A Dealmaker's Rare Misdeal

Mudd recalls a tense meeting where "we were sitting at a table in a Tokyo restaurant and the deal was coming apart nine ways from Sunday and everybody at the table had a different opinion. . . . I remember Chris sitting there, totally calm, and looking and listening to everybody. Very calmly and matter-of-factly, based on the economics and not on the emotion, he put all the comments back in the box and got the deal back on track. He knew what we had to do."

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Flowers said he is drawn to the private-equity business "first and foremost because it's fun. But of course our business is obviously to make money, and that's what we want to do, and that's what our investors expect."

He has given Harvard about $25 million, including the endowment of a professorship in honor of his parents. He and his wife, Mary White, have a charitable foundation, and one of their favorite causes is "Nets for Life," which provides antimalarial bed nets to 16 countries.

Federal Elections Commission records show that Flowers has given $289,208 to politicians and committees of both parties. In the interview, he said he has no passion about politics, but mentioned his support for Corzine and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.).

Friends and business associates say he has a wry sense of humor but is mostly all business.

"He feels life is short and let's get down to business," said a Harvard classmate, David Apgar. Apgar recalls the young Flowers as an early and unabashed capitalist.

"I would make the case for social democracy, and he would be making arguments for Darwinian capitalism. I would say, 'What would you do with all that money that is our responsibility to go out and earn?' " said Apgar, a managing director at the Corporate Executive Board in Washington. "He would say, 'It doesn't matter. He who has the most at the end wins.' "

Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.