- New York grocery billionaire John Catsimatidis used controversial facial-recognition software created by Clearview AI to identify a man his daughter went on a date with.
- Andrea Catsimatidis is a “billionaire heiress,” “business bombshell,” and chair of the Manhattan Republican Party, according to her Instagram account.
- Catsimatidis is the daughter of John Catsimatidis, the owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes Foods. Her father has a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to Forbes.
- For Catsimatidis, the bikini is “an essential accessory to an artifice she has diligently perfected,” New York Magazine’s Olivia Nuzzi previously wrote.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
In the bio on her Instagram profile, Andrea Catsimatidis lists seven phrases to describe herself, separated by emojis: “billionaire heiress,” “business bombshell,” “jetsetter,” “NYC native,” “Manhattan Republican Party Chair,” “philanthropist,” and “footballer.” She also became an unwitting guinea pig for controversial facial-recognition software created by Clearview AI when her father used it on a man she went on a date with.
Catsimatidis is the daughter of John Catsimatidis, the owner of New York City supermarket chain Gristedes Foods. John has a net worth of $3.3 billion, according to Forbes. He was reportedly given access to the app, which Clearview AI has previously said is only accessible by law enforcement, while in talks to become an investor in the tech startup.
Andrea, a 29-year-old New York University graduate and GOP crusader, works as an executive at her father’s company when she is not leading Manhattan’s Republican Party, New York Magazine reports.
Catsimatidis did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Keep reading to learn more about Andrea Catsimatidis.
Andrea Catsimatidis, 29, is a Manhattan native.
Catsimatidis was raised on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, according to The New York Times. Political figures including the Clintons, Rudy Giuliani, and John Kerry regularly stopped by to discuss public policy with her father in their living room.
Catsimatidis, who goes by "A.J.," went on to earn an undergraduate degree in business from New York University, according to the Times.
Catsimatidis' father is New York City grocery titan John Catsimatidis.
John is the owner of Gristedes Foods, the largest supermarket chain in New York City, according to Forbes. John entered the grocery business as a part-time cashier while studying at New York University and he purchased his first grocery store in 1969, Forbes reports. He also owns an oil refinery and a radio station, according to Forbes.
John's net worth is $3.3 billion, Forbes estimates.
John has also demonstrated an interest in politics, launching an unsuccessful bid to become the mayor of New York City in 2013, according to Forbes.
John Catsimatidis told The New York Times that he once used a controversial facial recognition app to identify a man his daughter was on a date with.
The incident occurred after John spotted Catsimatidis dining at a restaurant with a man he didn't know. He had the waiter secretly snap a photo of Catsimatidis' date, used the app to identify him, and emailed the results to Catsimatidis.
"I wanted to make sure he wasn't a charlatan," John Catsimatidis told The New York Times.
However, the app he used is an unreleased piece of software with potentially catastrophic privacy implications, Business Insider reported. Its searchable database of photos scraped from across the web is only sold to police departments and federal agencies, Clearview says, but new reports have indicated that it's also given access to other clients, including billionaires like Catsimatidis, retail chains like Walmart and Macy's, the NBA, and even some high schools.
When she was 21, Catsimatidis was briefly married to then 31-year-old Christopher Nixon Cox, a former John McCain staffer and grandson of Richard Nixon, according to New York Magazine.
"We had so many people to celebrate with us," Catsimatidis told New York Magazine about the 2011 wedding. "Hillary Clinton was at my wedding. We had Henry Kissinger, we had Rudy Giuliani, we had Chuck Schumer. It was a beautiful, bipartisan wedding - everyone had an amazing time."
The couple divorced in 2014, according to New York Magazine.
Catsimatidis is a lifelong Republican.
"I looked up what it meant to be a Republican," Catsimatidis told New York Magazine, "and I saw that being a Republican stood for freedom and opportunity for all, and I was like, of course I'm a Republican!"
Before getting involved with the Manhattan Republican Party, Catsimatidis served as the president of the NYU College Republicans, according to New York Magazine.
Catsimatidis has served as the chair of the Manhattan Republican Party since 2017.
Catsimatidis' portion of the GOP breaks with the party's national committee on the issue of abortion, she told New York Magazine.
"My belief is, I'm pro-life, but at the same time, as Manhattan GOP chair, I'm doing my best to fulfill the role that represents our Manhattan Republican Party, and our Manhattan Republican Party is pro-choice, all of our candidates are pro-choice, all of our candidates are pro-gay marriage, all of our candidates are very socially liberal," Catsimatidis said in an interview with New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi. "So I feel like I'm acting in the interest of what our constituency is. That's what I'm going to do."
When she's not working with the GOP, Catsimatidis works for Gristedes Foods, according to New York Magazine.
For Catsimatidis, the bikini is "an essential accessory to an artifice she has diligently perfected," New York Magazine's Olivia Nuzzi wrote.
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Catsimatidis' Instagram profile is filled with pictures of her in brightly colored string bikinis.
Catsimatidis received a lot of criticism over the photos after she appeared on CNN in January 2019 to discuss the government shutdown, according to New York Magazine.
"When people want to be mean, they'll just make fun of my appearance because that's the petty default that people have," Catsimatidis told New York Magazine. "They usually tend to complain about my feminine anatomy ... The Democrats started attacking my breasts, and the Republicans were defending them, and then I thought to myself, I didn't realize that my breasts were so partisan."