| Edward H. Linde | |
| Birth Date: | 22 June 1941 |
| Birth Place: | Brooklyn, New York, US |
| Death Place: | Boston, Massachusetts, US[1] |
| Occupation: | Real estate developer |
| Spouse: | Joyce Goldfine |
| Children: | 2 |
| Alma Mater: | MIT (B.S., Civil Engineering, 1962) Harvard Business School (MBA, 1964) |
Edward H. Linde (June 22, 1941 - January 10, 2010[2]) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist in Boston, Massachusetts.[3] [4] [5] Alongside Mortimer B. Zuckerman, he co-founded Boston Properties in 1970.[3]
Linde was born to a Jewish family[6] [7] in Brooklyn on June 22, 1941, the son of Irving and Dorothy Linde. In 1958, he moved to Boston in 1958 to attend MIT where he studied civil engineering[3] and graduated in 1962. In 1964, he graduated from Harvard Business School and went to work for Cabot, Cabot & Forbes[3] where he met Mortimer B. Zuckerman.
He and Zuckerman redeveloped much of East Cambridge into the area now known as Kendall Square, helping create a U.S. technology hub, with Harvard and MIT researchers mixing with firms such as Google, Microsoft, Biogen Idec, and Novartis.[3] In Boston, Linde was responsible for properties such as the office towers at 28 State Street and One Boston Place.[3] Perhaps his most prominent contribution to the city was the Prudential Center, where he helped transform a disjointed area into a retail mecca.[3] In 2007, he was succeeded as company president by his son, Douglas T. Linde.
Forbes ranked him tied as the 840th richest billionaire worldwide in 2007, with a net worth of US$1.1 billion.[8]
Linde was chairman of the board of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, a director of Jobs for Massachusetts, WGBH, and Boston World Partnership, and a trustee at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.[3] The west wing of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts is named after him, his wife, and the Linde family in recognition of the more than $25 million they donated to the museum.[3] He also was a major donor to his alma mater, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[3] [5] the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, and Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston.[9]
In 1963, he married Joyce Goldfine (born 1943) whom he had met in college; they had two children, Douglas Linde and Karen Linde Packman.[10] [11]
Edward Linde died from pneumonia in 2010.
As of 2016, Joyce Linde was worth $1.5 billion.[12]