Hamilton E. James

Businessman

Birthday February 3, 1951

Birth Sign Aquarius

Birthplace Wyandotte, Michigan, U.S.

Age 73 years old

Nationality United States

#51479 Most Popular

1951

Hamilton Evans "Tony" James (born February 3, 1951) is an American billionaire investment banker.

He is the former president, chief operating officer, and executive vice chairman of Blackstone, a New York–based global asset management firm.

1973

James then attended Harvard College, where he was a John Harvard Scholar, and graduated magna cum laude in 1973.

1975

He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1975, where he was a Baker Scholar.

In 1975, James joined investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) and became head of its global mergers and acquisitions group in 1982.

1985

He founded DLJ Merchant Banking, Inc in 1985.

1988

James has been a Costco board director since 1988 and has been its lead independent director since 2005.

In December 2021, James announced his retirement from Blackstone Inc. and opened a family company, Jefferson River Capital.

James became a Democratic donor and fundraiser for Barack Obama.

1995

In 1995, James was appointed chairman of the firm's banking group, a position he held when DLJ was acquired in 2000 by Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and was a member of its board of directors.

James served on the CSFB executive board and as chairman of global investment banking and private equity.

2002

In 2002, James joined Blackstone Inc, a global alternative asset managing firm, taking the post of president and COO.

He also served on the firm's executive and management committees, and its board of directors.

He organised the initial public offer that took the company public, and also managed the acquisition of GSO, its credit business, worth 178 billion dollars, and its secondaries arm, Strategic Partners.

He also helped establish Blackstone's Tactical Opportunities section, which grew to have assets worth 34 billion dollars.

Under James, Blackstone grew to an investment giant with $731 billion in assets.

2007

Blackstone and James's name arose in a 2007 corporate collusion case, along with fellow private equity giants Bain Capital and Carlyle Group.

These three rival firms were accused of colluding with each other to drive down the prices of takeover targets.

The three firms agreed to pay a combined $325 million to settle the lawsuit, without admitting wrongdoing.

James also created a private equity trade group to lobby in Washington.

It was initially called the Private Equity Council, but was later renamed the American Investment Council.

2010

James joined the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum in 2010, and became the chairman of the museum's finance committee in 2014.

2012

In May 2012, James hosted a fundraiser at his home in New York for Obama which raised more than $2 million for the president's reelection campaign.

Obama offered James the job of Commerce Secretary but he ultimately turned it down.

2014

Since 2014, James has served as a member of the board of the Center for American Progress (CAP), a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization.

In 2023, James was appointed by President Biden to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.

2015

In 2015, James was appointed to the Port Authority Board of Commissioners.

Critics pointed out his lack of experience with transportation issues, and charged that Blackstone had recently purchased half of fellow commissioner Scott Rechler’s New York real estate portfolio.

2016

In 2016, James co-authored a book, Rescuing Retirement, with Teresa Ghilarducci.

2017

James has been chairman of the multinational retail chain Costco from August 2017.

Since 2021, he has been co-chair of the board of trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

As of March 2024, Forbes estimated his net worth at US$4.2 billion.

James is the son of Hamilton Renson James and Waleska James.

He grew up as the oldest of four boys in Lincoln, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

His father was a management consultant, president of Arthur D. Little International, and a vice president of Arthur D. Little, Inc.

James attended The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut.

In August 2017, James was appointed chairman of the multinational retail chain Costco after the death of its co-founder and long-time chairman Jeffrey Brotman.

2020

In 2020 he held a fundraiser for the presidential campaign of Joe Biden, which raised over two million dollars.

In 2020, as the museum struggled with a revenue loss of 150 million dollars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, James was named co-chair of the board of trustees, sharing the leadership with attorney Candace Beinecke, beginning in January 2021.

This was the first time the museum has had two chairpersons.