Jimmy Haslam is one of the South's richest men, the scion of a private truck-stop empire called Pilot/Flying J. About five years ago, Mr. Haslam was at a wedding in Florence, Ala. There he recalls meeting a most interesting, likable fellow. His name: Byron D. Trott.
"We just struck up a relationship," says Mr. Haslam.
This was not random luck. Mr. Trott, 52 years old, is perhaps the world's most famous investment banker, lauded and envied for his knack at winning the trust of America's wealthiest families. Mr. Trott has advised Pritzkers, Wrigleys and Johnsons of S.C. Johnson fame in merger deals ranging from the $23 billion Mars-Wrigley tie-up to the Pritzker's $4.5 billion sale of Marmon Holdings to Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
As a former vice chairman at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., he was tutored by former Chief Executive Hank Paulson and praised by Warren Buffett, whom he recruited for a $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs in 2008. He got so good at it that he lives like one of the families he counsels: He built a 17,000-square-foot mansion that overlooks Lake Michigan.
Two years ago, Mr. Trott left his high-profile perch at Goldman Sachs, where he had worked as a private banker and deal maker since 1982. He started a new firm, blandly dubbed BDT Capital, and christened a slogan, too: "The Merchant Bank to the Closely Held."
The 38-person firm is styled as a modern court for the Midwest's Medicis. It's a hub from which Mr. Trott can connect wealthy business owners to one another, advise a fidgety patriarch or assemble his own deal from a $2 billion investment fund raised 80% from families, with some sovereign-wealth-fund cash and a dollop from Mr. Buffett himself.
Outside of a Wikipedia entry, Mr. Trott has diligently avoided public attention. But he remains a polarizing presence across the Street. Competitors—many of them jealous—view Mr. Trott as playing a different game than they do. They complain that, while they do the dirty, necessary work of Excel spreadsheets and loan documents, he's busy playing host to a private club for the wealthy.
As rivals are quick to mention, Mr. Trott was working opposite Mr. Buffett, not for him, all those years. To be dubbed the only investment banker Mr. Buffet trusts should be "horrifying," says one Chicago competitor. "You don't want to be known as the guy who sold too cheaply."
BDT Capital is thus the ultimate test for Mr. Trott. Can he turn from adviser into a world-class investor in the mold of Mr. Buffett? Can he, in essence, transform his social capital into real capital?
"We want to be a small firm with a big impact," Mr. Trott said in an interview. Families control about one-third of the firms on the S&P 500 index, he notes. Focusing on families, "we have a much different approach and perspective."
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