John Castle is CEO and Chairman of Castle Harlan Inc., boasting experience in private equity investing; charitable health and education work. While Castle Harlan was established in 1987, its roots date back to the 1960s. At that time, John Castle led the private equity activities. One of these was the Sprout Capital Group at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ) which brought investors into private equity investing. Thereafter, Castle became CEO and President at DLJ until 1986. In 1965, Castle’s friend Leonard Harlan joined DLJ; left four years later and established The Harlan Company, a booming realty investment group. In 1987, Castle, Harlan and some others raised $125m for its partnership Legend Capital Group, LP to start investing in leveraged buyout transactions.