Henry Kravis
Henry Kravis is the Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman of KKR, a leading global investment management firm that invests across private markets in every asset class worldwide. He is actively involved in managing the firm and serves on each of the regional Private Equity Investment Committees. Kravis is a private equity titan and one of the most respectable and successful negotiators on Wall Street. He pioneered the concept of leveraged buyout in the private equity industry, transforming how private companies are managed and how corporate value can be unlocked. Prior to founding KKR, he worked in the investment group at Bear Stearns, where he became a Partner at age 30. He also serves as a director, chairman emeritus, or trustee of several other cultural, professional, and educational institutions.
Henry Kravis Professional Experience / Academic History
Professional Experience
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Co-Founder and Co-Executive Chairman
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Partner
Academic History
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Master of Business Administration (MBA)
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B.A., Economics
CURRENT AFFILIATIONS
Board Member, First Data Corporation
Board Member, Axel Springer
Founder, Kravis Leadership Institute
Chairman, Sponsors for Educational Opportunity
Kravis co-founded KKR with George Roberts and Jerome Kohlberg.
He has more than four decades of experience financing, analyzing, and investing in public and private companies, as well as serving on the boards of a number of KKR portfolio companies.
The duo of Roberts and Kravis took KKR public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 and converted it into a corporation in 2018.
Under their leadership, KKR has acquired more than 250 portfolio companies and more than $600 billion in assets under management, making it one of the five largest private equity firms.
Kravis stepped down as KKR's Co-Chairman and Co-CEO in 2021.
EARLY CAREER
As Vice Chair at The Rockefeller University, he oversaw a period of substantial growth which included the construction of new laboratories.
His visionary leadership in governance and as a philanthropist sparked the creation of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation–David Rockefeller River Campus.
He was also Vice-President of Katy Industries, where he designed and implemented the company’s acquisition program.
He has received honorary doctorates from Claremont McKenna College, Bank Street College, and Monmouth College.
RECOGNITIONS
Officer of the French Legion of Honor
Order of the Aztec Eagle
MEDIA & APPEARANCES
Kravis has been featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, The Economic Times, and more.