Ernie Boch, Jr.

Ernest Alexander Boch Jr. (born February 15, 1958) is an American billionaire and businessman who is the former CEO of Boch Enterprises, a billion business consisting primarily of automobile dealerships in Norwood, Massachusetts and the current CEO of Subaru of New England.

Boch is a local celebrity in the Greater Boston area who has a passion for music, makes television cameos, and has a creative approach to advertising and selling cars.

Early life and education Ernie Jr.'s first car was a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle, British racing green. He bought it in 1974, when he was 16, from the used-car department at his family's Toyota dealership.

He graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Career Ernie Boch Jr. inherited the automobile sales and service business started by his grandfather, Andrew Boch, who began the family business in 1945 by purchasing a Nash Motors franchise in Norwood, Massachusetts.

After leaving Berklee, he went on the road with several bands. Eventually he returned to Norwood to work at one of his father's dealerships. “And I just got hooked,” he later said. Though he sold cars by day, by night he socialized with Boston celebrities and well known musicians. His lifestyle got his name in the newspapers and led to tensions between himself and his father, who “fired him from dealership jobs at least twice.” He inherited the business in 2003 following the death of his father. Shortly after the death of Ernie Boch Sr., Boch Jr. appeared in a television commercial paying tribute to his father. Boch Jr. was in a car, watching images from an old commercial featuring his father, in the rear view mirror. Boch Jr. smiled and drove away.

Boch also owned the Boston-based women's tackle football team, the Boston Militia.

Personal life His current residence began as a mansion that he bought in 1997 on a one-acre plot in Norwood. Over the next twenty years he bought up and tore down the homes of 17 neighbors and expanded his house into a compound. “Back in Europe, they used to build houses that would last generations,” he explained. “Here, they build houses that are almost disposable. It’s disgusting!” He owns rare sports cars, collects guitars, a private jet, and a custom stretch limo.