Location New York, New York, United States Regions Greater New York Area, East Coast, Northeastern US Gender Male
Investor Type Investor Stage
Larry Bouts was a teenager when President John Kennedy was making history, and among the late president's quotes is one that could have been written about the alumnus we honor today. "Leadership and learning," remarked JFK, "are indispensable to each other." When we think about Larry Bouts, leadership and learning are
words that fit him well.
Larry Bouts grew up in the Hiram community and attended the local high school.
After graduation, Larry served in the Navy, married his Hiram sweetheart, Alison Copius Bouts '71, and earned his graduate degree at the Wharton School of Business. The Pepsi Company invited this newly minted MBA to be part of its finance team, and within a few years the youngster from a small Ohio town became chief financial officer of PepsiCo Foods International.
In 1990, Toys-R-Us came to call, and Larry assumed the position of President of the firm's rapidly expanding international division. For the next five years, Larry was rarely home in New Jersey as he flew around the globe negotiating the opening of 340 stores in 20 countries.
This roller coaster life style was traded, literally, for the real thing in 1995 when Larry was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Six Flags Theme Parks, the second largest operator of theme parks in the nation. He took the company to new record profits, but after three years, he took the biggest risk of his life and ventured into the world of dot.com companies.
Larry is the first to admit that advising dot.coms with business plans to go public was the most thrilling time of his life, and also the most exhausting. But even after the famous downturn of the last few years, Larry is not deterred from investing or believing in the American free-enterprise system. Rather, Larry's professional life today is focused on leading and advising an eclectic mix of emerging companies toward financial stability and growth.
