Richard C. Perry

Richard Cayne Perry (born 1955)^[1] is an American hedge-fund manager whose firm Perry Capital LLC has invested in several companies and, since 2012, owns a controlling interest in Barneys New York.

Biography

Perry's mother, Merel, who, for a time ran a small import business, is sister to former Bear Stearns C.E.O. James Cayne. His father, Arnold, ran several firms; two were a book publisher and a business-machine company.^[2][1] When Richard Perry was age 13, his parents divorced.^[1]

He attended the Allen-Stevenson School all-boys' private grade school in Manhattan and then high school at the Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1973.^[3]

Perry received a B.S. degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1977. While at Penn his father cut off funds, forcing him to become a movie-theater usher at night. He was eventually promoted to the chain manager.^[1] After a summer internship he was hired by Goldman Sachs on an equity options trading desk. During this time, Perry earned a MBA at night from NYU's Business School.

He soon moved to the famed equity-arbitrage desk at Goldman Sachs run by Robert Rubin. During this time he was Rubin's teaching assistant at NYU Stern and even babysat Rubin's children.^[4][5] He eventually left to form Perry Capital in 1988.

Perry's first major investment was Florists' Transworld Delivery (FTD), which Perry Capital acquired in 1994 for $130 million. Among his actions was installing Meg Whitman as the C.E.O. In 2004, he sold his stake in the company for $450 million.^[1]

In 2005, he was among the investors providing a loan of $512 million for Malcolm Glazer to purchase British football team Manchester United.^[1]

In May 2012, Perry's firm acquired ownership of Barneys. Perry was the store's biggest creditor and in the takeover reduced Barneys's $590 million debt to $50 million. It will have three seats on the seven-member board of directors, including former majority owner Istithmar World, new investor Yucaipa Companies, and Barneys's current C.E.O. Mark Lee.^[6]

Perry is an ardent supporter of Democratic Party-associated causes, institutions, and people, including President Obama. He, with his wife and fashion designer Lisa Perry, resides in a remodeled 17-room townhouse on New York City's Sutton Place. He purchased the property in 2000 for $10.9 million, $4 million below its listed price. The domicile is filled with some of the best examples of Pop art, which have inspired the clothing style of his wife.^[1]

Perry serves as a board member of the Israel Project and in 2010 co-hosted along with Seth Klarman an event for Ziad Asali, the founder and president of the American Task Force on Palestine.^[7]

Personal life

In 1985, he married Lisa Rachel Newberger in a Jewish ceremony in Manhattan.^[8]

References