Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, founded by Henry Kravis and George Roberts in 1976, is a leading company that specializes in leveraged buyouts. The company is mainly based in New York City, but has more branch offices in various areas in Asia, Europe and the United States.
Two of the establishers, Roberts and Kravis, have been actively involved in Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company’s daily management since its inception. Both function as the firm’s chief executive officers as well as chairpersons.
George Roberts, director of Accel-KKR Company and KKR Private Equity Investors, is a Houston-born cousin of fellow KKR founder Jerome Kohlberg Jr. Prior to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, Roberts studied and graduated from Claremont McKenna and earned a degree in Law School at the University of California, Hastings. Later, he worked at Bear Stearns.
Henry Kravis currently serves as a director of Legrand, Accel-KKR Company as well as KKR Private Equity Investors. He is also a cousin of co-founder Jerome Kohlberg Jr. Kravis majored in Economics at the Claremont College and obtained his MBA at Columbia. He too was an employee of Bear Stearns, working alongside George Roberts, and developed a mode of financing called the leveraged buyout.
Roberts and Kravis, with cousin Kohlberg Jr., later left Bear Stearns to establish Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, one of the most successful private equity firms in the industry to date.
