George Rosenberg Roberts [1] | |
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Born | 1943 (age 80–81) Houston, Texas, US |
Alma mater | |
Occupation(s) | Co-founder, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts |
Spouses |
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Children | 3 |
George Rosenberg Roberts (born 1943) is an American financier. He is one of the three original partners of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), which he co-founded alongside Jerome Kohlberg and first cousin Henry Kravis in 1976.
George Roberts was born into a Jewish [2] family in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1962 and received the institution's "Man of the Year" Award in 1998. He attended Claremont McKenna College, graduating in 1966, and the University of California's Hastings College of the Law, graduating in 1969. [3]
Roberts worked for Bear Stearns in the late 1960s and early 1970s becoming a partner at the age of 29. [2] While at Bear Stearns, Roberts, alongside Kohlberg and Kravis, began a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. Their acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company in 1964 is among the first significant leveraged buyout transactions. In the following years the three Bear Stearns bankers would complete a series of buyouts including Stern Metals (1965), Incom (a division of Rockwood International, 1971), Cobblers Industries (1971), and Boren Clay (1973) as well as Thompson Wire, Eagle Motors and Barrows through their investment in Stern Metals. Although they had a number of highly successful investments, the $27 million investment in Cobblers ended in bankruptcy. [4]
By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear Stearns and the trio of Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts leading to their departure and the formation of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts in that year. Most notably, Bear Stearns executive Cy Lewis had rejected repeated proposals to form a dedicated investment fund within Bear Stearns and Lewis took exception to the amount of time spent on outside activities. [5] Early investors in KKR included Henry Hillman [6] By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, the nascent KKR was successful in raising the first institutional fund with investor commitments. [7]
He has an estimated net worth of $5.9 billion as of 2018 [update] . [8]
In 1968, he married Leanne Bovet, daughter of Eric B. Bovet and Dorothy Champion of San Mateo, California. [9] [10] Eric Bovet was the son of Swiss immigrant Louis Bovet and Grace Borel; Grace Borel was the daughter of Swiss immigrant Antoine Borel, a prominent banker in San Francisco and San Mateo. [11] [12] Leanne Bovet died in 2003. [13]
On May 22, 2010, he married Goldman Sachs partner Linnea Conrad. [14]
Roberts is the founder and chairman of the boards of directors of non-profit organizations such as the Roberts Enterprise Development Fund (REDF), which focuses on job creation for people facing significant barriers to work. [15] He also serves as a trustee of Claremont McKenna College and Culver Military Academy, and is a board member of San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Ballet, and the Fine Arts Museum. [16]
In 2012, he donated $50 million to Claremont McKenna College. [17] He again donated $140 million to CMC in 2022. [18]
A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the assets of the acquiring company. The use of debt, which normally has a lower cost of capital than equity, serves to reduce the overall cost of financing the acquisition. This is done at the risk of magnified cash flow losses should the acquisition perform poorly after the buyout.
KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. As of December 31, 2023, the firm had completed more than 730 private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total enterprise value. As of December 31, 2023, assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $553 billion and $446 billion, respectively.
Henry R. Kravis is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of KKR & Co. Inc.
Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and international relations. CMC is a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium.
Gerald W. Schwartz, OC is the founder, chairman and CEO of Onex Corporation. Schwartz has a net worth of US$1.5 billion, according to Forbes.
Jerome Kohlberg Jr. was an American businessman and investor. He was an early pioneer in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries founding private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and later Kohlberg & Company.
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Aricent was a global design and engineering services company. It was acquired by French-based company Altran in 2018 and renamed Altran North America in April 2019 and Altran Americas in early 2020. With Altran's acquisition by Capgemini, the successors of Aricent are incorporated into Capgemini Engineering and to a lesser extent, Capgemini Invent.
Maxeda is a Dutch retail company owned by American investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) which is currently a market leader in the DIY retailing in The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. When Maxeda acquired Vendex KBB, Maxeda owned the three most prominent Dutch department stores: Vroom & Dreesmann and De Bijenkorf, both sold in 2010, and HEMA, sold in 2007.
The Bountiful Company is an American dietary supplements company. It is owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, which sold most of the company's brands to Nestlé in 2021.
Ford M. Fraker was a and American diplomat who served as U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.He was president of the Middle East Policy Council and chairman, Merrill Lynch Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Academy Sports + Outdoors is an American sporting-goods store chain with corporate offices in the Katy Distribution Center in unincorporated western Harris County, Texas, United States, near Katy and west of Houston. For 74 years, it was a privately held company owned by the Gochman family, until its May 2011 acquisition by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. On October 2020, it was listed on NASDAQ.
The history of private equity, venture capital, and the development of these asset classes has occurred through a series of boom-and-bust cycles since the middle of the 20th century. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel, although interrelated tracks.
The early history of private equity relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.
Private equity in the 1980s relates to one of the major periods in the history of private equity and venture capital. Within the broader private equity industry, two distinct sub-industries, leveraged buyouts and venture capital experienced growth along parallel although interrelated tracks.
Publicly traded private equity refers to an investment firm or investment vehicle, which makes investments conforming to one of the various private equity strategies, and is listed on a public stock exchange.
The Roberts Environmental Center is a research institute at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, United States. It is named after George R. Roberts '66, founding partner, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., a private equity firm. The principal goal of the Roberts Environmental Center is to involve students in real-world environmental issues and train them to analyze issues from as broad a perspective as possible, taking science, economics and policy into consideration, especially environmental law, environmental biology, and natural resource management. The Center's current research is focused on global corporate environmental transparency and performance. The Center is a leading analyst of online corporate environmental and sustainability self-reporting, with free analysis of more than 1,900 corporate reports. All analyses are available free online with more added weekly.
The Kravis Prize or Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership is a philanthropic award for leaders in the nonprofit sector. According to Bloomberg News, the prize "honor[s] those who have demonstrated 'bold leadership' in the nonprofit sector and have shared their best practices with others."
Lewis Michael Eisenberg is an American financier and investor who was the United States Ambassador to Italy and the United States Ambassador to San Marino. He is known for co-founding and heading private equity firm Granite Capital International Group L.P. He has a multi-decade history in American political fundraising circles and has held a number of national, state, and bi-state appointments throughout his career, including serving as the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey at the time of the September 11, 2001 attack of the World Trade Center, which the Port Authority operated.
Alex Navab was an American financier who was the head of the Americas Private Equity Business of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and possible successor to the firm.