Wing commander

The American chairman of Ryanair, Mr David Bonderman, continues to intrigue financial pundits by the dazzling variety of his investment portfolio - from airlines and motorcycles to wine and cinemas. But he also intrigues the media with his ability to shun unwanted publicity.

Enquiries to his investment vehicle, Texas Pacific Group (TPG), in Fort Worth are firmly referred to his public relations man in New York, Mr Owen Blicksilver and his Principal Communications company. And he says straightaway: "David doesn't give profiles".

But in America you cannot buy into a bankrupt airline losing billions of dollars and in three years turn it into the country's fifth largest, making record profits, without attracting attention. Mr Bonderman emerged from relative obscurity when he did just that with Continental Airlines in 1993.

The wider world wanted to know who was this whiz kid from Texas who transformed an airline that had been twice in the bankruptcy court. Pinning him down is not easy.

The official Bonderman CV comprises just two paragraphs but compresses a lot of information about what he has done since he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1966 with the distinguished grade of magna cum laude.

Personal details are deliberately left out. But he grew up in Los Angeles where his parents still live. He has homes in Fort Worth and Washington D.C. but travels so much that he does not see much of them.

He is married with two very young children and he often takes his family with him as he flies around the world. When not travelling, the family lives in Washington where Mr Bonderman tries to spend weekends with them when he can.

Journalists hungry for colour linger on the fascinating detail that the Bonderman collection of rock and roll 45s is vast and the Rolling Stones are prized. It is even said that he can sing all the lyrics and that he can throw the occasional "wild party".

His clothes also attract the attention of the frustrated profile writers. Several reporters lucky enough to meet him have commented on his "flamboyant dress" or "rumpled appearance". One colleague has conceded that his suits are "expensive but not well orchestrated".

The savvy Mr Blicksilver demurs. "I don't think he dresses flamboyantly. He met a reporter one day when he was very casually dressed but most of the time he is reasonably conservative in suits and ties."

He speaks several languages and is familiar with Arabic and Islamic law - a rare attribute among US businessmen and lawyers. For holidays, his preferred destinations are Katmandu in Nepal, France and Morocco. Katmandu fits in with Mr Bonderman's attachment to nature in its wildest aspects. Thus he combines his high-flying financial career with serving on the boards of the Wilderness Society, the Grand Canyon Trust and the American Himalayan Foundation.

Mr Bonderman's career has been almost as varied as his present string of aquisitions. After the top Harvard law degree he went to work for the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department in Washington under President Lyndon Johnson. A post like this would definitely have put a man in the liberal camp at a time when LBJ was identified with a breakthrough for African-Americans in the civil rights area.

The Harvard liberal was also starting to teach in the Deep South where he was an assistant professor at Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans. His primary degree had been at the University of Washington so his academic career was taking him from Seattle to Boston to New Orleans within a few years.

By 1971, with Mr Richard Nixon in the White House, Mr Bonderman had decided to abandon academia and a tentative political career. He joined the Washington law firm of Arnold & Porter where he "specialised in corporate, securities, bankruptcy and anti-trust litigation".

He caught the attention of preservationists in the late 1970s by working free to save New York's historic Grand Central Station from property developers who wanted to demolish it. But his work for the troubled Braniff airline brought him into contact with airline executives who would be important contacts when his career took a significant turn with the buy into Continental.

First came the departure from the legal tomes of Arnold and Porter in 1983 and the jump into financial wheeling and dealing as chief operating officer for Texas billionaire investor, Mr Robert M. Bass.

His departure from Arnold & Porter was regretted where a senior partner, Mr Mel Garbow, said that: "He was always a lot of fun to work with." He is also remembered for his success in fighting an insider trading case all the way to the Supreme Court and winning against the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr Bonderman's track record with the Bass Group attracted investors' attention as some of his deals produced triple-digit returns. "The man just has tremendous instincts," a Bass colleague was quoted as saying in an article in Business Week last year.

By late 1992, Mr Bonderman, then aged 49, was ready to strike out on his own. "It seemed like the right time to take off your clothes and jump in the frying pan," he said in a rare interview.

With several younger colleagues from Bass, including Mr James Coulter, Mr Bonderman set up his TPG investment company and pushed through the Continental deal in co-operation with Air Canada.

His style is not to get involved in dayto-day management but leave this to existing executives or bring in new ones. "These guys are investors, they are major financial players; they don't manage companies," said Mr Blicksilver as news of the Continental deal broke in 1992.

But in 1994 as Continental was still floundering, Mr Bonderman decided to replace chief executive, Mr Robert Ferguson, with Mr Gordon Bethune, a highly-experienced airline figure. Mr Bonderman joked: "Generally speaking, you like to dance with the girl that brung you, and if you can't, sometimes you have to shoot her."

The same year, TPG bought a second airline out of bankruptcy, America West Airlines.

In 1996, he was again on the airline trail and was attracted to investing in a low-cost European carrier just acquired by Mr Richard Branson's Virgin Group but he dropped the idea. He had already joined with Mr Branson in buying the British MGM cinema chain.

Several months later, a 25 per cent stake in Ryanair had become TPG's favoured European airline deal. He is now chairman and is still dancing with the girl who brung him.