A Dealmaker's Rare Misdeal

Although Flowers is widely credited with helping to structure Goldman's initial public offering that year, he had already seen a ceiling on his career there and decided to launch out on his own in 1998.

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"I was on the losing side of a powerful struggle at Goldman. I was aligned with Corzine," Flowers said. "I realized I had gone as far as I was going to go, and it was time to move on."

Flowers was no less successful after leaving Goldman, buying banks and other financial firms in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States.

Private equity tends to avoid the technical and regulatory complexities of buying financial firms. And since banks are already loaded with debt, it's difficult to swing profitable leveraged deals. But where others saw risk, Flowers found opportunity.

His big breakthrough came in 2000 when he led a group of investors to put up $1 billion to buy Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, later renamed Shinsei. The takeover and turnaround at the bank, which Flowers brought public in 2004, is not only considered the most profitable private-equity deal in history -- investors saw their money multiply sevenfold, while Flowers's personal stake multiplied 13 times -- but it also became a model for the entire Japanese financial system. He is still Shinsei's largest shareholder.

"He set the gold standard with his investment in Shinsei, one of the greatest buyouts ever done," said David Rubenstein, co-founder of the Carlyle Group, based in the District. Corzine called the deal "the defining transaction in Chris's life."

The next year, he founded his own private-equity fund. Today, his J. C. Flowers II fund manages $7 billion, including $200 million of Flowers's money.

Rick Schifter, a partner with TPG Capital, based in Texas, said Flowers's success is due partly to his involvement in details. He recalled Flowers shuttling from room to room during one negotiation in a Manhattan office tower a couple of years ago. With only a stack of papers in front of him, Flowers was orchestrating the financing of the business, lining up who would run the company while calculating how much the firm was worth.

"He can almost be a one-man band, capable of implementing all aspects of a transaction," Schifter said. "He doesn't feel he needs to turn to a close number two and get advice. You could say it means he's a bit of a loner."

Rodgin Cohen, a managing partner at the New York law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, said another Flowers asset is his cool head. "He gets upset less than almost anybody I know at that level," Cohen said. "He's somebody who's not going to let emotion or concerns about prestige bother him."

Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd, who worked on the Shinsei bank deal when he headed GE Capital-Japan, said Flowers has been mischaracterized in some reporting on the Sallie Mae fight.

"The caricature here that this is some kind of table-pounding, saber-rattling sharpie from New York . . . was totally not my experience," Mudd said. "This is a very rational, thoughtful, cerebral kind of guy."