Early life

Bolling was born in Chicago and graduated grade school from Queen of All Saints Basilica followed by high school at Loyola Academy. In 1984, he graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida with a BA degree in economics, and was awarded a fellowship to Duke University's School of Public Policy. He was drafted in the 22nd round of the 1984 Major League Baseball Draft by the Pittsburgh Pirates and was assigned to their affiliate in the rookie-level Gulf Coast League. His baseball career was cut short by a torn rotator cuff injury.

Career

Bolling was a commodities trader on the New York Mercantile Exchange. He specialized in trading natural gas, crude oil, gold, and other commodities.

After serving five years on the board of directors at the NYMEX (now CME Group), Bolling became a strategic adviser to the exchange's board of directors. He was included in Trader Monthly's Top 100 in 2005 and 2006. Bolling was the recipient of the Maybach Man of the Year Award at the Trader Monthly Awards, January 17, 2007.

Bolling was involved in developing CNBC's Fast Money. Bolling left CNBC in August 2007 and moved to the new Fox Business Network as one of the network's financial analysts. He hosted the business show Happy Hour, which ran opposite Fast Money in the 5 p.m. time slot.

In June 2011, Bolling was involved in a racially charged controversy. In an on-air incident, Bolling was mocking President Barack Obama's decision to meet with Gabon's President Ali Bongo Ondimba in the White House. Bolling remarked, "Guess who's coming to dinner? A dictator." He then went on to also criticize Obama for allowing rapper Common to appear in the White House a few weeks before, exclaiming "it's not the first time he's had a hoodlum in the hizzouse." Progressive group Media Matters immediately criticized Bolling, saying "Calling the president of Gabon and Common 'hoods in the hizzy' is not colorful commentary, it is overt racism." Bolling at first defended himself on Twitter claiming that people were baselessly accusing him because he worked for Fox News. However, he eventually apologized for the comments he made, saying, "On Friday, we did a story about the President meeting with the president of Gabon. We got a little fast and loose with the language, and we know it's been interpreted as being disrespectful, and for that, I'm sorry."

Bolling serves as a host of The Five on the Fox News Channel, a roundtable discussion of the top political and cultural stories of the day. Bolling and then co-host political pundit Bob Beckel were known to take strong opposing positions on issues, positions that lead to heated exchanges. The two, however, have developed a mutual respect and friendship, and Bolling perhaps saved Beckel's life in 2011 when he performed the Heimlich maneuver on him at a local restaurant. Bolling also serves as guest host on many of the most popular Fox News opinion shows such as: The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, Fox & Friends, and previously The Glenn Beck Show.

On a 2014 broadcast of The Five, Bolling jokingly asked if the mission of Maj. Mariam al-Mansouri, a female pilot from the United Arab Emirates who led attacks against ISIS in Syria, qualified as "boobs on the ground." Bolling apologised for his remarks, saying that he "got the look" from his wife after his comments were aired. On the broadcast the following day, he said: "I said sorry to my wife and I apologize to all of you as well and I just want to make that very clear."

In a Fox Nation blog post published on February 5, 2015, Bolling claimed that "radical Muslim jihadists killed thousands of people. Last month!" while "zero" were killed in the name of Christianity, Judaism and Scientology.

Personal life

Bolling and his wife Adrienne have one son, Eric Chase. Bolling is Catholic.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]