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Who

Gleacher is chairman of Gleacher Partners, a boutique M&A advisory firm that has advised on over $200 billion of transactions.

Backstory

A U.S. Marine officer for three years in the 1960s, Eric Gleacher has done a tour of duty at some of Wall Street's most prominent firms. Starting out at Lehman, where he founded the mergers and acquisitions department in 1978 (before he was eventually canned by Pete Peterson), he went on to head up the global M&A group at Morgan Stanley from 1985 to 1990. In 1990, the year The Wall Street Journal called him "one of Wall Street's biggest takeover stars," he founded Gleacher Partners. In 1996, he sold his firm to National Westminster Bank. After a messy brawl with his corporate parent, he bought it back in 1999 for $135 million.

Of note

At Morgan Stanley, Gleacher was involved in some of the biggest deals of the day. He advised Henry Kravis and KKR in its purchase of RJR Nabisco, helped defend Texaco from financier Carl Icahn, and advised Ron Perelman on his acquisition of Revlon. He keeps a much lower profile these days, but he's worked on a handful of big deals over the past few years. Gleacher Partners advised Ted Forstmann on his acquisition of talent agency International Management Group in 2004, Pepsico on its sale of its casual dining restaurant division, and United Defense Industries on its sale to BAE Systems for $4.2 billion. Gleacher isn't quite the center of attention he was during the 1980s, when he advising on just about every other hostile takeover, but like Bob Greenhill or Joe Perella (who both crossed paths with Gleacher at Morgan Stanley), he's a venerated advisor to many a CEO.

Pet cause

A golf star in his youth—he won a junior championship in the '50s and attended Northwestern on a golf scholarship—Gleacher donated $6.1 million to Northwestern in 1999 to create an indoor golf facility and endow the budgets of the men's and women's golf teams. (He also made a $1 million gift to Western Illinois University to help it expand its golf course from 9 to 18 holes.) Gleacher is also active with the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business where he serves as a trustee along with Jon Winkelried, among others. He donated $15 million to the school in 1996.

Family ties

Gleacher's nephews, Jay and Shep Wainwright, founded the Cosi sandwich chain in 1996. Gleacher invested in the company, and roped in Henry Kravis to invest as well. The Wainwrights have since sold their stake in the company.

Personal

Gleacher has been married and divorced twice, and has six children: John, Sarah, Jimmy, Jay, Patsy and Willy. He lives on East 74th Street and has homes in Wainscott and Palm Beach.