Former First Lady Hillary Clinton paid tribute to billionaire finances Thomas H. Lee at his Manhattan memorial – calling him a ‘constant presence’ in her life.
Her husband and former president Bill Clinton also attended the service at the Lincoln Center for Performing Arts on Monday morning.
Lee, who was once known as the ‘envy of Wall street’, shot himself inside the bathroom of his family office on Fifth Avenue on Thursday, with the city medical examiner ruling his death a suicide.
Bill and Hillary Clinton. (U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Cristian L. Ricardo)
Speaking at the funeral, Hillary said: Tom was a constant presence. We’ve shared births and weddings and anniversaries, state dinners at the White House, lively parties from New York City to Martha’s Vineyard to the Hamptons during good times and tough ones.
‘He would tell you about an interesting person he just met and needed to introduce you to.
‘He’d show you the latest book he was reading, sometimes pressing it into your hands. He would share his latest joke – sometimes not always cleaned up for company.
‘And he would encourage you to eat endlessly eat. Considerate, caring, generous and unpretentious.
‘Bill told me yesterday he never had an uninteresting conversation with Tom Lee.
‘We’re here expressing our gratitude for years as friends, as colleagues and certainly as family members for his long successful life.’
Dr. Mehmet Oz was among the mourners who attended the service, with many wondering why he would have ended his life in the way that he did.
Hollywood actor Luke Wilson was also among the well-known faces leaving Lee’s Manhattan building after the funeral.
His widow, Ann Tenenbaum, shared a somber thought through Lee’s brother-in-law during the service, saying: ‘Let us all remember the amazing years of Tom’s life and not let all that be obscured by one bad moment at the end.’
His brother, Jon Lee, told mourners that Tom was ‘his rock and his pillar’, adding that the family may never know why he chose to end his own life.
Jon said: ‘As we all know Tom left us too early and we will never have an answer.
Lee is pictured golfing with then President Bill Clinton on Martha’s Vineyard in 1999, which was referenced as a place where the couple spent time with the late financier
‘There’s a lot about each other we don’t know. We want everybody to think everything is okay all the time.
‘We owe it to Tom and we owe it to ourselves to talk to each other and not to hide behind walls.
‘So, Tom, you were the master of the universe. In your own quirky way, I know you’re at peace.’
Lee, a married father-of-five and a grandfather of two, was a financial titan who had powerful friends after studying at Harvard.
The Harvard graduate had a net worth of roughly $2 billion at the time of his death, according to Forbes.
According to the New York Post, sources revealed Lee’s assistant made the shocking discovery after she went looking for him when his associates could not contact him.
First responders found Lee lying on his side with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and he was pronounced dead at 11:26am when paramedics’ lifesaving efforts were unsuccessful.
The financier rose to prominence by acquiring midsized companies, restoring their worth, and then selling them for massive profits.
Best known for the sale of Snapple for $1.7 billion in 1992, Lee, left, was famed on Wall Street as a prominent Manhattan financier during a lucrative career
He later transitioned into banking, working for First National Bank of Boston, where he rose to the position of vice president and led the high-tech lending group at the bank.
Almost a decade into his financial career, he started his company Lee Equity in 1974. During this time became credited as one of the early pioneers in private equity and specifically leveraged buyouts.
He was best known for the sale Snapple for $1.7 billion in 1992, which he initially acquired for $135 million. After investing $28 million into the business, he boosted the company’s revenue from $95 million to $750 million a year, before later selling.
His leveraged-buyout deals were legendary in the 1990s – pioneering financial transactions which allowed his company, in some instances, to produce more than 30-fold gains in a matter of years.
He reportedly went by the self-assigned nickname ‘Tomcat’, which he revealed at a 2014 event was because he had ‘nine different lives’.
Lee was known for owning one of the most lucrative homes in East Hampton, New York
Following news of Lee’s suicide, the family’s spokesperson Michael Sitrick released a statement: ‘The family is extremely saddened by Tom’s death.
‘While the world knew him as one of the pioneers in the private equity business and a successful businessman, we knew him as a devoted husband, father, grandfather, sibling, friend and philanthropist who always put others’ needs before his own.
‘Our hearts are broken. We ask that our privacy be respected and that we be allowed to grieve.’
A 1997 Forbes profile described him as ‘that rare thing on Wall Street – a genuinely nice guy.’
Lee was married twice – first to Barbara Fish Lee, in 1968. They had two children, Zach and Robbie, before divorcing in 1995.
He married his second wife Ann Tenenbaum of Savannah, Georgia in 1997 and they had three children: Jesse, Nathan, and Rosalie.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
