GEORGE ROBERTS

Co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in 1976 with Henry Kravis (his cousin) and Jerome Kohlberg Jr. Helped pioneer the leveraged buyout — using debt to acquire companies, improve operations, and sell for profit.

KKR's 1988 acquisition of RJR Nabisco for $25 billion was the largest LBO ever at the time and became the defining Wall Street deal of the 1980s. Built KKR into one of the world's largest alternative asset managers with $553 billion in assets under management.

Under his co-leadership, KKR expanded from pure LBO into real estate, credit, infrastructure, and growth equity. KKR went public in 2010 at an $8.6 billion valuation and is now worth over $70 billion.

Roberts ran KKR's San Francisco office while Kravis ran New York — they co-led the firm for nearly 50 years. Stepped down from co-chairman role in 2021 but remains involved as chairman emeritus.

KKR (co-founder and co-chairman emeritus)

Classic leveraged buyout model. Roberts and Kravis perfected the formula: identify underperforming companies, acquire them using significant leverage, install professional management, improve operations through cost-cutting and revenue growth, then sell within 5-7 years.

KKR has evolved beyond pure LBO into a diversified alternative asset manager, but the core philosophy remains: buy, improve, sell.

KKR itself. Building a $553 billion alternative asset management firm from scratch over 48 years is the primary win.

The firm has generated hundreds of billions in returns for investors. Specific deals like the RJR Nabisco buyout — regardless of its controversy — proved that leveraged buyouts could work at massive scale.

More recently, KKR's expansion into infrastructure and credit has diversified revenue streams.

The RJR Nabisco deal was financially successful but reputationally damaging. The $25 billion deal became a symbol of Wall Street greed, and the book "Barbarians at the Gate" painted KKR as corporate raiders who enriched themselves at the expense of employees and communities.

While KKR made money on the deal, the public backlash shaped regulation and public perception of private equity for decades.

Operational improvement creates value. Roberts believes that most companies are undermanaged and that professional private equity ownership — with aligned incentives and disciplined oversight — creates more value than public market governance.

His philosophy: "We don't buy companies to strip them. We buy companies to make them better."

Cousin of Henry Kravis (KKR co-founder). Married to Lois Roberts.

Has three children. The Roberts-Kravis family dynamic is central to KKR's identity — the cousins ran the firm together for nearly 50 years.

Based in San Francisco, which gave KKR a West Coast presence that most PE firms lacked.

Claremont McKenna College (BA), Harvard Business School (MBA, 1966). His cousin Henry Kravis also attended Claremont McKenna before their paths converged at Bear Stearns.

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