US Billionaire Thomas Lee Dies By Suicide In Office
According to a New York Times article, American millionaire Thomas Lee committed suicide on Thursday at the age of 78 in his Manhattan office. Lee was regarded as a pioneer of leveraged buyouts and private equity investing. In response to an emergency 911 call, police arrived at the businessman's Fifth Avenue Manhattan office, the main location of his investment firm, on Thursday morning about 11:10 a.m. The source stated that attempts to save Mr. Lee's life were futile and that he passed away from "a self-inflicted gunshot wound." He was discovered by a female assistant in his office on the restroom floor. As she hadn't heard from him since the morning, she went to look for him. Also, they discovered Mr. Lee "laying on his side with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head" when they arrived on the scene. The family is deeply devastated by Tom's passing, according to Michael Sitrick, a close family friend and representative for Thomas Lee. While the world knew him as a great businessman and one of the industry's forerunners, we knew him as a dedicated husband, father, grandpa, sibling, friend, and philanthropist who always placed the needs of others before his own.Prior to founding Lee Equity in 2006, Thomas Lee was the company's founder and chairman of Thomas H. Lee Partners, which he established in 1974. He was a trustee and benefactor for a number of organisations, including the Museum of Jewish History, Brandeis University, the Museum of Modern Art, and Harvard University. The millionaire was in charge of investing more than $15 billion over the previous 46 years in hundreds of transactions, including the acquisition and later sales of well-known firms like Warner Music and Snapple Beverages. He is said to have been one of the first financiers to purchase firms using debt secured by the company. The phrase for it currently is a "leveraged buyout."
