US billionaire financier Thomas Lee dies at 78, household say


UNITED STATES – APRIL 29: Thomas Lee, Chairman and Chief Govt Officer of Thomas H. Lee Capital LLC, listens in the course of the 2008 Milken Institute World Convention in Los Angeles, California, United States, Tuesday, April 29, 2008. The annual convention brings collectively scientists, enterprise leaders, philanthropists, journalists, teachers and Nobel laureates to debate at this time’s most urgent social, political and financial challenges, in line with the positioning. Institute web site. (Photograph by Jamie Rector/Bloomberg by way of Getty Pictures)

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US billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee, thought of a pioneer in non-public fairness and leveraged buyouts, has died on the age of 78, his household stated in a press release Thursday, with out specifying the reason for his demise.

The New York Put up, citing unidentified legislation enforcement sources, reported Lee was discovered lifeless Thursday morning in his Fifth Avenue workplace in Manhattan, house of his funding agency, from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

In accordance with the Put up, he was discovered after police responded to a 911 emergency name round 11:10 a.m. (1610 GMT).

Reuters couldn’t instantly affirm the reason for demise. The New York Police Division stated emergency medical providers personnel responding to a 911 name on Fifth Avenue across the time discovered a “man who was pronounced lifeless on the scene.” .

Police gave no additional particulars and stated the town medical expert’s workplace would decide the trigger and circumstances of demise.

The coroner’s workplace couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.

“The household is extraordinarily saddened by Tom’s demise,” Lee’s household stated in a press release. “Our hearts are damaged. We ask that our privateness be revered and that we be allowed to grieve.”

Lee was the founder and chairman of Lee Fairness, which he shaped in 2006, and was beforehand chairman and CEO of Thomas H. Lee Companions, which he based in 1974, in line with a biographical assertion launched by his household.

Over the previous 46 years, Lee has invested greater than $15 billion in capital in lots of of transactions, together with the acquisition and subsequent gross sales of manufacturers resembling Snapple Drinks and Warner Music.

He was often known as a philanthropist and administrator who served on the boards of many organizations together with Lincoln Heart, Museum of Fashionable Artwork, Brandeis College, Harvard College, and Museum of Jewish Heritage.

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