PATRICOF, ALAN

PATRICOF, ALAN (1934– ), U.S. financier. Born in New York, Patricof, son of a stockbroker, earned a bachelor's degree from Ohio State University in 1955 and a master's from Columbia Business School in 1958. From 1960 to 1968 he was assistant vice president and then vice president of Central National Corporation, a private, family investment management organization. While at Central National, he became a founder and chairman of the board of New York magazine, which later acquired the Village Voice of New York and started New West magazine. He also participated in the founding of the Data-scope Corporation and LIN Broadcasting Corporation. He founded Patricof Company Ventures in 1969. Later he founded a separate investment banking company specializing in entrepreneurial companies. An international arm, Apax Partners, was founded in 1977 and had eight offices in Europe. His firm managed $1.5 billion invested in more than 130 companies. He had an early stake in Apple Computer and helped finance a company that became the second-largest recycler of automobile batteries. Patricof emerged as a major fundraiser for Bill Clinton's presidential elections and for later Democratic candidates. He was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and was active in a number of philanthropic causes, from hospitals to education. (Stewart Kampel (2nd ed.)