Stanley Golder
Stanley C. Golder | |
|---|---|
| Born | Template:Birth date |
| Died | January 5, 2000 (aged 70) |
| Occupation(s) | Financier, venture capital expert |
| Known for | Founding Golder, Thoma & Cressey (GTCR); leadership in private equity at First Chicago Corp. |
Stanley C. Golder (February 16, 1929 – January 5, 2000) was a prominent American financier and venture capital expert. The Stanley C. Golder Center for the Study of Private Equity at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign—his alma mater where he earned his B.S. degree in 1951—is named in his honor.
Career
Golder launched his professional journey with First National Bank of Chicago and its related entities, eventually attaining the role of executive vice president. In the early 1970s, he assumed leadership as president of both First Capital Corporation of Chicago and First Chicago Investment Corporation.
Throughout the 1970s, he was instrumental in establishing the private equity division at First Chicago Corp., which notably invested in Federal Express. As chairman of the National Venture Capital Association and the National Association of Small Business Investment Companies, he championed regulatory reforms that permitted pension funds to allocate capital to private equity. This advocacy played a key role in the 1978 adjustment by the US Labor Department, easing ERISA constraints via the "prudent man rule" to allow risk management across investment portfolios.
In 1980, Golder departed from First Chicago to create the private equity firm "Golder, Thoma & Cressey" (which later became GTCR), initially backed financially by William M. Blair. Although he stepped down as partner in 1993, he continued contributing as a consultant. His successor at First Chicago, John A. Canning Jr., went on to establish a competing Chicago-based private equity firm, Madison Dearborn.
Personal
Stanley Golder was married to Joan Jacobi Golder.
He held the position of president for the Chicago chapter of the American Jewish Committee, and in 1994, both Stanley and Joan Golder were honored with the Human Rights Medallion from this organization.
Among their charitable endeavors was a $1.5 million donation to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, which funded the Stanley C. and Joan J. Golder Distinguished Chair in Corporate Finance.
Stanley Golder passed away due to cancer at Evanston Hospital.