Warren Hellman
F. Warren Hellman (July 25, 1934 – December 18, 2011) was an American billionaire investment banker and private equity investor, the co-founder of private equity firm Hellman & Friedman.[1] Hellman also co-founded Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates, today known as Matrix Partners. He started and funded the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.[2] Hellman died on December 18, 2011, of complications from his treatment for leukemia.[3]
Warren Hellman
July 25, 1934
December 18, 2011 (aged 77)
United States
University of California, Berkeley (BA, 1955)
Harvard University (MBA, 1959)
Private equity, Investment banking (prior)
Founder of Hellman & Friedman, Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates (today Matrix Partners)
Patricia Christina Sander
Marco Hellman
Frances Hellman
Judith Hellman
Patricia Hellman Gibbs
Ruth Koshland
Marco Hellman
Isaias W. Hellman (great-grandfather)
Early life and education[edit]
Frederick Warren Hellman was born to a Jewish family[4][5] in New York and spent his early childhood in Manhattan.[6] The son of Ruth (née Koshland)[7] and Marco "Mick" Hellman,[6] he was the great-grandson of banker and philanthropist Isaias W. Hellman.[8] During World War II, his family moved to Vacaville, California, where his father served as a Major in the Army and his mother worked as a Women Airforce Service Pilot, flying military planes from aircraft factories to bases.[6] After the war, they moved to San Francisco, where he graduated from Lowell High School. In 1951, he enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he played for the school's water polo team and majored in economics, graduating in 1955. In 1959, he graduated with an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.[6]
Career[edit]
After school, he worked in investment banking at Lehman Brothers becoming a partner at age 28, the youngest in the firm's history.[9][7] In 1973, he was named president and head of investment banking[7] and also head of the Investment Banking Division and Chairman of Lehman Corporation. In 1977, he moved to Boston and co-founded with Paul J. Ferri a venture capital firm, Hellman, Ferri Investment Associates (later renamed Matrix Partners), an early-stage investor in SanDisk and Apple.[6] In 1984, he moved back to San Francisco and co-founded the buyout firm, Hellman & Friedman with Tully Friedman where he served as chairman of the firm as well as a member of the Firm's Investment and Compensation Committees.[10]
Hellman & Friedman's strategy was to buy companies heavy on intellectual capital (typically financial services or software companies) and light on physical assets (such as manufacturers) with strong cash flows that needed operational improvements.[6] In 1995, the firm purchased Levi Strauss & Co. from 250 family shareholders and consolidated it among four men including Hellman and then-CEO Robert D. Haas.[6] The company reduced its debt and improved its earnings.
Other affiliations[edit]
Hellman served in the U.S. Army from 1955 through 1957.[16]
An avid skier, Hellman co-founded Stratton Mountain School in 1972. As a supporter of the then U.S. Ski Educational Foundation, Hellman served both as a trustee and president of the U.S. Ski Team from the late ’70s to mid-’80s. Hellman won the national championship in Ride and Tie racing (in his age category) five times and competed in the western States Endurance Run, a 100 mile ultramarathon.[17]
Hellman was the Chair of the Board of Trustees for Mills College from 1982–1992, and as a result of protests reversed the college's decision to go co-ed in 1990.[18]
Hellman was a Director of D.N.& E. Walter & Co. and Sugar Bowl Corporation. He was also a member of the advisory board of the Haas School of Business at Berkeley. In 1997, he was inducted into the American Academy of Achievement.[19][20] In 2005, Hellman was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Hellman and latterly the Hellman Trust Foundation is the primary sponsor and provided funding for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass music festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park.[21][22][23] In 2011, Speedway Meadow was renamed Hellman Hollow to honor his history of philanthropy and civic involvement in San Francisco.[24]
Hellman was a donor and supporter of Jewish Vocational Services (JVS), a nonprofit organization that helps people transform their lives through work.
Hellman was the Chairman of the Board of The Bay Citizen, a non-profit news organization focusing on the San Francisco Bay Area. The Bay Citizen was founded with a $5 million contribution from the Hellman Family Foundation.[25]
He formerly served as a Director of numerous portfolio companies, including Eller Media Company, Nasdaq Stock Market and Young & Rubicam.