Linde was born to a
Jewish family 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 and graduated in 1962. In 1964, he graduated from
Harvard Business School and went to work for
Cabot, Cabot & Forbes 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. In Boston, Linde was responsible for properties such as the office towers at
28 State Street and
One Boston Place. Perhaps his most prominent contribution to the city was the
Prudential Center, where he helped transform a disjointed area into a retail mecca. 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.{{cite web ==Philanthropy==