| Stefan Soloviev | |
| Birth Name: | Stefan Quinn Solow |
| Birth Date: | 21 May 1975 |
| Birth Place: | New York City, U.S. |
| Education: | University of Rhode Island (dropped out) |
| Occupation: | Businessman |
| Known For: | Founder of Crossroads Agriculture |
| Chairman of The Soloviev Group | |
| Children: | 20+ |
| Father: | Sheldon Solow |
| Mother: | Mia Fonssagrives |
| Family: | Lisa Fonssagrives (grandmother) |
Stefan Quinn Soloviev (Solow; born May 21, 1975) is an American businessman who is the Chairman of the Soloviev Group, the parent company of Crossroads Agriculture, the Colorado Pacific Railroad, the Soloviev Building Corporation, Weskan Grain, and other business entities. He took over the Solow Building Corporation from his father Sheldon Solow, after his death on November 17, 2020.[1] [2]
The elder son of Mia Fonssagrives and Sheldon Solow, Soloviev is of Russian descent on his father's side and of Swedish descent on his mother's side. Soloviev and his family are Lutheran. In 1998, he reverted to the pre-Anglicized version of his father's family surname.[3] He grew up in Manhattan, New York and attended the University of Rhode Island,[4] but did not graduate. He also played football as a placekicker in 1996 at St. John's University in New York, but did not play during season.[5]
Soloviev started working in the family real estate business when he was a teenager, in the parking garages in his father's buildings.[6] He dropped out of the University of Rhode Island in the mid-1990s to focus on trading commodities. He founded Crossroads Agriculture in 1999 to cultivate, purchase, store, and sell cash grains in the Wichita, Kansas area. By the early 2000s, the company moved to the western edge of the high plains, successfully producing grains in historically dry farming regions using a combination of drought-tolerant seeds and emerging agricultural technology. Starting in 2004, the company began acquiring grasslands south of Portales, New Mexico, and the ranching side of the operation was born. As of 2021, Soloviev owns and operates farmland and ranchland in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Texas, and New York.[7]
In 2022, Soloviev was ranked 26th overall on The Land Report list of the 100 largest landowners in the US, with 408000acres, through Crossroads Agriculture, and his holding company KCVN LLC, named after the Clovis Municipal Airport.[8] [9] [10]
In 1996, he married Canadian-born Stacey, who was working as a nanny at a neighbouring Long Island property.[11] [12] They had 11 children together including quadruplets.[11] They divorced in 2014 but remain amicable and she managed various of his New York businesses, including a winery and hotel in Shelter Island from 2019 to 2022,[11] [12] when their son Hayden took over, and then wine bars in Manhattan.[13] Media are uncertain of the number of Stefan's other children: in 2018 he acknowledged four with two women in Sacramento, California; Soloviev is also presently a single parent raising two of his young children alone. A 2022 interviewer speaks of a total of 22 children;[14] a 2023 profile said "20-plus";[13] in 2022 Business Insider said "at least 20" while Soloviev said "the number isn't important".[15]