William Brian Little known as Brian Little, was one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company

Forstmann Little & Company

Forstmann, Little & Company is a private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts . At its peak in the late 1990s, Forstmann Little was among the largest private equity firms globally...

, a private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm. He graduated from Colgate University

Colgate University

Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...

 in 1964, and he later served as the chairman of the Board of Trustees. An art building at Colgate was named Little Hall after him in 2001.http://www4.colgate.edu/scene/july2002/little.html

Brian Little worked as an analyst at White Weld & Co.

White Weld & Co.

White Weld & Co. was a Boston-based investment bank, historically managed by Boston Brahmins until its sale to Merrill Lynch in 1978. The Weld family name can be traced back to the founding of Massachusetts in the 1630s.-History:...

 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. He continued to work at firm after it was acquired by Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch is the wealth management division of Bank of America. With over 15,000 financial advisors and $2.2 trillion in client assets it is the world's largest brokerage. Formerly known as Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., prior to 2009 the firm was publicly owned and traded on the New York...

, and in 1978, founded Forstmann Little with brothers Ted

Theodore J. Forstmann

Theodore Joseph "Ted" Forstmann   was one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm, and chairman and CEO of IMG, a global sports and media company. A member of the Republican Party, Forstman was a philanthropist...

 and Nick Forstmann

Nicholas C. Forstmann

Nicholas C. "Nick" Forstmann was one of the founding partners of Forstmann Little & Company, a private equity firm.After attending The Lawrenceville School, Nicholas Forstmann graduated from Georgetown University in 1969, and began working at the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company...

.

Little died in 2000 of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...

.