US non-public fairness billionaire Thomas H. Lee dies on the age of 78

Thomas H. Lee, a billionaire financier who ran a few of the non-public fairness trade’s most profitable offers throughout its early rise within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, has died on the age of 78.

In 1974, Lee based Thomas H. Lee Companions, a boutique funding agency that perfected the early artwork of leveraged buyouts and have become one of many trade’s largest firms within the mid-Nineteen Nineties after a sequence of profitable offers highlighted by the acquisition of beverage firm Snapple grew up .

By the mid-2000s, Lee had turn into one of many wealthiest non-public fairness traders within the US, and his Boston-based agency was one of many trade’s largest by belongings, managing greater than $12 billion and a prolific dealmaker in a increase huge takeovers like Dunkin Manufacturers and the media scores group Nielsen.

In late 2005, Lee left his eponymous agency, now THL, to discovered a New York-based non-public fairness agency known as Lee Fairness Companions, which targeted on mid-market buyouts, of which he was most lately Chairman. The group manages $3 billion in capital and a portfolio of personal fairness investments in monetary providers, healthcare and enterprise providers. In accordance with Forbes, his web price was estimated at $2 billion on the time of his dying.

“We’re deeply saddened by the surprising passing of our good good friend and former accomplice Thomas H. Lee,” THL stated in a press launch late Thursday. “Tom was an icon in non-public fairness. He pioneered an trade and mentored generations of younger professionals who adopted in his footsteps.”

The son of an government on the Shoe Firm of America, as soon as the maker of Clark’s footwear, Lee grew up within the Boston space and graduated from Harvard Faculty in 1965 earlier than turning into a securities analyst in LF Rothschild’s analysis division.

Within the late Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies, he lower his early stint as Director of Expertise Lending at First Nationwide Financial institution of Boston earlier than founding his personal agency, which targeted on company acquisitions, then often known as “bootstrap” offers , since they usually resorted to debt financing firms.

After discovering success within the Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, Lee turned an influential philanthropist and avid artwork collector, serving as a trustee at cultural establishments comparable to Lincoln Heart, the Museum of Trendy Artwork, the Whitney Museum of American Artwork, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage.

He was additionally a prolific benefactor to his alma mater, Harvard, Brandeis College, and the Cardozo Faculty of Legislation at Yeshiva College, amongst others.

“The household is deeply saddened by Tom’s passing,” stated Mike Sitrick, a spokesman and household good friend. “Our hearts are damaged. We ask that our privateness be revered and that we could mourn.”

Supply