Michael Chu (private equity investor)

James Michael Chu (born 1958) is an American financial businessman. He has been the private equity manager and co-chief executive officer (CEO) of L Catterton since 1989.

Early life
Chu graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1980, earning a bachelor's degree with majors in psychology and economics. At Bates, he was a member of the board of trustees from 1995 to 2013.

Career
Chu held a variety of senior financial management positions with The First Pacific Company, a Hong Kong publicly listed investment and management company which he joined in early 1983. He founded Catterton-Simon Partners in 1982 with Frank Vest and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury William E. Simon. In 2015, Catterton Partners took on as minor partners Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) and Groupe Arnault (the family office of Bernard Arnault, bringing together $12 billion in assets as L Catterton. In May 2018, his firm was listed as the 31st largest private equity firm in the world, based on capital raised over the prior five years. In June 2022, L Catterton were ranked 30th in Private Equity International's 2022 PEI 300 ranking.

Personal life
Chu is married to Elizabeth Kalperis Chu and they have two adult children.