Billionaire investor and financier Thomas H. Lee has passed away, according to a statement published Thursday by family spokesman Michael Sitrick. He was 78 years old.
Sitrick declined to comment on the cause of death.
The New York Post, citing police sources, reported that Lee was found inside his Manhattan office on Fifth Avenue with self-inflicted gunshot wounds. According to the report, police responded to an emergency call at around 11:10 a.m. from 767 Fifth Avenue. Insiders could not confirm the Post’s reporting.
A spokesperson for the New York Police Department said in a statement to Insider that police responded to a call from Fifth Avenue, “within the limits of the Midtown North Precinct,” and emergency medical services pronounced a male dead at the scene. The spokesperson did not confirm the identity of the person.
“The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) will determine the cause of death. The investigation is ongoing at this time,” an NYPD spokesperson wrote in an email.
Lee founded his namesake private equity firm, Thomas H. Lee Partners, in 1974, which focused on leveraged buyouts and the purchase of mid-sized companies.
According to The New York Times, Lee started the firm with $150,000 he inherited and a loan from his brother.
In one of its most notable acquisitions, Thomas H. Lee Partners bought Snapple for $135 million and two years later sold it to Quaker Oats for $1.7 billion, The Times reported.
“He was a pioneer and lion of the private equity and leveraged buyout industries, with the purchase and subsequent sale of Snapple Beverages and Warner Music among his many successful transactions,” his family wrote in a statement.
According to the family, “Over the past 46 years, Mr. Lee has been responsible for investing more than $15 billion in capital across hundreds of transactions.”
Lee stepped down from Thomas H. Lee Partners, then a $12 billion firm, in 2006 and formed Lee Equity that year.