Alan Patricof (born 22 October 1934) is an American investor, one of the early pioneers of the

venture capital Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

and

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...

industries. He founded

Apax Partners Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its ...

(based on a play on Patricof's name: Alan Patricof Associates Cross (x) Border), which is one of the world's

largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (o ...

private equity firm A private equity firm is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of startup or operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including lev ...

Early life and education

Patricof grew up in a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family on the

Upper West Side The Upper West Side (UWS) is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded by Central Park on the east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper West ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, New York City,New York Times: "STRICTLY BUSINESS; A Venture Capitalist and His Politics" By DOUGLAS MARTIN
November 02, 1992 the son of parents who had immigrated from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

to the United States. His father was a small-time stockbroker.CNN Money: "This old guy sure can pick 'em - Fortune's Oliver Ryan looks at how legendary media investor Alan Patricof has found new life in the Big Apple's web startup scene" by Oliver Ryan
September 11, 2007 Patricof graduated from the

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

in 1955, and earned an M.B.A. from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1957 while working full-time as an analyst for an investment firm.

Career

Patricof was assigned the management of the Gottesman pulp and paper fortune. and focused his efforts on the new private companies in the portfolio. In 1967, he invested in '' New York'' magazine, a new publication, where he served as the founding chairman of the board. The magazine proved a success. In 1969, he was able to raise $2.5 million and founded one of the first venture capital firms, Patricof Company Ventures. In 1977, he founded the private equity firm

. By the mid-1990s Apax had become one of the larger

firms globally. In 2001, Patricof stepped back from day-to-day management of the firm, to return to his original focus on venture capital investments in small early-stage companies. In 2006, he left Apax to form

Greycroft Partners Greycroft is an American venture capital firm. It manages over $2 billion in capital with investments in companies such as Bird, Bumble, HuffPost, Goop, Scopely, The RealReal, and Venmo. Greycroft was founded in 2006 by Alan Patricof, Dana Set ...

which focuses on such investments. As an early investor in

he has been involved in the development of numerous major companies including America Online, Office Depot, Cadence Design Systems, Apple Computer and

FORE Systems FORE Systems was a computer network switching equipment company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1990 to supply Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cards for workstation computers, it soon branched out to become a major supplier in the AT ...

. New York magazine later acquired the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

and

New West New West Records is a record label based in Nashville, Tennessee, and Athens, Georgia. It had offices in Burbank, California, and Beverly Hills, California. The label was established in 1998 by Cameron Strang "for artists who perform real musi ...

magazine. Patricof also acquired style magazine Details in 1987. He has also been involved with Cellular Communications, Inc.,

NTL NTL may refer to: Companies * NTL Incorporated and NTL Internet, later Virgin Media, communications media company ** NTL Ireland, later Virgin Media Ireland * Arqiva, UK company formerly ''NTL Broadcast'' and ''National Transcommunications L ...

, and

Audible Audible may refer to: * Audible (service), an online audiobook store * Audible (American football), a tactic used by quarterbacks * ''Audible'' (film), a short documentary film featuring a deaf high school football player * Audible finish or ru ...

. Patricof recently published a memoir
“No Red Lights,”
where he recounts with mild regret how he passed on an opportunity to invest in Starbucks in the 1980s.

Personal life

Patricof has been married twice: * He was married to Bette Patricof Hollander.''The New York Times'': "WEDDINGS; Martha S. Jones, Mark F. Patricof"
July 26, 1992
February 16, 1992. They later divorced. They had one child: **Mark F. Patricof (b. 1964) who is married to Martha Shelburne Jones, a daughter of Anne Shelburne Jones and Bishop Edward Witker Jones, the 9th bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis The Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis, formerly known as the Episcopal Diocese of Indiana, is a diocese in Province V (for the Midwest region) of the Episcopal Church. It encompasses the southern two-thirds of the state of Indiana. Its see is ...

. *His second marriage was to Susan Hatkoff. She is the sister of

Craig Hatkoff Craig M. Hatkoff (born March 19, 1954) is an American real estate investor from New York City. Along with his now ex-wife Jane Rosenthal, and Robert De Niro, he co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Institute in 2002. The ...

. She died in 2021. They have two sons: **

Jamie Patricof Jamie Patricof is a movie and television producer and co-founder of Electric City Entertainment and Hunting Lane Films. Early life Born to Jewish parents, Jamie Patricof is the son of Alan Patricof, the founder of Apax Partners, and Edythe ...

, film and television producer. ** Jonathan Cale Patricof (b. 1973), President of Tribeca Enterprises the company that owns and operates the Tribeca Film Festival. Patricof lives in New York, New York.and Amagansett, NY.

Political and other affiliations

Patricof has been active in

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

politics, contributing to candidates including

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. Patricof was the national finance chairman for Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign. Patricof is a longtime affiliate of

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He served as a senior advisor to 45th U.S. president Donald Trump, his father-in-law. Since leaving the White House, Kushner founded Affinity Partners, a pri ...

, the son-in-law of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...

. Patricof serves on the Board of Overseers of Columbia University Graduate School of Business. he serves as an advisor to the

Grassroots Business Fund The Grassroots Business Fund is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. It has field offices in Kenya, Peru, and India. Their mission is to build and support high-impact enterprises that provide sustainable economic opportunities to tho ...

.Grassroots Business Fund (2011)
Governing Board and Advisors
Retrieved 2016-08-27.

References

External links

*Patricof, Alan
Individual Investors Need Tax Breaks
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...