Overview
David Bonderman (born November 27, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman. He is the founding partner of TPG Capital (formerly Texas Pacific Group), and its Asian affiliate, Newbridge Capital. He is also one of the minority owners of the NBA's Boston Celtics as well as the co-founder and co-majority owner (along with Jerry Bruckheimer) of the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League. , he has an estimated net worth of US$6.4 billion.
Early life and education
Bonderman was born to a Jewish family, in Los Angeles on November 27, 1942, and was educated there at University High School. Bonderman studied at the University of Washington, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1963, and at Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude in 1966. He was also a member of the Harvard Law Review and a Sheldon Fellow. During his time at Harvard, he traveled to Cairo, Egypt, to study Islamic Legal Jurisprudence and Law, and became proficient in various Islamic legal cliques developing a near-native fluency in Modern Standard Arabic. Bonderman began providing the funding for the Bonderman Travel Fellowship at the University of Washington in 1995 which gives eight undergraduate and six graduate students per year with the opportunity to travel the world independently, with very little structure or regulations. In 2013, Bonderman's daughter, Samantha Holloway, donated the funding to create a similar fellowship at the University of Michigan. While the fellowships share the same name (the Bonderman Fellowship), they vary in both eligibility and execution.
Career
Bonderman was an assistant professor at Tulane University Law School during 1967 and 1968; he then was a special assistant to the United States Attorney General during 1968 and 1969. In 1971, he joined the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., where he became a partner and specialized in corporate, securities, bankruptcy and antitrust litigation. In 1983, he joined the Robert M. Bass Group, Inc. (RMBG), which now does business as Keystone Inc., and became the chief operating officer. Bonderman has been a principal at TPG Capital in Fort Worth, Texas, since December 1992, where he is also co-founder and chairman.
In 2008, Bonderman was named as one of the investors of what became the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
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