Nathan has been an advisor to Rockefeller family office. He developed his reputation as a leading investment executive over the course of his 30-year career, during which he has built a top tier investment track record making direct investments; and restructuring companies and investments across varied asset classes. Over the past 20 years, he has also become known for his effectiveness in working with some of the world's leading business families.
From helping the Garza Sada family of Mexico after the peso's dramatic devaluation in 1994 to advising the family of Julian Robertson, founder and Chairman of Tiger Management, Nathan has demonstrated a unique hands-on approach to improving investment performance. In both instances, he restructured the families' private business investments in very diverse environments: Latin America for the Garza Sada family and New Zealand for the Robertson family. Nathan has also used his skills in managing complex investment situations for the family of Geoffrey Kent, founder and Chairman of Abercrombie & Kent where the focus was the Middle East and Africa; the Boston based DeMoulas family, founders of Market Basket Supermarkets, where the task was obtaining liquidity for the family; Michael Dell's family office in its participation with Derek Jeter acquiring the Miami Marlins baseball team; and family members of Sir Isaac Wolfson, founder of GUS plc (which included Burberry and Experian) make direct investments.
An important part of Nathan's career was working with Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen from 1999-2004. Beginning as an outside advisor, Nathan was recruited by Paul Allen to lead a complete reorganization of his multi-billion dollar portfolio. To facilitate that process, Nathan formed Vulcan Capital which emphasized cash flow and intrinsic value. While directing Vulcan Capital and restructuring an investment portfolio with over 125 direct investments, Nathan built an institutional-quality, multi-asset class team of approximately 20 members.
Under Nathan's leadership, his team made numerous investments which created a return of approximately $2 billion and multiple transactions which recovered approximately $2 billion of value. Key companies restructured include Charter Communications, DreamWorks SKG, TechTV, The Sporting News, Digeo, and RCN. In addition to serving as Board Chairman of The Sporting News and Board Member of Oxygen Media, TechTV and Digeo, Nathan headed the Investment Committee and served on the President's Council with CEOs and Presidents of companies controlled by Paul Allen. Nathan also was a key member of strategy teams for Microsoft, Charter Communications and DreamWorks SKG.
Nathan's success with the investment portfolio led to further executive oversight and reorganization of all non-investment activities within Vulcan, Inc., Paul Allen's 500-person family office for technology R&D, philanthropy, real estate development and his personal holdings. These holdings included the Seattle Seahawks, Portland Trailblazers, Experience Music Project Museum, The Hospital Club (London), FlipStart mini PC and Interval Research. Active in the successful launches of the Allen Brain Atlas and Science Fiction Museum, Nathan is credited with improving company culture by instilling disciplined investment practices in all Vulcan business and philanthropic activities.
During much of the 1990s, Nathan spent considerable time working on investments in Latin America, including establishing and managing a private equity fund for the Garza Sada family through Bancomer, a major Latin American bank controlled by the family. As Managing Partner, Nathan improved investment performance by integrating U.S. business practices into a foreign culture and did so as the only non-Latin American member of the Management Team and Investment Committee. He also recruited and worked closely with Dale Hanson, former CEO of CalPERS, as Chairman of the Fund's Advisory Board.
During his early Wall Street career, Nathan spent eight years in Investment Banking focusing on Mergers & Acquisitions, Merchant Banking and Restructurings at Lehman Brothers and Smith Barney, where he advised some of the world's leading companies. At Lehman Brothers, he was chosen to help form the firm's first private equity and venture capital funds.
Nathan holds an MBA from Kellogg Business School as part of a condensed JD/MBA program at Northwestern University. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Florida State University.