Mr. Hellman grew up in San Francisco and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, where he played varsity water polo. After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1959, he joined Lehman Brothers, where his uncle, Frederick L. Ehrman, was a senior executive and later chairman.
An aggressive dealmaker at Lehman, Mr. Hellman earned the nickname Hurricane Hellman. At 26, he became the youngest partner in the firm’s history, and in 1973, at 39, president
After leaving Lehman in 1977, Mr. Hellman moved to Boston, where he helped start two investment firms: Hellman, Jordan, a manager of stock portfolios; and a venture capital fund that invested in start-up technology companies. That fund, now called Matrix Partners, was an early backer of Apple Computer.
After moving back to San Francisco, Mr. Hellman and Tully Friedman, an investment banker at Salomon Brothers, started Hellman & Friedman in 1984. He said he had set out to build a firm that did the exact opposite of Lehman, which he described as nasty and corrosive.
With Hellman & Friedman he orchestrated its buyout of Levi Strauss as well as its investments in the Nasdaq and the advertising company Young & Rubicam. Today the firm’s holdings include the media companies Getty Images and Nielsen.
Mr. Hellman’s wife of 56 years, Chris, survives him, as do four children, Mick, Tricia Gibbs, Frances Hellman and Judith Hellman; 12 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. « less
Business Positions
Hellman and Friedman LLC
Private equity firm founded in 1984 by Warren Hellman...
Shorenstein Company
Real estate investment firm
Lehman Brothers
formerly the 4th largest investment bank in the USA (before 2008...
Other Positions & Memberships
Brookings Institution
Major Washington think tank
Committee on Jobs
Association representing San Francisco's 40 largest employers
Education
Donation/Grant Recipients
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Dianne Feinstein
US Senator from California
Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Nancy Pelosi
US Representative from California
Howard Lawrence Berman
US Representative from California
Tom Campbell
US Representative from California
