, Jim put his innate passion for baseball into action at Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri), where he was a stand-out pitcher from 1973-76. He still holds the single-game strikeout record with 18, and in 1997, was inducted into the Central Missouri State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Jim is also the CEO of Crane Capital Group, Inc., an investment management company Jim founded in 2006. He is the Chairman of Crane Worldwide Logistics, a premier global provider of customized transportation and logistics services with 120 offices in 35 countries, and a director of three public companies: Nabors Industries, Cargojet, and Western Gas Holdings.

Jim has embraced the opportunity to give back to the City of Houston and beyond, pledging $4 million to relief efforts in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Harvey alongside the Astros ownership group and the Astros Foundation. He also facilitated the shipment of more than 240,000 pounds of disaster relief supplies to Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria.

One of his first initiatives as Astros owner and chairman was the creation of the Astros Community Leaders Program, which won the prestgious Allan H. Selig Award for Philanthropic Excellence in 2017.