Billionaire Wall Street Titan Thomas Lee Dies by Gunshot in Shocking Suicide

By:  Ellen Cans

Billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon, in a shocking suicide.

As reported by the NY Post, the Wall Street titan, nicknamed the “envy of Wall Street” and the “father of leveraged buyouts” in the 1980s and 90’s, was found in his office bathroom with a single gunshot wound to his head and his gun resting near him.  The 78-year-old philanthropist was found by an assistant on the floor of the bathroom in his namesake company’s headquarter office at 767 Fifth Avenue, just after 11 a.m. on Thursday, police sources said.  The assistant had gone looking for Mr. Lee, as he had not been seen for a while.  First responders were rushed to the scene, but they were not able to save him. Lee was pronounced dead at 11:26 a.m. The Smith & Wesson revolver found near him was registered to his name, and the Medical Examiner’s Office ruled on Friday that it was a case of suicide.  There was no note found, and police told the WSJ that the investigation is ongoing.

Lee, a married father of five and a grandfather to two, left behind a coveted success story, having pioneered the leveraged-buyout industry years ago.  The Harvard graduate was also an art collector, and a philanthropist serving on the boards of Lincoln Center, NYU Langone and Warner Music.  Per Forbes, he had a recent estimated net worth of about $2 billion.

In 1974, he had founded one of the first and largest private equity firms in the world—Thomas H. Lee Partners in Boston. Lee was a well-connected financier who had built his fortune, by buying companies using heavy leverage to finance the deals, and selling them for sizeable profits after growing and making improvements to the companies.  Among his most famous deals was his purchase of Snapple in 1992, reselling it just two years later to Quaker Oats for roughly 32 times the price he had bought it for, making a profit of roughly $900 million on a deal which started with a $30 million price tag. He had plenty of investors lined up to fund his ventures, so that he famously put down just 10 percent of the buyout money and had the businesses borrow the rest in a leveraged buyout, reaping legendary returns.  For many years, New York state’s pension fund had been Lee’s biggest fund investor.

In 2005, Lee had split with his longtime partners, leaving Scott Sperling to take over leadership at Thomas H. Lee Partners.  Lee moved on to found NY-based rival named Lee Equity Partners in 2006.  As per the Post, in recent years, though Lee still had a successful company he was raising substantially less from investors than he had been accustomed to in his prime.

In a statement, Scott Sperling said THL was “profoundly saddened by the unexpected passing of our good friend and former partner, Thomas Lee.  “Tom was an iconic figure in private equity. He helped pioneer an industry and mentored generations of young professionals who followed in his footsteps.”

Lee is survived by his wife Ann Tenebaum and five children.

Authorities urge anyone struggling with suicidal thoughts or going through a mental health crisis to call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling in NYC.  For residents living outside the five boroughs, please call the 24/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or visit SuicidePreventionLifeline.org.