At Bass Group, David quickly earned a reputation for undertaking groundbreaking deals and often difficult turnarounds.
It was also in Bath that David met Jim Coulter, his business and investment partner for over 38 years. In 1992, they left Bass and made a bold bid to buy bankrupt Continental Airlines.
In 1993, following a successful acquisition, David, Jim and Bill Price founded TPG. The $66 million investment in Continental resulted in a 10x profit, reflecting TPG’s differentiated investment approach.
TPG has always reflected David’s unique and eclectic style – fearless of risk, willing to take on financial restructuring and operational complexity, and always seeking to support strong executives. Perhaps most importantly, have a unique culture of openness and collaboration. When talking about the composition and culture of TPG, David said: “We are a family business. We don’t have any senior people who have worked in the investment banking world, which gives us a different perspective on things and a different cultural positioning. What do you think about Risk has a different perspective. You have a different perspective on life, and that allowed us to do things that no one else had done. Together, David, Jim, and their partners transformed TPG from a three-person investment office into a publicly traded global alternative asset manager. The company manages nearly $240 billion in assets and has 28 offices worldwide.
During his years at TPG, David’s innovative thinking has placed him at the center of several large industry transformations – from restructuring aviation and banking to leading waves of massive investments in technology and healthcare. David has built an astonishingly broad and diverse investment resume and is the architect of some of the most notable, complex and innovative transactions in private equity history. Throughout David’s career, there was almost no industry that he had not been exposed to and explored. He is a key leader in the business world, serving on the boards of more than 80 different companies: from Continental Airlines to Ryanair, from General Motors (at the request of the US government) to Ducati, from Kite Pharmaceuticals to Oxford Health, from From MGM to Univision, from Korea First Bank to Fairmont Raffles Hotel. David was valued for his sound judgment, sharp intelligence, and ability not to be confused.
Despite David’s success, he never changed. He remains curious and continues to meet with young entrepreneurs to understand their ideas. He has an extraordinary range of interests and pursuits that have taken him around the world and forged friendships in business, sport, music, charity, the environment, conservation and academia.
Rarely the loudest person in the room but often the smartest, David remained humble and once said that his personal strength was “knowing not much about something, but knowing enough to make the right decision” .
Although David is primarily known for his business acumen, he is privately a passionate advocate for a range of causes, particularly those related to environmental protection, education and healthcare.
