David Bonderman 1942 – 2024

At Bass Group, David quickly gained a reputation for taking on groundbreaking deals and often difficult deals.

At Bass, David also met Jim Coulter, his business and investing partner for more than 38 years. In 1992 they left Bass and made a bold attempt to take Continental Airlines out of bankruptcy.

Following this successful bid, David, Jim and Bill Price founded TPG in 1993. The $66 million investment in Continental ultimately returned a tenfold return and was a sign of TPG’s differentiated investment approach.

TPG has always reflected David’s unique and versatile style – not afraid of risk, willing to take on financial restructuring and operational complexity, and always looking for the support of strong leadership. And perhaps above all with a strong culture of openness and collaboration. David once said about the origins and culture of TPG: “We grew out of a family business. We had no senior staff who had ever worked in the world of investment banking, and that gave us a different perspective and a different cultural positioning. They have a different view of risk. “They have a different perspective on life and it has allowed us to do things that other people haven’t done.” Together, David, Jim and their partners transformed TPG from a three-person investment office into a publicly traded global alternative asset manager with assets under management nearly $240 billion and 28 offices around the world.

Over his years at TPG, David’s innovative thinking put him at the center of several major industry transformations – from restructuring the airline and banking industries to leading massive waves of investment in technology and healthcare. David built an astonishingly broad and diverse investment record and was the architect of some of the most high-profile, complex and innovative transactions in private equity history. During David’s career, there were few industries that he did not touch and explore. He was a valued leader in the business world and served on more than 80 different corporate boards: from Continental to Ryanair, from General Motors (at the request of the US government) to Ducati, from Kite Pharmaceutical to Oxford Health, from MGM to Univision and from from Korea First Bank to Fairmont Raffles. David was valued for his keen judgment, sharp wit, and inability to tolerate confusion.

Despite David’s success, he never changed. He remained curious and constantly met with young entrepreneurs to learn more about their ideas. And he had extraordinary interests and pursuits that took him around the world, making friends in business, sports, music, philanthropy, the environment, conservation and science.

David was rarely the loudest person in the room, but often the smartest. He remained humble, once saying that his personal strength was “not knowing much about something, but knowing enough to make a sensible decision.”

Although David was best known for his business acumen, he was quietly passionate about a number of causes, particularly those related to environmental protection, education and health care.