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Well-known businessman Thomas H. Lee was recently discovered dead at his office with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was found at around 11 am and was confirmed dead on the spot.
A 911 call was made to emergency medical service personnel from the Fifth Avenue Manhattan office related to a male found dead. On behalf of Lee's family, his spokesperson Michael Sitrick said:
"The family is extremely saddened by Tom's death. While the world knew him as one of the pioneers in the private equity business and a successful businessman, we knew him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put others' needs before his own."
Thomas is survived by his wife, Ann Tenenbaum, and his five children.
Thomas H. Lee's estimated net worth was around $2 billion
Thomas H. Lee became a popular name in recent years as the founder of Thomas H. Lee Partners and Lee Equity Partners. His career as a businessman helped him accumulate a lot of wealth over the years and according to CelebrityNetWorth, his net worth was estimated to be around $2 billion.
He founded Thomas H. Lee Partners with an amount of $150,000 as an investment. The company eventually began to acquire companies like Akron and Snapple Beverages. The price of the first deal was estimated to be around $28 million.
Snapple Beverages was sold for $1.7 billion to Quaker Oats in 1994 and Lee earned profits of around $900 million as a result of that deal. Quaker Oats later sold Snapple Beverages for $300 million. THL then invested in a financial services company called Refco, which was popular as a broker of commodities and futures contracts.
Following his resignation from THL in 2006, Thomas founded Lee Equity Partners and the members were famous retailers like Mark Gormley, David Morrison, Allen Questorm, and Neiman Marcus.
Thomas was also a trustee for several institutions like Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Cardozo Law School at Yeshiva University, Harvard University, NYU Medical Center, Museum of Jewish Heritage, and others. He made donations worth millions to Harvard University and the Roden Crater project.
At the beginning of his career, Thomas was an analyst at the New York-based merchant and investment banking firm, L.F. Rothschild. He then joined the First National Bank of Boston in 1966 and was promoted to vice president in 1973.
