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David Bonderman. (Photo via NHL.com)
David Bonderman, the billionaire investor and businessman who co-founded private equity firm TPG and was a co-owner of the Seattle Kraken NHL team, died Wednesday at the age of 82.
In a post on the Kraken website, Bonderman was called a devoted father of five and grandfather of three who passed away surrounded by family, leaving behind “a legacy marked by brilliance at every stage of his illustrious career combined with a relentless quest for knowledge and a passion for music, sports, adventure, and conservation.”
Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 27, 1942, Bonderman had numerous ties to the Seattle area.
He got his undergraduate degree in Russian studies at the University of Washington, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1963 before going on to Harvard Law School. Through a donation from Bonderman in 1995, the UW established the Bonderman Travel Fellowship program. The program allows students to “undertake independent international travel to explore, be open to the unexpected, and come to know the world in new ways,” according to its website.
Update: UW President Ana Mari Cauce issued a statement later Wednesday, saying that Bonderman’s impact on the school, its students and the world will be a “lasting and treasured legacy.”
“David Bonderman believed deeply in the power of travel, cultural exchange and learning through lived experience,” Cauce said. “His generous support for these kinds of transformative learning experiences for our students has been life-changing for the recipients of the Bonderman Fellowship, which provides fellows the opportunity to travel the world independently for eight months. In my many talks with David throughout our decades of friendship and collaboration, he was an unwavering champion of education inside and especially outside the classroom.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, part of the Kraken ownership group, also shared a remembrance on X.
I was fortunate to meet David Bonderman a few years ago as he tried to assemble a team to start a hockey franchise in Seattle. It was one of the great pieces of good luck for me over the last 10 years. People probably knew that Bondo (as he was called) was amazingly smart,…— Andy Jassy (@ajassy) December 11, 2024
After Harvard, Bonderman was an assistant professor at Tulane University School of Law before becoming a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division from 1968 to 1969 during the administration of President Lyndon Johnson.
In 1993, he helped found TPG Capital, a private equity giant which eventually grew to nearly $240 billion of assets under management and 28 offices around the world. The company went public in 2022.
TPG, which was an early investor in Spotify and Airbnb, acquired Kirkland, Wash.-based Wave Broadband for $2.36 billion in 2017.
In 2018, Bonderman returned to Seattle Center — where he worked as a security guard at the Space Needle during college — to help lead the effort to build Climate Pledge Arena under the historic Key Arena roof and bring the NHL’s 32nd franchise to the city. The Kraken played their inaugural season in 2021 and are now in their fourth season.
Seattle is also a reported front-runner to land an NBA expansion team in the near future — an effort that would be led by the Kraken ownership group. Bonderman had a minority stake in the Boston Celtics.
Bonderman was a member of more than 80 corporate boards, including Continental Airlines, General Motors, MGM and others. He was also on the boards of The Wilderness Society, World Wildlife Fund and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2017, Bonderman resigned from Uber’s board after making a sexist joke during an all-hands meeting meant to focus on changing the culture at the ride-hailing giant.
Bonderman’s daughter, Samantha Holloway, a onetime tech startup co-founder, rose to co-owner of the Kraken alongside her father, making her one of the few principal female owners of an NHL franchise.
