Henry Kravis

Henry Kravis
Born	Henry Roberts Kravis 6 1, 1944
Birthplace	Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Businessman, investor, philanthropist
Known for	Co-founding KKR & Co., pioneering leveraged buyouts
Education	Columbia University (MBA)
Children	3
Website	[http://www.kkr.com/ Official site]

Henry Roberts Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who co-founded the global private equity and investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Alongside his cousin George R. Roberts and mentor Jerome Kohlberg Jr., Kravis built KKR from a three-person operation with $120,000 in 1976 into one of the world's largest and most influential alternative asset management firms. Kravis is perhaps best known for orchestrating the landmark $25 billion leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988, a deal that came to symbolize the era of corporate takeovers and was chronicled in the bestselling 1989 book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco and the subsequent 1993 television film of the same name. Over nearly five decades, Kravis has played a central role in shaping the modern private equity industry, transforming leveraged buyouts from a niche financial strategy into a mainstream component of global capital markets. He currently serves as co-executive chairman of KKR & Co.

Early Life

Henry Roberts Kravis was born on January 6, 1944, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He grew up in a prominent Tulsa family with connections to the oil and business community. His cousin, George R. Roberts, would later become his lifelong business partner in founding KKR.

Kravis's upbringing in Oklahoma exposed him to the world of business and finance from an early age. His father, Raymond Kravis, was a successful petroleum engineer and businessman who had connections to the financial world, including involvement with firms such as the Goldman Sachs trading company. The elder Kravis's business career and connections to the world of corporate finance left an imprint on his son, who would go on to reshape the financial industry.

The Kravis family experienced personal tragedy. Harrison S. Kravis, identified as a student and family member, died in 1991 at the age of 19.

Kravis has three children.

Education

Kravis pursued his higher education with an eye toward business and finance. He attended Claremont McKenna College for his undergraduate studies, an institution with which he would later maintain a significant philanthropic relationship, including the establishment of the Kravis Leadership Institute at the college.

He subsequently earned his Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School at Columbia University. It was at Columbia that Kravis developed the analytical skills and financial acumen that would underpin his career in leveraged buyouts. Columbia's MBA program also connected him with a network of finance professionals and academics who would prove instrumental in the early years of his career on Wall Street.

Career

Early Career at Bear Stearns

After completing his MBA at Columbia University, Kravis entered the world of investment banking. He joined Bear Stearns, one of the major Wall Street investment banks, where he worked in the corporate finance department. It was at Bear Stearns that Kravis first met Jerome Kohlberg Jr., a senior partner at the firm who was experimenting with a then-unconventional financial strategy: leveraged buyouts. Kohlberg served as a mentor to both Kravis and his cousin George Roberts, teaching them the mechanics of using borrowed money to acquire companies, restructure their operations, and eventually sell them at a profit.

At Bear Stearns, the trio began executing what were then called "bootstrap" transactions — deals in which a small amount of equity was combined with significant amounts of debt to acquire companies. These early deals laid the conceptual and practical groundwork for what would become the modern leveraged buyout industry.

Founding of KKR

In 1976, Kravis, Roberts, and Kohlberg left Bear Stearns to establish their own firm, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR). The three founders started with $120,000 and, as Kravis later recalled, "a conviction that companies could be better managed." The firm was headquartered in New York, with Roberts operating from offices in San Francisco — a bicoastal arrangement that became a defining feature of KKR's organizational structure.

KKR's founding thesis was straightforward: by acquiring underperforming or undervalued companies using leveraged buyout structures, the firm could improve operations, align management incentives with ownership, and generate superior returns for investors. This approach represented a departure from the prevailing corporate finance models of the era, which emphasized conglomerate-building and organic growth.

In its early years, KKR focused on mid-sized companies, building a track record of successful transactions that attracted institutional investors. The firm pioneered the use of limited partnership structures to raise capital from pension funds, insurance companies, and endowments, creating the institutional framework that would become standard across the private equity industry.

The RJR Nabisco Buyout

KKR's most famous — and controversial — transaction was its 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, the food and tobacco conglomerate. The deal, valued at approximately $25 billion, was the largest leveraged buyout in history at the time and became a defining moment in American corporate finance. The bidding war for RJR Nabisco, which pitted KKR against a management-led buyout team headed by RJR Nabisco CEO F. Ross Johnson, captivated Wall Street and the broader public.

The deal was chronicled in exhaustive detail in Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, a 1989 book by journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. The book, which became a bestseller, portrayed the excesses of 1980s dealmaking culture and the personalities involved in the RJR Nabisco battle. A 1993 HBO television film adaptation of the book further cemented the deal's place in popular culture.

The RJR Nabisco buyout drew significant public scrutiny to the leveraged buyout industry and to Kravis personally. Critics argued that the deal exemplified the dangers of debt-fueled acquisitions, including job losses, asset stripping, and the prioritization of financial engineering over productive investment. Kravis's lavish lifestyle during this period became a focal point for activists seeking to reform private equity regulations and restrict the practice of leveraged buyouts.

Growth and Expansion of KKR

Following the RJR Nabisco era, KKR continued to execute major transactions across a range of industries. The firm's dealmaking evolved over time, shifting from the highly leveraged transactions of the 1980s toward a more diversified investment approach that incorporated operational improvements, strategic repositioning, and sector expertise.

Among KKR's notable deals in subsequent decades was the acquisition of Toys "R" Us in 2005, in which KKR partnered with other private equity firms to take the toy retailer private in a deal valued at approximately $6.6 billion. KKR also expanded significantly into data and technology-related investments.

The firm also expanded into real estate, completing its first dedicated real estate fund with $1.5 billion in capital raised.

Over time, KKR grew from its origins as a leveraged buyout firm into a diversified global investment company with operations spanning private equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure, and other alternative asset classes. The firm went public and became listed on the New York Stock Exchange, further expanding its scale and visibility.

Transition to Co-Executive Chairman

As KKR evolved, Kravis and Roberts gradually transitioned from day-to-day management roles to positions of strategic oversight. Kravis currently serves as co-executive chairman of KKR & Co., a role in which he focuses on firm strategy, investor relations, and major investment decisions.

In June 2025, Kravis sold $154 million worth of KKR stock, his first significant stock sale in years, a transaction that attracted considerable attention from financial analysts and media outlets tracking the firm's leadership.

Views on Markets and Global Investment

Kravis has remained an active public commentator on financial markets, economic policy, and global investment trends. In October 2025, he commented publicly on inflation, characterizing it as "sticky," and discussed opportunities in security, defense, and private credit markets. During the same period, Kravis pushed back against warnings that the collapse of certain portfolio companies in the private credit space could signal broader systemic risk, arguing that such events did not represent a systemic threat to private debt markets.

Kravis has also emphasized KKR's expanding investment focus on India, stating that the firm could deploy $20 billion in the country over the next decade. He noted the increasing quality of Indian businesses, comparing them favorably to enterprises in the United States: "The quality of what I'm seeing here in India is starting to be as good as many in the US."

On the topic of globalization amid increasing trade tensions, Kravis stated that globalization was not ending but was being reshaped by tariff policies and geopolitical shifts.

Personal Life

Kravis has been married multiple times. His second wife, Hedi Kravis, was a prominent interior designer in New York society circles. Hedi Kravis died in 1997 at the age of 49. Kravis has three children.

Kravis is a cousin of George R. Roberts, his co-founder and co-executive chairman at KKR. The familial and professional bond between Kravis and Roberts has been one of the defining relationships in the history of private equity, with the two men working together for nearly five decades.

Kravis has been affiliated with the Republican Party. His lifestyle, particularly during the height of the leveraged buyout era in the 1980s and early 1990s, drew public attention and criticism from those who viewed the excesses of private equity dealmakers as emblematic of broader inequalities in the American economic system.

Kravis resides in New York and has been involved in a range of civic and cultural organizations. He has served on the board of the New York City Partnership. He has also been a member of the executive committee of The Business Council.

Philanthropy

Kravis has directed significant philanthropic resources toward educational institutions and leadership development. At Claremont McKenna College, his undergraduate alma mater, he established the Kravis Leadership Institute, which supports programs in leadership development, research, and education. He also established the Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership, which is awarded to recognize leadership in the nonprofit and nongovernmental sectors.

In April 2025, Kravis delivered the Lewis H. Durland Memorial Lecture at Cornell University, where he spoke on the theme of "redefining shared prosperity in private equity." In his remarks, he discussed the evolution of the private equity industry and its responsibilities to a broader set of stakeholders.

Kravis has also been involved in philanthropic efforts through various civic organizations in New York City and beyond, including his board service with the New York City Partnership.

Legacy

Henry Kravis's career has been inextricable from the development of the leveraged buyout as a financial instrument and the emergence of private equity as a major force in global capital markets. When Kravis, Roberts, and Kohlberg founded KKR in 1976 with $120,000, the concept of acquiring companies primarily with borrowed money was a fringe activity on Wall Street. By the late 1980s, KKR had executed the largest corporate buyout in history and had helped transform leveraged buyouts into a central feature of American corporate finance.

The RJR Nabisco deal, more than any other single transaction, brought the leveraged buyout industry into the public consciousness. Barbarians at the Gate became a touchstone for debates about the role of financial engineering in the economy, the responsibilities of corporate management, and the social consequences of debt-fueled acquisitions. Kravis, as the public face of KKR, became both a symbol of financial innovation and a lightning rod for criticism of the private equity industry.

Beyond individual deals, Kravis helped establish the institutional infrastructure of modern private equity, including the limited partnership fundraising model, the alignment of management incentives through equity participation, and the professionalization of post-acquisition operational management. These innovations, pioneered or refined by KKR under Kravis's leadership, have become standard practices across the global private equity industry.

In the decades since the RJR Nabisco era, Kravis oversaw KKR's evolution from a leveraged buyout firm into a diversified global alternative asset manager. The firm's expansion into credit, real estate, infrastructure, and other asset classes reflected both the maturation of the private equity industry and Kravis's own broadening investment vision. His recent comments on India — projecting $20 billion in potential deployment over the next decade — illustrate the global scope of KKR's ambitions under his continued oversight.

Oliver Haarmann, founder of Searchlight Capital Partners and a former KKR professional, has cited Kravis as a formative influence on his own career and approach to investing. Similarly, Alisa Wood, a top KKR partner, has publicly discussed receiving a rejection letter from Kravis in 2003 before eventually joining the firm, a story she has used to illustrate themes of persistence and career development.

Kravis's influence extends beyond finance into philanthropy and civic engagement, through institutions such as the Kravis Leadership Institute and the Kravis Prize in Leadership at Claremont McKenna College. His career — spanning nearly half a century at the intersection of finance, corporate governance, and public debate — has left a lasting imprint on the structure of American and global capitalism.