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Lawyer-turned-private equity pioneer David Bonderman has died at the age of 82.
In the early 1990s, Bonderman co-founded Texas Pacific Group and led the acquisition of Continental Airlines. The deal cemented his status as a turnaround tycoon, placing him in the ranks of swashbuckling financiers like Henry Kravis and Stephen Schwarzman who were bold enough to acquire some of America’s biggest companies.
Bonderman entered the world of high-stakes acquisitions via an unconventional route in his 40s, after first making a name for himself legally and as a protectionist.
Among his legal achievements, Bonderman defended stock analyst Raymond Dirks, who was accused of insider trading in 1973, ultimately winning an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The 1983 ruling went on to become a landmark ruling in U.S. securities law.
After graduating from Washington University and Harvard Law School and spending time studying in Egypt, Bonderman’s legal career included working at the U.S. Department of Justice and then for several years at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arnold & Porter.
He then went to Texas to work for Robert Bass. The oilman met Bonderman through his pro bono work as a preservationist lawyer, successfully petitioning against the demolition of New York’s Grand Central Terminal, an artistic masterpiece.
At the family office in Bath, Bonderman works closely with junior colleague Jim Coulter. The pair led the rescue of Continental, a deal that formed the precursor to TPG, a now publicly traded private capital group with nearly $250 billion in assets under management.
In 1992, the airline was on the verge of bankruptcy, which became a proving ground for Bonderman and Coulter to prove that they understood finances and how to run a complex business that needed better management.
The two founded TPG that year and quickly set off a wave of large-scale, highly leveraged corporate acquisitions, making it a force on Wall Street.
Bonderman and Coulter took TPG public in 2022 and have since doubled its assets, putting the group back into the top echelons of the industry.
“David is an internationalist, which means he has a very broad view of the world,” Coulter told the Financial Times in an interview. “For example, he brought TPG to Asia. He appreciates all types of people and personalities and has a wide range of relationships.
“What we do today still very much reflects David’s spirit,” Coulter added, pointing to TPG’s sizable climate investing business.
Bonderman is considered one of America’s largest conservationists, having invested millions of dollars to protect natural wildlife as a board member of The Wilderness Society, WWF, American Himalayan Foundation and the Grand Canyon Trust.
In his later years, Bonderman invested in sports, buying a minority stake in the Boston Celtics basketball team, bringing the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken to his hometown and building the Climate Pledge Arena.
TPG calls Bonderman a “private equity pioneer, legal scholar, conservationist and global citizen.”
