Leonard I. Green | |
Birth Date: | 1934 |
Birth Place: | United States |
Death Date: | 2002 (aged 68) |
Death Place: | Venice, Italy |
Occupation: | businessman |
Spouse: | Jude Risk Green (divorced) |
Known For: | founder of leveraged buyout firm Leonard Green & Partners |
Children: | 2 |
Leonard I. Green (1934 - 2002) was an American businessman who was the founding partner of leveraged buyout firm Leonard Green & Partners and chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Opera.
Green was raised in Philadelphia, to a Jewish family. In 1955, he earned a B.A. in economics from Cornell University and in 1956, graduated with an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Graduate School.[1] In 1965, he received a law degree from Loyola University in Chicago.[2]
In 1969, Green co-founded the New York investment banking partnership, Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen, which specialized in management-led, non-hostile leveraged buyouts. In 1980, he moved to California and opened a branch office. In 1989, he left Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen and founded Leonard Green & Partners based in Los Angeles. In 1992, Green's firm paid $40 million for Thrifty Drugs and in 1994, they purchased Payless Drugs for $1.2 billion, merging the two companies to form the largest drugstore chain in the Western U.S. with more than 1,080 outlets, Thrifty Payless.[3] In April 1996, Thrifty Payless went public and then in October 1996, it was sold to Rite Aid for $2.3 billion netting Green's firm a $420 million profit. Other companies that the firm acquired while Green was chairman were Carr-Gottstein Foods Co., Australian Resources Limited, and Big 5 Sporting Goods.[4]
In 1986, Green became a founding director of Los Angeles Opera serving as its president and chief executive from 1998 to 2001. He personally donated $2 million to the opera and was credited with recruiting Plácido Domingo as artistic director. Green was also a member of the board of the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
Green was married three times. In 1995, Green married his third wife, Jude Green, a physical therapist from Michigan; they divorced in 2000.[5] Green has two children: daughter Suzanne and son Steven.
Green died in 2002.[1]