J. William Uhrig Jr.
Owner and President
Three Cities Research, Inc.
BSAAE 1982
"I have been very lucky in life including having the privilege of getting an education from the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue. Engineers solve problems; it turns out that the class of problems with which Aeros deal (a combination of non-linear functions with step changes, financial considerations that significantly affect the answer, regulation, and tremendous interdependencies) are directly applicable to business. Obviously Purdue's education is great training to be an Aero Engineer; an AAE degree with an MBA is great education for business."
Mr. J. William (Bill) Uhrig graduated from Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering in 1982. After briefly working as an Advanced Concepts Systems Engineer at Lockheed Missiles and Space Company, he decided to pursue a graduate education and earned a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.
Bill joined Three Cities Research, Inc. (TCR) directly after receiving his MBA in 1984, became the President of the European Subsidiary TCR Europe, Ltd in 1988, became President of TCR in 2002, and today, owns the firm. TCR has always been in the business of advising investors on how to purchase businesses and then how to operate them. Today, TCR invests the capital of the partners and is considered a "Family Office."
The type of investing TCR advises evolved from pure financial engineering (leveraged buyouts) in the 1980s to business transformation, which is the re-engineering of a business from the bottom up, allowing it to more efficiently serve the customer and thus improve profitability. TCR has performed transformations in all types of businesses and all types of industries from fashion retailers to steel foundries.
Bill is married to Anastasia Vournas, lives in New York City and occasionally uses his aeronautical knowledge as a private pilot.