Oaktree Capital Group, the world's largest distressed-debt investor, priced its initial public offering at $43 a share on Wednesday April 11.
Bowdoin Trustee Sheldon Stone '74, a principal and portfolio manager, will take away the third largest share from the $387 million that the firm raised from the deal.
The company first filed for an IPO in June 2011, and the IPO will allow its top executives to realize their stake in the firm.
Reuters cites that Oaktree initially planned to offer 11.3 million shares of stock at $43 to $46 a piece, which would raise $517.5 million if the shares sold for the maximum value.
Though only 8.84 million shares were sold for at the lowest expected price, the deal will still deliver millions to the company's founders. Oaktree's chairman, Howard Marks, and president, Bruce Karsh, will gain roughly 40 percent of the IPO's proceeds.
Stone owns 8.8 percent of public shares, and the deal will allow him to materialize a corresponding percentage of profits. How many millions he stands to gain exactly, however, is unclear. Stone was unable to comment on news of the IPO and his work with Oaktree due to SEC regulations.
Stone majored in government at Bowdoin, and received an MBA in accounting and finance from Columbia Business School in 1978.
"I do believe that my Bowdoin education, while not directly related, was helpful in getting into business school," Stone said.
Stone credited the many math classes he took, as well as learning to "develop analytic and quantitative skills" as being helpful in his career path.
"I didn't even take economics when I went to Bowdoin," he explained. "I focused much more in government; I was not thinking about a career that would involve business. I thought I was going to teach for a bit after graduating, but things changed."
After graduating from Columbia, Stone worked for the Prudential Insurance Company, which he described as "one of the best-kept secrets on how one could learn the craft of investing from one of the largest financial institutions."
Before co-founding Oaktree Capital in 1995, Stone established and ran the high yield bond department at Los Angeles-based investment management firm TCW, where he first began working as a portfolio manager in 1985.
Stone has donated substantially to his alma mater and was elected a trustee of the College in 2001. From 2003-2009 he served as the chairman of Bowdoin's investment committee. He has also served as a BASIC (Bowdoin Schools Interview Committee) representative, interviewing prospective students, and served on the special gifts committee for his class' 25th reunion.
"As a trustee, my role is to review the school's policy and provide some oversight," Stone explained. "While I am involved in that aspect, I am in some ways removed geographically from the essence of it. But I read everything that's sent to me and try to stay on top of everything."
In an email to the Orient, Richard Mersereau, Bowdoin's senior leadership gifts officer, referred to Stone as a "terrific alumnus and trustee."
Mersereau and others in the alumni and development office were unavailable to comment further on Stone's support of the College.