After graduating from Harvard Business School in 1973, Hill worked in mergers and acquisitions, rising to co-chief executive officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
He became a “steely M&A gladiator who’d been in the thick of some of the most memorable hostile takeover battles of the 1980s, siding with Federated Department Stores in its defense against Robert Campeau and working with Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco, in the fight for control there,” according to “King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone” by Bloomberg News’s David Carey and John E. Morris.
Bespoke Suits
Hill, known for wearing bespoke Paul Stuart suits and a slick, combed-back hairstyle, “dressed the part to perfection,” according to the book. “Rumor had it that Gordon Gekko in the movie ‘‘Wall Street’’ was styled after Tom Hill,” the authors wrote.
He’d also been an architect of some of the most iconic friendly mergers of the age: Bendix Corp.’s $1.8 billion merger with Allied Corp. in 1983, American Stores’ $2.5 billion takeover of Lucky Stores in 1988, and Time Inc.’s $14 billion merger with Warner Communications in 1989.
Hill joined Blackstone in 1993 and has grown Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, which invests in and backs hedge funds, to be the largest allocator in the $2.7 trillion industry.
Good, Great
“As a collector, your first priority is to determine what turns you on,” he said. “What am I passionate about? What is good and what is great? If you’re thinking about an increase in value, you shouldn’t buy it. It’s the wrong reason.”
Initially drawn to Greek and Roman sculpture, the Hills were wary of the provenance and repatriation issues encountered by U.S. museums and private collectors. They decided to go after what they saw as the next best thing: Renaissance and Baroque bronzes.
At the same time, they chose eight post-World War II and contemporary artists -- Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly, Willem de Kooning, Ed Ruscha, Brice Marden, Pablo Picasso, Warhol and Bacon -- to collect in depth. Over the years, they reduced their Picasso holdings and added Lucio Fontana, Mark Grotjahn and Christopher Wool.