J. Christopher Flowers

James Christopher Flowers is an American private equity investor and investment manager focused on the financial services industry. He is a Managing Director and CEO of J.C. Flowers & Co., and a member of the firm's Management Committee. Early life and education Flowers was born in California and grew up in Wayland, Massachusetts. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics. Professional career Goldman Sachs Flowers worked at Goldman Sachs for 19 years starting in March 1979, and was a founder of Goldman's financial institutions merger practice in the 1980s. Flowers was named partner in 1988, the same year as former Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain. At 31, he was one of the youngest Goldman Sachs partners in history. Flowers retired from Goldman in 1998, one of fifteen partners to leave the bank prior to its 1998 initial public offering.