TPG’s Post

Transcript

Life is serendipitous. You should do something that you like. You should do something that you're good at because it's serendipitous. You get opportunities. You gotta know when to seize them and when not, as opposed to planning everything in advance. Our partner, David Bonderman was a legendary investor and an innovative leader in alternative assets. While the cornerstone of David's legacy will undoubtedly be TPG, he'll also be remembered for his broad role as an investing pioneer. So there's no formula. Sometimes you're attractive because it's a great business and it's undervalued. Sometimes you're attractive because it's not a very good business, but the price is right. It's about being curious enough to figure it out. David launched his investing career in the 1980s at the Robert M Bass Group before he and I went on to found TPG in the early 1990s. And the first fundraise we did for TPG, our tagline was contrarianism, complexity and change. And I think those lines of problem solving and different approach. Really were what David brought to the business in the early days. He quickly earned a reputation for taking on groundbreaking deals and difficult turnarounds. We came out of a family business. All of us did. We don't have any senior people who spend anytime in the investment banking world. That gave us a different outlook on things and different cultural positioning, David's innovative thinking landed him at the center of several large industry transformations, from airlines to banking to technology and healthcare. These deals raised the profile and visibility of TPG in the early days of the private equity industry. They also became the foundation of TPG's theme oriented investing expertise. Deals like Oxford Health help create and cement our leadership position in healthcare investing. MEMC springboarded us into technology investing. Continental, Ducati and Beringer were mainstay brands in a portfolio of highly regarded consumer companies. David personally led the firm's emergence as an early and leading Participant in Asian private equity. After we started the firm in 1993 and 1994, we opened up our first office outside of the United States in Shanghai. It's the only office we've ever had that had a shower and a bathtub. He was a valued leader broadly in the business world. David served on more than 80 diverse corporate and philanthropic boards, from Continental to Ryanair, from Korea First Bank to Fairmont Raffles, from the Wilderness Society to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He brought a rock'n'roll attitude to an industry more accustomed to a classical music style. It was colorful in so many ways, most notably in his legendary socks and his keen wit. He has an incredible humility. An insatiable curiosity. Rick. Rick. My mother's not in the audience. We can stop this. I'm not stopping. And David never took himself for an interview too seriously. Give us one idea to make us some money here. No, thank you. Even his nickname, Bondo, became a signature, a signature which expressed an unexpected informality and a subtle statement of individuality. So far the questions are great. Almost done. His long love at the Pacific Northwest led him to the rebuilding of what has now become the Climate Pledge Arena. There he established the NHL Seattle Kraken. Seattle is a great city that deserves hockey franchise, and the time is right for that. Kraken fans, David Bonderman loved this community, he loved you. Let's give him a standing ovation. David always knew the firm was bigger than himself. He was intentional about instilling a sustainable culture, a culture of creative problem solving, unique perspectives and deep relationships. For me, most interesting thing is learning new things. We will miss David terribly, but the style he brought to the industry and to TPG resonates today and will continue to resonate well into the future.