Equity banker fighting brain tumour

By Gigi Suhanic

Tom Tucker is returning to his native Alberta a very different person from the 18 year-old who left home to study economics at Princeton. Now 32, he has made his mark in the businesses of investment banking and private equity banking, become an Ironman triathlete, married a high school friend, moved to Australia, and, more recently, had a portion of a brain tumour removed during surgery in 2004.

Through it all, Mr. Tucker has remained remarkably resilient.

"I must admit, the first time I heard, it was the equivalent to getting a pretty solid punch in the belly. But I was able to recover quite quickly and ask a few questions and say 'hey, my life is not over, '" he says.

It's obvious Mr. Tucker doesn't intend to come home a beaten man.

The sounds of movers packing up his Sydney home can be heard over his cellphone as he tells his story. It's a approximately 7:30 in the morning in the Australian metropolis and Mr. Tucker is busy preparing to catch a plane to Canada next week, accompanied by his wife, Kim.

He has spent the last few months tying up loose ends at Ironbridge Capital, a private equity fund he co-founded in 2003 and which, among its deals, executed a billion dollar management buyout.

If that's not enough, Mr. Tucker has also been training hard - currently 20 to 25 hours a week to tackle the upcoming Canadian Ironman triathlon, scheduled for Aug. 28 in Penticton, B.C.

Mr. Tucker was already a triathlete prior to his cancer diagnosis in January 2004. But triathlon, the extreme sport that combines swimming, cycling and running, is the way he has chosen to fight his disease.

According to Canadian statistics, it is estimated that 2,450 new cases of brain cancer will be diagnosed in 2005 and that 1,660 Canadians will die from brain cancer in 2005.

Bouts of memory loss, light headedness and nausea are what sent Mr. Tucker to his doctor's office. Ultimately, the tumour in Mr. Tucker's head was confirmed as "predominantly" a grade 2 astrocytoma. "[The grading] means it needs to be monitored and it is a malignant tumour. They need to make sure they're aware of when things change," Mr. Tucker says.

The Canadian Ironman, which calls for competitors to swim 3.86 km, bike 180.2 km and run 42.2 km, is the second leg of his three-pronged effort to raise funds for brain cancer research. Mr. Tucker completed the Australian Ironman in April and raised $150,000 for The Cancer Council for New South Wales. Besides the Canadian Ironman, Mr. Tucker plans to tackle an Ironman in the United States. From Penticton, he hopes to raise at least $50,000 for the Canadian Cancer Society and says he is already edging close to that goal, due in large part to his extensive business contacts.

Tom Tucker's business ties are rooted in the investment banking sector in the United States. After graduating from Princeton at age 22, in 1995 he joined mergers and acquisition business SG Warburg and a year later moved to Donaldson, Lufkin and Jenrette, an independent North American investment bank. Mr. Tucker left after four years at DLJ having achieved the title of vice-president.

It was after that he shifted into private equity banking.

One of his last deals through Ironbridge Capital was to purchase, along with the investment arm of Singapore's' government and a Citigroup affiliate, a conglomerate of 53 hospitals in Australia. for about AUS$l billion.

The group was renamed Affinity Health and was sold a few months ago for more than AUS$1.5 billion. "It was a leveraged deal [and] we ended up making over three times our money," Mr. Tucker says.

In terms of business in Canada, Mr. Tucker says he will likely seek work in private equity banking, but hasn't decided yet between institutional private equity and private equity, ''where the money. comes from high net worth individuals."

As to his health, he will be investigating avenues of treatment, such as chemotherapy and radiation.

"That's one of the things I'll be looking to over the next little while."

For more information about 'Tom Tucker or to make a donation visit his Web site at www.T4Tcan.com.

Financial Post
gsuhanic@nationalpost.com