According to the New York Post, billionaire investor Thomas H. Lee, 78, died Thursday morning of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his swanky NYC office.
“The family is deeply saddened by Tom’s death. While the world knows him as one of the pioneers of private equity business and a successful businessman, we know him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put the needs of others before his own,” the Lee family said. friend and spokesman Michael Sitrick said in a statement.
“Our hearts are broken. We ask that our privacy be respected and that we be allowed to grieve.
“Lee was good friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and in June 2008, after Hillary’s failed presidential run, the couple reportedly stayed at their East Hampton home.” The Daily Mail reported.
The New York Post reported:
Billionaire financier and investor Thomas H. Lee died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in his Manhattan office Thursday morning, police sources said.
Police responded to a 911 call at 767 Fifth Avenue – where Thomas H. Lee Capital, LLC is on the sixth floor – around 11:10 am, sources said.
EMTs pronounced the 78-year-old businessman dead at the scene.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine the official cause of death.
A front desk worker in Lee’s office building was told there was an “emergency” on the sixth floor, but was unaware of Lee’s death.
“They don’t want anyone going in that place right now, not even the building staff,” the man said.
Lee is credited with being one of the first financiers to buy companies with money borrowed against the purchased business – now known as leveraged buyouts.
The Harvard graduate founded Thomas H. Lee Partners, LP in 1974, serving as the company’s chairman and CEO and its predecessor.