Joseph L. Rice III (born 1932) is an American businessman. He is a co-founder of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world.
Joseph L. Rice III was born in 1932.[1] He graduated from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts in 1954.[2] [3] [4] [5] From 1954 to 1957, he served as a Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.[4] He returned to school, and received a J.D. from the Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1960.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
He joined the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell in 1960, where he practiced law until 1966.[4] He then worked at Laird Inc., an investment banking firm, from 1966 to 1969.[4] That year, in 1969, he founded Gibbons, Green & Rice.[4]
In 1978, together with Martin H. Dubilier and Eugene Clayton, he co-founded Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private equity firm headquartered in New York City.[5] [6] In 2012, he announced he would step down as Chairman.[6] The new Chairman is Donald J. Gogel.[2] He currently serves as Executive-in-Residence at the Columbia Business School.[4]
He is a former trustee of his alma mater, Williams College.[2] [5] He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution.[2] [5] He co-founded the Private Capital Research Institute.[2] Additionally, he sits on the board of directors of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation.[2]
He is married to Franci J. Blassberg.[7] They have a daughter, Lee Ann. Mr. Rice has two children by a prior marriage, Kimberley Rice Kaestner and Daniel Spence Rice.