Thomas Fearn Frist Jr. (born August 12, 1938) is an American billionaire physician and businessman. He is a co-founder of HCA Healthcare, and the wealthiest person in Tennessee. Frist is a co-founder and the major shareholder of HCA Healthcare, an administrator of 182 hospitals across its network. The Nashville-based company is publicly traded and serves more than 37 million patients per year in hospitals and clinics across 20 US states and the UK. HCA reported revenue of $60.2 billion in 2022.
The majority of Frist’s fortune is derived from a 26% stake in HCA Healthcare, a publicly traded health services administrator. He controls the shares through Nashville, Tennessee-based Hercules Holding II, a limited liability company whose investors include the billionaire’s two sons. Frist and his sons own almost 70 million shares of HCA, according to HCA’s proxy form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2023. He’s credited with all of these shares to reflect his status as co-founder.
HCA has 182 hospitals serving more than 37 million patients in 20 US states and the UK, according to the company’s website.
Frist also has personal investments sourced from HCA share sales and dividends, including a one-year payout of more than $500 million in 2012.
Tika Love, a spokesperson for Frist, said the billionaire declined to comment on the net worth calculation.
Early life
Thomas F. Frist Jr. was born on August 12, 1938, to Thomas F. Frist Sr., a prominent internal medicine specialist in Nashville, and Dorothy Cate. Frist has four siblings: physician and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist; Dr. Robert A. Frist; Dorothy F. Boensch; and Mary F. Barfield.
Frist grew up in Belle Meade, a western suburb of Nashville. He attended Montgomery Bell Academy, a Nashville prep school for boys. In 1956, Frist played quarterback for MBA‘s state championship football team. Frist’s halfback on the team was Frank Drowota, who became the chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court. Frist graduated from Vanderbilt University and received an MD from Washington University School of Medicine. He was a member of the Vanderbilt chapter of Phi Delta Theta. He served as a flight surgeon in the United States Air Force
Business career
In 1968, he co-founded the Hospital Corporation of America with his father, Thomas F. Frist Sr., and Jack C. Massey.
In 1977, he became president of HCA and, in 1987, chairman, president and chief executive officer (CEO). He served as chairman in 1994, after the merger with Columbia, and after the merger with HealthTrust Inc. in April 1995, as vice chairman. He returned as chairman and CEO of the company in 1997 after the resignation of Rick Scott, who later became Governor of Florida.
He was chairman and CEO until January 2001 and chairman until January 2002. In 2006, he accepted $21 billion in private equity investments from Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Merrill Lynch and took HCA private. The deal valued HCA at $33 billion. He holds the record for the biggest leveraged buyout of all time and biggest private equity–led IPO of all time. In 2009, he stepped down from the board of directors, and his son, Billy Frist, joined the board. Frist was replaced as chairman by Jack Bovender.
From 1984 to 1995, he served on the Board of Directors of IBM. He was the chair of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce from 1999 to 2000. He is a member of The Business Council. In 2008, he co-founded the China Healthcare Corporation with Charles A. Elcan. They have business interests in Cixi, China. He is president of Okeechobee Hospital Inc. and Galen Of Florida Inc.
Frist is president of Tomco II LLC, an aircraft company. In 2000, Scott Mercy, chairman and CEO of LifePoint Hospitals Inc. and chairman of America Service Group Inc., died in a crash. Similarly, in 2006, another aircraft belonging to Frist crashed.
Philanthropy
He was inducted into the Healthcare Hall of Fame. He served as vice president of the Vanderbilt University board of trust from 1995 to 1997. He is a recipient of the distinguished graduates award of Vanderbilt University. He is chairman of the Frist Foundation and the Frist Center for the Visual Arts. He is a member of the Nashville Public Library Foundation.
He was a co-founder of the United Way Alexis de Tocqueville Society. He also served as chair of the board of governors for United Way of America. The Dr. Thomas F. Frist Jr. Excellence in Volunteer Leadership Award of the United Way was established in 1996. In 2012, he received the United Way Lifetime Achievement Award. In October, 2020, Nashville’s Belmont University announced the creation of a new medical school to be named the “Thomas F. Frist Jr. College of Medicine, being established in partnership with HCA’s clinical facilities branded as TriStar Health.
Personal life
Frist was married to Patricia C. Frist from 1961 until her death in 2021, and he has three children. They reside in an $18-million house in Belle Meade, Tennessee. They have two sons and a daughter, who is married to investor Charles A. Elcan.
He is the wealthiest person in Tennessee and #35 on the Forbes 400, with an estimated wealth of $20 billion
Milestones
- 1938 Thomas F. Frist Jr. is born in Nashville.
- 1961 Graduates from Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
- 1968 Founds Hospital Corporation of America with his father and Jack Massey.
- 1969 Sells shares of Hospital Corp. of America in an initial public offering.
- 1989 Takes HCA private for the first time.
- 1992 Sells shares of HCA in a public offering, the company’s second IPO.
- 1994 Merges HCA with Columbia and retains chairman title.
- 1995 Becomes vice chairman of Columbia/HCA following merger with HealthTrust.
- 2006 Takes company private with Merrill Lynch, KKR and Bain Capital.
- 2011 Company sells shares in a third initial public offering.
