William F. Hagerty IV ’84 (BA’81)
has been appointed as U.S. Ambassador to Japan by President Donald J. Trump. The White House announced his appointment March 23.
Read the announcement in The Japan Times.
Hagerty is a founder and managing director of Hagerty Peterson & Co., a private equity investment firm with offices in Nashville and Chicago. He served as director of presidential appointments for the 2016 Trump Presidential Transition Team.
From 2011 to 2014, Hagerty served on the cabinet of Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam as Commissioner of Economic Development, with responsibility for trade, jobs and economic growth for Tennessee. He worked on a regular basis with the US Congress, where he provided Congressional testimony and worked with the federal Treasury, Commerce, and Housing and Urban Development departments, the U.S. Trade Representative, the International Trade Administration, and other federal agencies. He led numerous trade missions and served as delegation head for the Southeast U.S./Japan annual exchanges.
His previous government service included a stint as a White House Fellow on the staff of President George H. W. Bush, where he reported to the Vice President and focused on international trade, commerce, treasury, defense and telecom. He later served for 11 years as member and chair of the regional selection panel for the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships during the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations.
Following his service as a White House Fellow, Hagerty joined Silicon Valley-based Trident Capital and began his career in private equity. One of his first deals with Trident was lifting out the mapping division of former Boston Capital client, RR Donnelly, to form what became MapQuest. He later helped form and lead the private equity and advisory firm that bears his name today, Hagerty Peterson and Co., and was founder and chair of CyMed, Inc., the nation’s third largest medical records company, which later merged with NYSE-traded PLDT. He also served as vice chair of NEW Customer Services Co., the nation’s largest electronics warranty administrator, which merged into NEW Asurion. He has served on the boards of numerous companies.
A Tennessee native, Hagerty graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Vanderbilt University with a degree in economics and then earned his J.D. at Vanderbilt Law School as a Patrick Wilson Scholar.
He began his professional career at global management consultancy Boston Consulting Group, where he worked on five continents for a broad range of clients. During his last three years with the firm, he was based in Tokyo, as the senior expatriate responsible for managing the firm’s western clients throughout Japan and Asia.
His permanent residence is in Nashville. He and his wife, Chrissie, have four children.