Ted Ammon

Robert Theodore Ammon (August 30, 1949 – October 20, 2001) was an American financier and investment banker.

Ted Ammon was born to Robert E. Ammon, a pension coordinator from Shenango Furnace Co., Neville Island and Betty Lee Morris, a homemaker, on August 30, 1949, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ted graduated from Bucknell University.

He entered the Bank of America's executive-training program following his graduation from Bucknell.

His first wife, Randee Day, was also a member of the program.

They married in 1973 and moved to England.

Ted passed the New York bar the first time, without taking a law-school class.

After the Ammons moved back to the United States, he secured a position with Lord, Day and Lord.

He went to work at the law firm of Mayer, Brown and Platt.

One of this firm's clients was the then small investment firm of Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. (KKR).

In 1983, following his legal work on a KKR deal (and his divorce from his first wife), Ammon was recruited by the private equity firm, which specialized in leveraged buyouts.

Ammon served as an associate at Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co. from 1984 to 1989 and as a general partner from 1990 to 1992.

He worked on many deals, notably the famous $31 billion RJ Reynolds/Nabisco takeover.

He joined his colleagues in becoming a multimillionaire and was quoted numerous times in the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco.

Ammon and his wife had married on February 2, 1986, and had two children, the twins Greg Ammon and Alexa Ammon, whom they adopted from the village of Medvedivtsi in the Mukachevo Region of Ukraine in October 1992.

At the time of the murder, the couple were near finalization of their divorce.

They married in 1986 and adopted a twin boy and girl from Ukraine, whom they named Greg and Alexa.

Ammon's marriage turned hostile after Generosa found a receipt for a divorce lawyer in his desk.

In 1992, Ammon left KKR in order to establish his company Big Flower Press.

The firm became a leader in the printing of advertising inserts for newspapers.

Ammon's goal was to create relationships with newspapers nationwide and then to provide them with other needed commodities.

Big Flower was later renamed Vertis Holdings, Inc. Through more than 30 acquisitions, the firm diversified geographically and became a leading international supplier of integrated marketing services, including high-value printing, advertising, and imaging technology.

Vertis went public in 1995; in 1999, it was acquired by a group of investors, including Ammon, in a private leveraged recapitalization.

Ammon served as chief executive officer from the company's inception until April 1997 and as chairman of the board from the company's formation through December 2000.

With Vertis facing dramatically changing market conditions (e.g., a high debt multiple and a slowing pace of acquisitions), a mutually advantageous separation/payout agreement was worked out between Vertis and Ammon.

During his time at Vertis, Ammon had put together a "deal team" and venture capital program, managing an in-house venture business.

He also had set up several holding companies, which held the vast share of his ownership interests.

These ventures directly invested in both public and non-public companies and in such general areas as technology, media, marketing and management services, and the internet.

The specific fields of these companies included print and digital technology, diagnostic radiology, long-distance telephone service, and biopharmaceutical innovation.

After leaving Vertis, Ammon oversaw his team's venture capital investments through the entities that he had established.

Much of the money that Vertis had paid to Ammon provided seed money for his investments.

Two of the most profitable investments were in Moore Corporation Limited, a Vertis competitor, and National Imaging Associates, Inc., a provider of health care services.

While working as a real estate agent, Generosa met Ted Ammon when she called him after he failed to keep an appointment for an apartment she was to show him.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he was murdered in his home in 2001 by electrician Daniel Pelosi, who was convicted in 2004.

Ammon and his wife Generosa Ammon were in the midst of a divorce at the time of his death, and Daniel Pelosi was later romantically linked to Ammon's soon-to-be ex-wife.

The custody agreement had been signed on October 18, 2001, and the divorce settlement was expected to be consented to the following week.

They were days from finalizing their divorce when, on October 22, 2001, he was found stunned then bludgeoned to death in his weekend home in East Hampton.

Because their divorce was not finalized and Ammon's will had not been changed, Generosa inherited 50 percent of his estate, in accordance with the will, with the balance going to the Ammon Foundation.

Four months after Ted's death, Generosa married Daniel Pelosi on January 15, 2002; she died of cancer on August 22, 2003.

Russ Baker in the May 2002 issue of Gotham said "He was along for the wild ride as KKR grew into one of Wall Street's most aggressive and storied leveraged buyout outfits."