Rockefeller Chief McDonald Dies in Apparent Suicide


By Charles Stein
Bloomberg.com


Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) --James McDonald, chief executive officer of New York investment firm Rockefeller & Co., died Sunday from a single gunshot wound that was probably self- inflicted, officials in Massachusetts said.

His body was found in a car behind an auto dealership in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, said Gregg Miliote, a spokesman for the Bristol County district attorney’s office in New Bedford. While police didn’t find a note, McDonald had called his wife earlier in the day, Miliote said.

McDonald, who was 56, headed Rockefeller & Co. for more than eight years, building the former family office founded by oil man John D. Rockefeller in 1882 into a wealth manager with $25 billion in client assets. Paris-based Societe Generale SA last year bought 37 percent of Rockefeller Financial Services, parent of Rockefeller Co., to add wealthy clients in the U.S.

“He was a highly regarded figure in the business here in Boston,â€