Thomas A. Saunders III (June 1, 1936 - September 9, 2022) was a Wall Street innovator, nationally recognized conservative leader, and philanthropist. He was a longtime Partner and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and founder of the private equity firm, Saunders, Karp & Megrue. Saunders was also Chairman of The Heritage Foundation and a joint recipient, with his wife Jordan, of the National Humanities Medal for his non-profit service and philanthropy in the realms of public policy, higher education, historic preservation, and the arts.
Thomas A. Saunders III was born in 1936 in Ivor, a town of 300 people in tidewater Virginia. His father, Thomas A. Saunders Jr. was a timber farmer and merchant and his mother, Ruth Lee Claud Saunders was an elementary school teacher. Saunders first foray into business was delivering newspapers, and by age 12, he had the largest route in Norfolk.
After graduating from Maury High School, where he was a strong student and good athlete, Saunders accepted admission to the Virginia Military Institute where he played basketball and majored in electrical engineering. He credited VMI with instilling him with honor, a strong work ethic, and decorum, as well as giving him a life-long appreciation of America, its military, and its history.
Saunders was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army and promoted to Captain before entering his first private sector job in the Research Division of Allis Chalmers’ Space and Defense Sciences Group in Washington D.C. where he helped supply fuel cells to NASA’s Apollo program and to the US Air Force manned orbital laboratory.
After receiving a full scholarship to business school, Saunders decided to attend Darden at the University of Virginia, where he earned the highest student award. He graduated in 1967 with several offers at top New York investment banks. He chose Morgan Stanley and moved to New York City.
His legacy and innovation are still evident in today's equity markets. He pioneered applying the Green Shoe provision to big IPOs to meet high demand without putting additional capital at risk and using SEC Rule 415 shelf registration to streamline offerings. Saunders was also the first to use simultaneous offerings which permitted concurrent investment participation in the world's biggest stock exchanges.
Following the breakup of the Bell System in 1982, Saunders led the advisory team that determined how AT&T spun off its local telephone services into the seven regional bell operating companies—at that time, it was the largest restructuring in history. He also ran the privatizations of British Telecommunications and British Petroleum for the Thatcher Government in mid-1980s and played a key role in the US Government's privatization of Conrail.
Capitalizing on the deep relationships he had with pension, corporate and sovereign wealth funds, Saunders became Chairman of Morgan Stanley’s Merchant Banking Unit and raised Morgan Stanley Leveraged Equity II $2.2Bn fund following MSLE I which raised just $50 million.
Saunders Karp & Megrue
In 1990, Saunders founded private equity firm Saunders Karp & Megrue, LLC (“SKM”), where he drove investment and valuation analysis to maximize equity value across SKM’s multi-billion-dollar portfolio of over 50 retail, industrial and healthcare companies located throughout the United States.
Saunders became a Director of Dollar Tree, Inc. when it went public in 1993 and served as its Lead Independent Director from 2007-2019. He was a Director of Hibbett Sports and of Teavana Holdings, which was sold to Starbucks in 2012. He was also Lead Director of the private bio-medical sensor company, VitalConnect.
Political activity
Political Engagement
Saunders was a conservative leader who embraced and promoted capitalism and free market solutions. He espoused the values of Thomas Jefferson—individual rights, personal responsibility, limited government, and belief in the common man. Saunders founded a joint candidate committee which raised significant funds in support of federal Republican candidates’ campaigns over eight election cycles.
Heritage Foundation Chairman
From 2009-2018, Saunders served as Chairman of The Heritage Foundation, the country's leading conservative think tank and was its Chairman Emeritus until his death in 2022. During his Chairmanship, Saunders was instrumental in the formation of the conservative policy advocacy group, Heritage Action, and in trebling the organization’s membership. In 2018 he was awarded the institution's highest honor, the Clare Boothe Luce Award.
Philanthropy
Despite living most of his life in New York City, Saunders’ Virginian roots were important to him, and much of his philanthropy was focused on Virginia.
While serving on the University's Board of Visitors, Saunders spearheaded the effort to move the management of the University's endowment away from the Commonwealth of Virginia's political appointees and funding restrictions by creating and serving as board member of the independent, self-appointing University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO). Saunders’ push for "privatization" was hugely unpopular at the time, but ultimately his gift for persuasiveness prevailed
Saunders established the Saunders Family Endowment for Constitutional History at the New-York Historical Society. He was Trustee and Vice Chairman of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a world-renowned molecular biology and genetics research institute. Saunders was a Trustee of the Marine Corps University Foundation, where, in honor of Jordan Saunders’ father, the Saunders established the Major General Matthew C. Horner Chair of Military Theory at the Marine Corps University. Saunders served on many other boards including the Board of Directors for the American Civil War Museum, on the Executive Committee of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and as a Steering Committee Member for the Jamestown 400th Commemoration.
Saunders was known for his insatiable curiosity and studied architecture, flora and fauna, astronomy, ornithology, and genetics. He was a passionate runner, biker, skilled sailor, serious hiker, tennis player, and world traveler.
The Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection of 17th-and-18th-century art is on long-term loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at Richmond and can be seen in the Elegance and Wonder galleries there.[1]
Awards
2018 Clare Boothe Luce Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Heritage Foundation to individuals who make major contributions to advancing the conservative movement.
2008 National Humanities Medal, President George W. Bush presented the National Humanities Medal to Thomas and Jordan Saunders—its first joint recipients— for the Saunders contributions to advancing the humanities.
2008 Major General John H. Russel Leadership Award, the Marine Corps University Foundation bestows this honor to a distinguished American whose commitment to personal and professional excellence embodies leadership and character.
2007 History Makers Award, co-recipient with historian David McCullough, this award was bestowed by The New-York Historical Society for contributions to his profession and his enrichment of the lives of others.
2005 Darden School’s Charles C. Abbott Award-Saunders was bestowed the school’s highest alumni honor for transformative contributions to the advancement of the business school.
2004 VMI Distinguished Service Award—the VMI Foundation conferred its highest honor to Mr. Saunders to recognize his excellence and dedication in service to the Virginia Military Institute.
The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his Academical Village, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The original governing Board of Visitors included three U.S. presidents: Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, the latter as sitting president of the United States at the time of its foundation. As its first two rectors, Presidents Jefferson and Madison played key roles in the university's foundation, with Jefferson designing both the original courses of study and the university's architecture. Located within its historic 1,135-acre central campus, the university is composed of eight undergraduate and three professional schools: the School of Law, the Darden School of Business, and the School of Medicine.
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a female enslaved person with one-quarter African ancestry who was enslaved by president of the United States Thomas Jefferson, one of many he inherited from his father-in-law, John Wayles.
The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) is a public senior military college in Lexington, Virginia. It was founded in 1839 as America's first state military college and is the oldest public senior military college in the United States. In keeping with its founding principles and unlike any other senior military college in the United States, VMI enrolls cadets only and awards bachelor's degrees exclusively. The institute grants degrees in 14 disciplines in engineering, science, and the liberal arts.
The Darden School of Business is the graduate business school of the University of Virginia, a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. The school offers MBA, PhD, and Executive Education programs.
Josiah Bunting III is an American educator. He has been a military officer, college president, and an author and speaker on education and Western culture. Bunting is married and has four adult children. His half-brother is Dick Ebersol, the creator and former executive producer of Saturday Night Live; Ebersol and Bunting have the same mother.
Philip J. Purcell is an American businessman. Purcell is a former chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, where he worked in the late 1990s and 2000s. He was previously chairman and CEO of Dean Witter, Discover and managed the firm under its ownership by Sears, Roebuck & Co. He subsequently became head of Continental Investors, a private equity firm that invests in Internet-enabled financial services and consumer companies.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Architecture recognizes individuals for distinguished contributions to the field of architecture. The Medal in Architecture has been jointly awarded each year by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello and the University of Virginia School of Architecture since 1966. Along with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Citizen Leadership, and the Thomas Jefferson Medal in Global Innovation, the awards are the highest external honors bestowed by the University, which grants no honorary degrees.
Robert Hilton Smith was an American builder-developer and philanthropist. After taking over his father's real estate development business, Smith developed much of the Crystal City neighborhood, just south of Washington, D.C.
Jefferson Monroe Levy was a three-term U.S. Congressman from New York, a leader of the New York Democratic Party, and a renowned real estate and stock speculator.
Uriah Phillips Levy was a naval officer, real estate investor, and philanthropist. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the first Jewish Commodore of the United States Navy. He was instrumental in helping to end the Navy's practice of flogging, and during his half-century-long service prevailed against the antisemitism he faced among some of his fellow naval officers.
William Earl Kennard is an American attorney and former government official. Kennard served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton, and was the first African American to lead the agency. In 2009, Kennard was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as Ambassador to the European Union, serving until 2013.
Madison Hemings was the son of Sally Hemings and, most likely, Thomas Jefferson. He was the third of Sally Hemings’ four children to survive to adulthood. Born into slavery, according to partus sequitur ventrem, Hemings grew up on Jefferson's Monticello plantation, where his mother was also enslaved. After some light duties as a young boy, Hemings became a carpenter and fine woodwork apprentice at around age 14 and worked in the joiner's shop until he was about 21. He learned to play the violin and was able to earn money by growing cabbages. Jefferson died in 1826, after which Sally Hemings was "given her time" by Jefferson's surviving daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.
George Washington "Buddy" Darden III is an American politician and lawyer from Georgia. He served in the state house and then for more than five terms as Congressman from Georgia. He served in his career as a legislator as a member of the Democratic Party.
David Mark Rubenstein is an American lawyer, businessman, and philanthropist. A former government official, he is a co-founder and co-chairman of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm based in Washington, D.C. Rubenstein is also the principal owner of the Baltimore Orioles of Major League Baseball (MLB), acquiring them in 2024 for $1.7 billion.
Ayers Saint Gross, Architects and Planners is an architectural firm in Maryland, U.S. specializing in master plans and building designs for higher education institutions. The firm is described as maintaining “a narrower focus on college and university work than any other in the country.”
Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and law professor. She is currently the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University and a professor of history in the university's Faculty of Arts & Sciences. She is formerly the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard University and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Gordon-Reed is noted for changing scholarship on Thomas Jefferson regarding his relationship with Sally Hemings and her children.
Glenn Hogan Hutchins is an American businessman and investor. He is a private equity investor focused on the technology sector, chairman and co-founder of North Island, and co-founder of Silver Lake Partners.
Thomas Richard Nides is an American banker and government official who served as the United States ambassador to Israel from December 2021 to July 2023. From 2013 to 2021, he was the managing director and vice-chairman of Morgan Stanley, serving as a member of the firm's management and operating committee. Nides was previously appointed the deputy secretary of state for management and resources from 2011 to 2013 during the Obama administration. He has served in various financial and governmental roles throughout his life.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, originally known as the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation founded in 1923 to purchase and maintain Monticello, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. The Foundation's initial focus was on architectural preservation, with the goal of restoring Monticello as close to its original appearance as possible. It has since grown to include other historic and cultural pursuits and programs such as its Annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. It also publishes and provides a center for scholarship on Jefferson and his era.
In a unanimous vote on July 1, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Virginia, established a new city holiday, Liberation and Freedom Day, to be celebrated on March 3. Union Army troops, under the command of Major General Philip Sheridan, arrived in Charlottesville on March 3, 1865, liberating over 14,000 enslaved workers. "Blacks were the majority race in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area." In the 1870 Census, the first one in which Charlottesville appears, its population was 2,838.
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