James Coulter (financier)
James Coulter | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 1, 1959 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, private equity investor |
| Known for | Co-founder of TPG Inc. |
James Coulter (born December 1, 1959) is a prominent American billionaire entrepreneur and co-founder of the private equity firm TPG Inc., which was initially named the Texas Pacific Group.
Early life and education
Coulter entered the world in Buffalo, New York, as the son of Shirley (née Nagler) and James W. Coulter, who worked as a chemical sales representative for Chevron. He completed his secondary education at Shawnee High School located in Medford, New Jersey, before graduating summa cum laude from Dartmouth College, where he was affiliated with Alpha Chi Alpha. He later obtained an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1986, earning distinction as an Arjay Miller Scholar.
Career
In 1992, Coulter partnered with David Bonderman to establish TPG, launching offices in Fort Worth and San Francisco. Between 2014 and 2021, he shared the role of co-CEO with Jon Winkelried, after which he transitioned to executive chairman and took charge of TPG's climate investment efforts as Managing Partner of TPG Rise Climate. The firm went public on NASDAQ under the symbol “TPG” in January 2022.
Prior to founding TPG, Coulter gained experience at Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb and worked alongside Robert M. Bass. He has overseen some of the most significant leveraged buyouts in history, notably TPG’s pivotal acquisition of Continental Airlines in 1993. His investment portfolio encompasses companies such as America West Airlines, Burger King, Del Monte Foods, J. Crew, Ducati Motor Holding, Gemplus International, MEMC Electronic Materials, ON Semiconductor, Oxford Health Plans, Petco, and Seagate Technology.
Coulter initiated the Coulter IDEApitch during New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW), providing $100,000 funding awards to startups including Servato (2015), Acrew (2017), and AxoSim (2018).
In 2020, Forbes placed him at No. 359 on its Forbes 400 ranking of the wealthiest Americans.
Memberships
Coulter holds board memberships across various organizations including:
- Creative Artists Agency
- IMS Health
- Vincraft Group
- Board of Trustees of Dartmouth College
- Stanford University board of trustees
- Common Sense Media
- San Francisco University High School
- America West Holdings
- Northwest Airlines
- Oxford Health Plans Inc.
- Genesis Health Ventures Inc.
- Virata Corporation
- San Francisco Zoological Society
- Bay Area Discovery Museum
- San Francisco Day School
Personal life
He is married to Penny Saer from New Orleans, and together they have three children.