James Coulter
Born (1959-12-01) December 1, 1959 (age 64)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
EducationDartmouth College
Stanford University
OccupationCo-founder of Texas Pacific Group
EmployerTPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group)
SpousePenny Saer
Children3

James Coulter (born December 1, 1959) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the co-founder of private equity firm TPG Capital, originally known as the Texas Pacific Group.

Early life and education

Coulter was born on December 1, 1959,[1] and raised in a Methodist family, the son of Shirley (née Nagler) and James W. Coulter.[2][3] His father was a chemical salesman for Chevron.[2] He is a graduate of Shawnee High School in Medford, New Jersey.[4] He graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was also a member of Alpha Chi Alpha. He subsequently earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1986, where he was named an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Career

In 1992, Coulter co-founded the Fort Worth and San Francisco-based private equity firm TPG along with David Bonderman.[5] With 14 offices in 10 countries,[6] the firm is one of the largest globally with approximately $50 billion of assets under management.[7] Prior to co-founding TPG in 1992, Coulter and the other co-founders worked for Robert M. Bass. Coulter joined the Robert M. Bass Group from Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb.

Coulter has been involved in some of the largest leveraged buyout transactions on record including TPG's marquee transaction, the takeover of Continental Airlines in 1993. He has been involved with TPG's investments in America West Airlines, Burger King, Del Monte Foods, J. Crew,[8] Ducati Motor Holding, Gemplus International, MEMC, ON Semiconductor, Oxford Health Plans,[9][10] Petco[11][12] and Seagate Technology.

He is the founder of the Coulter IDEApitch at New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (often referred to as NOEW).[13] Winners of Coulter IDEApitch competition receive a $100,000 investment towards their next round of funding. Winners include Servato, an Industrial Internet of Things technology company (2015 winner);[14] Acrew, a video interviewing HR tech product (2017 winner);[15] and AxoSim, a pharmaceutical research company (2018 winner).[16]

NOEW Coulter IDEApitch Winners
Year Winner Sector
2015 Servato, CEO Chris Mangum Battery Technology
2017 Acrew, CEO Crystal McDonald HR Tech/Technology
2018 AxoSim, CEO Lowry Curley Pharmaceutical

In 2020, Forbes ranked him No. 359 on the Forbes 400 list of the richest people in America.[17]


Memberships

Coulter serves as a member on numerous boards:

Personal life

Coulter is married to Penny Saer from New Orleans.[18][19] They have three children.[20][21]

References

  1. ^ "A conversation with Jim Coulter". McKinsey & Company. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  2. ^ a b "In memoriam - James W. (Jim) Coulter" (PDF). Cornell University. April 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  3. ^ "In Memory of James Coulter". Prudden And Kandt Funeral Home, Inc. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  4. ^ "2016 Investment Returns for Public-Employee Pension Up 7%, Much Better Than in 2015". NJ Spotlight News. 2017-01-26. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  5. ^ Calvey, Mark (March 2, 2003). "Texas Pacific's habit of success". San Francisco Business Times. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  6. ^ a b "James G. Coulter '82". Trustees of Dartmouth College. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  7. ^ Top 50 PE funds from Private equity international Archived 2010-12-14 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Steinhauer, Jennifer (October 18, 1997). "J. Crew Caught in Messy World of Finance as It Sells Majority Stake". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  9. ^ Norris, Floyd (February 25, 1998). "Shake up at a health giant: The rescuers Oxford Investors build in some insurance, in case things don't work out". The New York Times. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  10. ^ "Company News; Profits triple at Oxford; Texas Pacific Buyback Set". The New York Times. October 26, 2000. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  11. ^ "Company News; Management-Led Group To Buy Petco For $505 Million". The New York Times. May 18, 2000. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  12. ^ "2 Equity Firms to Acquire Petco". The New York Times. July 15, 2006. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  13. ^ "James G. Coulter". Bloomberg. Retrieved May 24, 2017.
  14. ^ "Technology to extend battery life wins Coulter IDEAPitch for Servato". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  15. ^ "New Orleans startup's vision for resume-free hiring wins $100,000 Coulter IdeaPitch". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  16. ^ "This New Orleans startup just won $100,000 to help make better drugs against ALS and cancer". NOLA.com. Retrieved 2018-05-16.
  17. ^ "Jim Coulter". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  18. ^ Waller, Mark (March 21, 2013). "New Orleans Entrepreneur Week adds billionaire investor Jim Coulter to Thursday speaker lineup". The Times-Picayune. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  19. ^ "Obituaries Orleans Parish Louisiana: Phyllis Emling Saer". USGenWeb Archives Project. April 2005. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
  20. ^ "Forbes profile: James Coulter". Forbes. Retrieved 8 October 2019.
  21. ^ "Dartmouth Board Elects Three New Charter Trustees". Dartmouth News. June 13, 2011. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
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