#44 Kneeland Youngblood | ER Doctor to $650M Private Equity Firm

About the episode

He practiced emergency medicine for 12 years, then walked away to build a private equity firm that now manages more than $650 million. Kneeland Youngblood explains exactly how he did it, and what he asked for along the way.

Kneeland Youngblood, Chairman and CEO of Pharos Capital Group, traces an unusual path: Princeton, UT Southwestern, 12 years in the ER at Parkland and Plano, and then a second career in healthcare private equity built under the mentorship of Richard Rainwater, David Bonderman, and Michael Milken. The turn came as a cold call to the ER. A nurse handed him the phone mid-shift: Don Williams, CEO of Trammell Crow, calling a doctor he had never met about a Texas tax policy committee. Williams offered him a seat on his private jet down to Austin alongside Dan Cook, managing partner at Goldman Sachs in Dallas. Youngblood took the flight, looked around the cabin, and realized he was in the wrong business.

Along the way he served on the boards of American Airlines, Starwood Hotels, Gap, and Burger King, chaired American Beacon and then led the buyout of it, and took appointments at the mayoral, gubernatorial, and presidential levels, including the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

The through-line is a single question a U.S. Senator asked him early on: if the president of the United States walks in the room, what’s your ask?