| Thomas A. Saunders III | |
| Birth Date: | 1 June 1936 |
| Birth Place: | Ivor, Virginia, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Nationality: | American |
| Known For: | Wall Street innovator, investment banker, philanthropist, Chairman of The Heritage Foundation, winner of the National Humanities Medal. |
| Education: | University of Virginia (MBA) |
| Party: | Republican |
| Spouse: | Jordan (Horner) Saunders |
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.
Morgan Stanley
Saunders was a leader and innovator during a golden era on Wall Street. In his more than 20 years at Morgan Stanley, he served as Partner, Managing Director, Head of its Syndicate Department, and Chairman of Morgan Stanley’s multi-billion dollar Leveraged Equity Fund II.
Saunders ran the biggest domestic and international equity financings of the day. He led the IPOs for US clients including AT&T, GE, IBM, DuPont, Exxon, General Motors, and Apple as well as public offerings for many leading international corporations, including British Petroleum, Hitachi, Reuters, Sony, and Volvo.
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.
SKM co-owned Dollar Tree with the founders of the company. Other SKM retail companies included: Hibbett Sporting Goods, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, Bob’s Discount Furniture, Marie Callender’s, Café Rio, Mimi’s Café, Miller’s Ale House, The Children’s Place, Rue21, Charlotte Russe, Tommy Bahama, Hat World, and Targus.
Corporate Board Service
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 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.
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.
Saunders made transformative contributions to the University of Virginia, across the College of Arts and Sciences, Darden Business School, the Nursing School, and Jefferson Scholars. He endowed a number of named professorships and served as Chairman of Darden where he donated the lead gift for Saunders Hall, the main building of Darden's grounds.
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 was Vice President of the VMI Board of Visitors, Trustee of the VMI Foundation, long-time Member of the Jackson Hope Fund Board of Overseers, Member of the VMI Reveille Capital Campaign Executive Committee, founding donor to the Peay Endowment for Academic Excellence, a major donor to the scholarship pool designated for the first class of women at VMI, and a principal supporter of the College Orientation Workshop.
He also served as Chairman of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello). In 2004, Saunders’ speedy negotiation and equity facilitated the purchase of Montalto, the mountain adjacent to Monticello, and permanently spared this important vista from future development. He was a founding donor in the effort to preserve and digitize the retirement papers of Thomas Jefferson, and he gave the Saunders Bridge and Saunders-Monticello Trail which are broadly enjoyed by the community.
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.
In 1961, Saunders married Mary Jordan Horner, daughter of Rebecca Shepherd Horner and Marine Corps General, Matthew C. Horner. The couple lived in Richmond, Charlottesville, and Milwaukee before settling in New York City and Locust Valley Long Island to raise their two children.
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]
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.
1967 Samuel Forrest Hyde Award, Virginia Darden Graduate School highest student honor.