AT&T Alternatives Pioneer Thomas Judge Dies

(March 17, 2014) — AT&T’s longtime and ground-breaking former head of alternatives has died at the age of 83. 

Thomas Judge lead the venture capital portfolio for the telecom giant’s pension fund from 1980 to 1995. He was one of the first institutional asset owners to allocate to the asset class. 

In his last few years with AT&T, Judge co-founded the Institutional Limited Partners Association. 

It began as “an informal networking club” with 15 to 20 members, according to its website, which offered an open forum for discussion and highly valued confidentiality. Now, the global organization boasts more than 300 member groups representing in excess of $1 trillion in assets.   

Before establishing the pioneering industry group and institutional venture capital portfolio, Judge spent 17 years working in various employee benefits and investment positions at AT&T. 

He was named in the Private Equity Hall of Fame in 1995, the same year he retired from a decades-long career at AT&T. Other inductees included Georges Doriot, founder of the world’s first public venture capital firm, and Yale University, whose investment arm made private equity a core allocation for university endowments.  

Judge held an MBA from Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and spent the last 50 years of his life in the state.

He was remembered at service in Red Bank, New Jersey, on March 15, according to an announcement in the Ashbury Park Press.

“Tom was a pioneer in private investing and will be missed by all who were fortunate to work with him,” wrote Avneet Kochar, who led AT&T’s alternative assets portfolio from 2003 to 2012, in the announcement’s online guestbook. 

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