John Hay Whitney, American businessman, publisher, and diplomat, founded J.H. Whitney & Company (died 1982)

John Hay Whitney was an American venture capitalist, sportsman, philanthropist, newspaper publisher, film producer and diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, publisher of the New York Herald Tribune, and president of the Museum of Modern Art.

J. H. Whitney & Company is a venture-capital firm in the U.S., founded in 1946 by partners John Hay Whitney and Benno Schmidt. Today, the firm focuses primarily on leveraged buyouts, turnarounds, acquisitions, and recapitalizations of more mature companies, particularly those it considers to be in the middle market. The firm is based in New Canaan, Connecticut.