Edward Linde

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 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]

Linde arrived in Boston in 1958 as an undergraduate at MIT, where he studied civil engineering.^[3] He graduated from Harvard Business School in 1964 and went to work for Cabot, Cabot & Forbes.^[3]

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]

Forbes ranked him tied as the 840th richest billionaire worldwide in 2007, with a net worth of US$1.1 billion.^[6]

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