Third Way Has PEU Odor

Centrist think tank Third Way has a PEU Board Chair, John L. Vogelstein.  Vogelstein served as President of Warburg Pincus for 34 years.  He's now Chairman of  New Providence Asset Management, LLC and Senior Advisor to Warburg Pincus, LLC.

Also on Third Way's board is David A. Coulter Managing Director and Senior Advisor at Warburg Pincus. 

Third Way's Vice Chair is David B. Heller an ex-Goldman Sachs executive, who started as an equity derivatives trader.  Before he left in 2012 Heller was mentioned as a possible successor to Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein.

Since then Heller put his money to work by investing in the Philadelphia 76'ers.  The team received an $82 million public subsidy from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for a practice facility in Camden, New Jersey.   This gift came after Christie cut funding for policing in crime ridden Camden.

Heller also invested in Standard International, a hotel chain which just paid $1.2 million per room for a NYC hotel.  He sits on the board of Acumen which combines philanthropy with equity/debt investing.  Not only do they teach a man to fish, they loan money to buy the fishing pole and bait. 

Other Third Way board members have these names in their employment, current or past:

Apollo Global Management
Arrowgrass Capital Partners 
BlueCrest Capital Management
BlueMountain Capital Management
Bingham Consulting Group (which helps hedge funds assess political risk)
Bohemian Companies (a group of family-owned real estate and private equity holdings)
Chiron Investment Management LLC
Citadel (a giant hedge fund)
Dyson-Kissner-Moran Corp (a privately owned, diversified investment holding company)
Former partner of Apax Partners & Co. Ventures and Warburg Pincus
Fortress Investment Group LLC
Goldman Sachs
GPS Investment Partners LLC  
J.P. Morgan
Mesirow Financial Holdings Inc
Mesirow Advanced Strategies, Inc. (one of the largest fund of hedge funds in the world)
Millbrook Capital Management
Morgan Stanley
MSD Capital, L.P. (the private investment firm founded by Michael Dell)
Pritzker Innovation Fund

One Third Way board member conducted the first ever leveraged buyout in 1964.  LBO's got rebranded private equity to take away the stain from Michael Milken's junk bond conviction.  Another board member is "one of the country's leading private equity law practitioner."

There's a clear theme running through Third Way.  It's the PEU Way.  The greed and leverage boys have had their way long enough.