Michael Chu (private equity investor)


J. Michael Chu is an American private equity manager who has served as the global co-chief executive officer of L Catterton since 1989.

Early life and education

Chu graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1980 with a B.A. in psychology and economics, where he was a member of the Board of Trustees from 1995 to 2013.

Career

Chu held a variety of senior financial management positions with The First Pacific Company, a Hong Kong publicly listed investment and management company which he joined in early 1983. He founded Catterton-Simon Partners in 1982 with Frank Vest and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon. In 2015, Catterton Partners took on as minor partners Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Groupe Arnault (the family office of Bernard Arnault, bringing together $12 billion in assets as L Catterton. In May 2018, his firm was listed as the 31st largest private equity firm in the world, based on capital raised over the prior five years.

Personal life

Chu is married to Elizabeth Kalperis Chu and they have two grown children.

Honors