Celtics Owners Use Financial Background In Team's Management

Wyc Grousbeck (2nd from l) Celebrating After Celtics Victory In Eastern Conference Finals

Bain Capital Managing Dir Stephen Pagliuca and venture capitalist Wyc Grousbeck and his father, Irving Grousbeck, acquired the Celtics in '02 for $360M and then "sold off pieces of the team, working their network of elite contacts built up over decades," according to Peter Lattman of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. The Celtics are the team the "finance guys built." Each of the ownership syndicate's 25 members "made his fortune in private equity, venture capital or hedge funds." The various owners, who spent an "average of $10[M] each, dubbed themselves Banner 17, a show of their ambitions for the Celtics 17th NBA title." They are a "motley bunch, sometimes competing directly against one another for deals." The group applies "private-equity techniques to the team," and a "key investment tenet [is] hire good managers, and stand by them in good times and bad" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/31). The following is a list of financiers who comprise the Celtics ownership group.

CELTICS OWNERSHIP GROUP
FINANCIER	COMPANY
Wyc Grousbeck	Highland Capital
Stephen Pagliuca	Bain Capital Partners
Irving Grousbeck	Stanford Business School
Paul Edgerley	Bain Capital Partners
Glenn Hutchins	Silver Lake Partners
James Pallotta	Tudor Investment
Dominic Ferrante	Brookside Capital
David Bonderman	TPG
John Connaughton	Bain Capital Partners
Joseph Lacob	Kleiner Perkins
Jonathan Lavine	Sankaty Advisors
Richard Aldrich	RA Capital
Jim Breyer	Accel Partners
David Roux	Silver Lake Partners
William Helman	Greylock Partners