Henry Kravis
Encyclopedia
Henry R. Kravis is an American
businessman and private equity
investor
. He is the co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
, a private equity firm
with over $62 billion in assets
as of 2011. He has an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion as of September 2011, ranked by Forbes
as the 88th richest man in America. He mainly lives in New York City
and has a residence in Palm Beach, Florida
.
, the son of Bessie (Roberts) and Raymond Kravis, a successful Tulsa oil engineer who had been a business partner of Joseph P. Kennedy
. Kravis began his education at the Eaglebrook School
, ('60) followed by high school at the Loomis Chaffee School. He then majored in economics at Claremont McKenna College
in Claremont, California
and graduated in 1967 before going on to Columbia Business School
, where he received an MBA degree in 1969.
's financial sector, he and his first cousin, George R. Roberts
, joined the staff of Bear Stearns
. Kravis and Roberts share the same grandfather, an immigrant from Russia. There, they worked under the corporate finance manager, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr.
. They both became partners at Bear Stearns at a very young age, 30 and 31.
Working for Bear Stearns
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kravis, alongside Kohlberg and Roberts began a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. Kohlberg's acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company
in 1964 is among the first significant leveraged buyout
transactions. In the following years Kohlberg and later Kravis and Roberts 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. Kravis and his associates created a series of limited partnerships to acquire these various corporations, ones they judged were performing well below their sales and profit potential or where there were untapped financial assets that could be monetized. In most cases, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co put up ten percent of the acquisition price from its own funds and borrowed the rest from investors by issuing high-yield bonds.
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.
Early investors in KKR included the Hillman Family and the Griffith family (who are also large shareholders in MGM and Time-Warner) By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, the nascent KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with approximately $30 million of investor commitments.
In 1987, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. resigned from KKR, and Henry Kravis and George Roberts continued to lead the firm. Under Kravis and Roberts the firm was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco
. At a cost of $31.4 billion, it was then the highest price ever paid for a commercial enterprise. The publicity surrounding the event led to the story being dramatized in the book and film, Barbarians at the Gate. In early 1995, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co divested its remaining holdings in RJR Nabisco.
The list of companies in which Henry Kravis's KKR has invested over the years includes health care provider Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
, TXU
, Playtex, Beatrice Foods
, Safeway
, Duracell, Toys "R" Us, Borden, First Data
and Regal Entertainment Group
.
He later married New York designer Carolyne Roehm (born Carolyne Jane Smith) in 1985, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1993. The home decorated for the couple by Robert Denning
and Vincent Fourcade
was parodied in the 1990 movie The Bonfire of the Vanities
.
Kravis is currently married to a prominent Canadian economist, Marie-Josée Drouin
, and former columnist and TV personality in Canada. She also sits on the boards of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
, the Robin Hood Foundation
, and is the president of the Museum of Modern Art
board of directors.
Kravis currently owns homes in New York, NY; Southampton, New York
; Palm Beach, Florida
; Paris, France; Meeker, CO; and Sharon, CT.
Henry has one older brother, George R. Kravis, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. George Kravis owned radio station KRAV for a number of years before selling the station.
George W. Bush
and John McCain
. He was also a major contributor to the 1992 re-election campaign of President George H. W. Bush
. In 1997, Henry Kravis joined with Lewis Eisenberg to establish the Republican Leadership Council
.
Kravis has been subjected to criticism from various liberal campaigns, most notably "War on Greed," which attempts to document his lifestyle in an effort to force legislative changes in relation to the taxation of private equity
, specifically the carried interest
earned by private equity firm
s.
identifies extraordinary leaders in the nonprofit sector, celebrates their accomplishments and shares their best practices with others. The Prize is presented and administered by Claremont McKenna College
(CMC) and Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis. Marie-Josée Kravis, an economist, is a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute
. Henry R. Kravis is an alumnus and trustee of Claremont McKenna College. The Prize is affiliated with the Kravis Leadership Institute, a research institute at Claremont McKenna College.
Established in 2006, the Kravis Prize chooses an annual recipient who has demonstrated bold and visionary leadership within the nonprofit sector. A formal award ceremony celebrates the recipient's accomplishments, and $250,000 is directed to a nonprofit organization designated by the recipient. Collectively, the first five Prize recipients have impacted more than 500 million people in more than 60 countries on five continents.
The 2011 Kravis Prize was awarded to Vicky Colbert and the Escuela Nueva Foundation. Past recipients include Pratham
in 2010, Sakena Yacoobi
in 2009, F.A.W.E. in 2008, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
in 2007, and Roy Prosterman
in 2007
Additionally, Kravis funds the Henry Kravis Leadership Institute that sponsors the Leadership Studies
programs at Claremont McKenna College, and the "Henry Kravis Internships for Teachers of Color" program. He has also financed the construction of extensive facilities at Middlesex School
(Kravis House), the Eaglebrook School
(Kravis Dorm), Deerfield Academy
(Kravis Arena) , and The Loomis Chaffee School (Kravis Hall).
He is a benefactor and a past chairman of New York's public television station and sits on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. A Trustee of the Mount Sinai Medical Center, Henry and wife Marie-Josée Kravis donated $15 million to establish the "Center for Cardiovascular Health" as well as funding a Professorship. They have also endowed the chair in Human Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
in New York.
He previously co-chaired with Jerry Speyer
the influential Partnership for New York City, founded by David Rockefeller
in 1979, and now sits on its board of directors. He created the New York City Investment Fund, a non-profit organization to create jobs and new business in New York City.
He is a Trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations
in New York and is a member of the leading business group, the Business Council. He co-chairs the Columbia Business School
Board of Overseers where he recently pledged a gift of $100 million to support the school's new campus project and is a vice-chairman of Rockefeller University
.
as the 281st richest person in the world.
He donated The Kravis dorm to the Loomis Chaffee School, his alma mater, to house freshman boys.
New York Magazine article documenting Kravis and Roehm party at Metropolitan Museum of Art
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
businessman and private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
. He is the co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
KKR & Co. L.P. is an American-based global private equity firm, specializing in leveraged buyouts, based in New York. The firm sponsors and manages private equity investment funds. Since its inception, the firm has completed over $400 billion of private equity transactions and was a pioneer in...
, a private equity firm
Private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...
with over $62 billion in assets
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...
as of 2011. He has an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion as of September 2011, ranked by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
as the 88th richest man in America. He mainly lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and has a residence in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
.
Early life
Kravis was born in Tulsa, OklahomaTulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
, the son of Bessie (Roberts) and Raymond Kravis, a successful Tulsa oil engineer who had been a business partner of Joseph P. Kennedy
Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy, Sr. was a prominent American businessman, investor, and government official....
. Kravis began his education at the Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding school for boys in Deerfield, Massachusetts. It is located on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on a campus which is also preserved by the Deerfield Wildlife Trust....
, ('60) followed by high school at the Loomis Chaffee School. He then majored in economics at Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
in Claremont, California
Claremont, California
Claremont is a small affluent college town in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, about east of downtown Los Angeles at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. The population as of the 2010 census is 34,926. Claremont is known for its seven higher-education institutions, its...
and graduated in 1967 before going on to Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School
Columbia Business School is the business school of Columbia University in Manhattan, New York City. It was established in 1916 to provide business training and professional preparation for undergraduate and graduate Columbia University students...
, where he received an MBA degree in 1969.
Kravis at Bear Stearns
After working at various jobs in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's financial sector, he and his first cousin, George R. Roberts
George R. Roberts
George R. Roberts is an American financier and was one of the three original partners of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. , which he co-founded alongside Jerome Kohlberg and first cousin Henry Kravis in 1976.-Biography:...
, joined the staff of Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
. Kravis and Roberts share the same grandfather, an immigrant from Russia. There, they worked under the corporate finance manager, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr.
Jerome Kohlberg, Jr.
Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. is an American businessman and early pioneer in the private equity and leveraged buyout industries founding private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and later Kohlberg & Company....
. They both became partners at Bear Stearns at a very young age, 30 and 31.
Working for Bear Stearns
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Kravis, alongside Kohlberg and Roberts began a series of what they described as "bootstrap" investments. Kohlberg's acquisition of Orkin Exterminating Company
Orkin
Orkin is a pest-control company that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rollins Inc.-The Orkin Uniform:The most recognized Orkin uniform consists of a white collared shirt with the Orkin logo and red epaulets and pressed khaki pants. The uniform varies depending on an employee’s job function for...
in 1964 is among the first significant leveraged buyout
Leveraged buyout
A leveraged buyout occurs when an investor, typically financial sponsor, acquires a controlling interest in a company's equity and where a significant percentage of the purchase price is financed through leverage...
transactions. In the following years Kohlberg and later Kravis and Roberts 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. Kravis and his associates created a series of limited partnerships to acquire these various corporations, ones they judged were performing well below their sales and profit potential or where there were untapped financial assets that could be monetized. In most cases, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co put up ten percent of the acquisition price from its own funds and borrowed the rest from investors by issuing high-yield bonds.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
By 1976, tensions had built up between Bear StearnsBear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. based in New York City, was a global investment bank and securities trading and brokerage, until its sale to JPMorgan Chase in 2008 during the global financial crisis and recession...
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.
Early investors in KKR included the Hillman Family and the Griffith family (who are also large shareholders in MGM and Time-Warner) By 1978, with the revision of the ERISA regulations, the nascent KKR was successful in raising its first institutional fund with approximately $30 million of investor commitments.
In 1987, Jerome Kohlberg, Jr. resigned from KKR, and Henry Kravis and George Roberts continued to lead the firm. Under Kravis and Roberts the firm was responsible for the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco
RJR Nabisco
RJR Nabisco, Inc., was an American conglomerate formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. RJR Nabisco was purchased in 1988 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co...
. At a cost of $31.4 billion, it was then the highest price ever paid for a commercial enterprise. The publicity surrounding the event led to the story being dramatized in the book and film, Barbarians at the Gate. In early 1995, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co divested its remaining holdings in RJR Nabisco.
The list of companies in which Henry Kravis's KKR has invested over the years includes health care provider Hospital Corporation of America (HCA)
Hospital Corporation of America
Hospital Corporation of America is the largest private operator of health care facilities in the world, It is based in Nashville, Tennessee and is widely considered to be the single largest factor in making that city a hotspot for healthcare enterprise.-History:The founders of HCA include Jack C....
, TXU
TXU
Energy Future Holdings Corporation is an electric utility company headquartered in Energy Plaza in Downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The company was known as TXU until its $45 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs...
, Playtex, Beatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods
Beatrice Foods Company was a major American food processing company. In 1987, its smaller international food operations were sold to Reginald Lewis, a corporate attorney creating TLC Beatrice International, after which the majority of its domestic brands and assets were acquired by Kohlberg,...
, Safeway
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
, Duracell, Toys "R" Us, Borden, First Data
First Data
First Data Corporation is an American payment processing company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. First Data is a provider of electronic commerce and payment solutions...
and Regal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group
Regal Entertainment Group also known as REG is a movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Regal operates the largest and most geographically diverse theater circuit in the United States, consisting of 6,775 screens in 548 locations in 39 states and the District of Columbia as of...
.
Personal life
Kravis has been married three times. His first marriage was to Helene Diane Shulman (deceased in 1997). They had three children before their marriage ended in divorce in the early eighties. Their 19-year-old son, Harrison, was killed in an automobile accident in 1991 and he has two remaining children, Robert R. Kravis and Kimberly Kravis Schulhof, both of whom are now in their mid-thirties.He later married New York designer Carolyne Roehm (born Carolyne Jane Smith) in 1985, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1993. The home decorated for the couple by Robert Denning
Robert Denning
Robert Denning was an American interior designer whose lush interpretations of French Victorian decor became an emblem of corporate raider tastes in the 1980s.-Early life:...
and Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Fourcade
Vincent Gabriel Fourcade was a French interior designer and the business and life partner of Robert Denning...
was parodied in the 1990 movie The Bonfire of the Vanities
The Bonfire of the Vanities (film)
The Bonfire of the Vanities is a 1990 American film adaptation of the best-selling novel of the same name by Tom Wolfe. The film was directed by Brian De Palma and stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, Bruce Willis as Peter Fallow, Melanie Griffith as Maria Ruskin, and Kim Cattrall as Judy McCoy,...
.
Kravis is currently married to a prominent Canadian economist, Marie-Josée Drouin
Marie-Josée Drouin
Marie-Josée Kravis is an economist and philanthropist. She is from Montreal, Quebec, and is the third wife of financier Henry Kravis.-Background:...
, and former columnist and TV personality in Canada. She also sits on the boards of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...
, the Robin Hood Foundation
Robin Hood Foundation
The Robin Hood Foundation is a charitable organization, which attempts to alleviate problems caused by poverty in New York, United States.-History:Founded in 1988, Robin Hood was the brainchild of hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones...
, and is the president of the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
board of directors.
Kravis currently owns homes in New York, NY; Southampton, New York
Southampton (village), New York
Southampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York, USA. The village is named after the Earl of Southampton. The Village of Southampton is in the southeast part of the county in the Town of Southampton...
; Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
; Paris, France; Meeker, CO; and Sharon, CT.
Henry has one older brother, George R. Kravis, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. George Kravis owned radio station KRAV for a number of years before selling the station.
Politics
A supporter of Republican politics, he was a supporter and fundraiser for PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
and John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
. He was also a major contributor to the 1992 re-election campaign of President George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
. In 1997, Henry Kravis joined with Lewis Eisenberg to establish the Republican Leadership Council
Republican Leadership Council
The Republican Leadership Council , founded in 1993 as the Committee for Responsible Government, is a United States political advocacy group and political action committee that promotes Republican candidates who espouse a platform that the organization characterizes as "fiscally conservative,...
.
Kravis has been subjected to criticism from various liberal campaigns, most notably "War on Greed," which attempts to document his lifestyle in an effort to force legislative changes in relation to the taxation of private equity
Taxation of private equity and hedge funds
Private equity funds and hedge funds are private investment vehicles used to pool investment capital, usually for a small group of large institutional or wealthy individual investors. They are subject to favorable regulatory treatment in most jurisdictions from which they are managed, which allows...
, specifically the carried interest
Carried interest
Carried interest or carry, in finance, specifically in alternative investment management, is a share of the profits of a successful investment partnership that is paid to the investment manager of the partnership as a form of compensation that is designed as an incentive to the manager to maximize...
earned by private equity firm
Private equity firm
A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...
s.
Philanthropy and Public positions
The Henry R. Kravis Prize in LeadershipThe Henry R. Kravis Prize in Leadership
The Henry R. Kravis Prize in 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."-About the Prize:The Henry R...
identifies extraordinary leaders in the nonprofit sector, celebrates their accomplishments and shares their best practices with others. The Prize is presented and administered by Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College
Claremont McKenna College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college and a member of the Claremont Colleges located in Claremont, California. The campus is located east of Downtown Los Angeles...
(CMC) and Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis. Marie-Josée Kravis, an economist, is a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
. Henry R. Kravis is an alumnus and trustee of Claremont McKenna College. The Prize is affiliated with the Kravis Leadership Institute, a research institute at Claremont McKenna College.
Established in 2006, the Kravis Prize chooses an annual recipient who has demonstrated bold and visionary leadership within the nonprofit sector. A formal award ceremony celebrates the recipient's accomplishments, and $250,000 is directed to a nonprofit organization designated by the recipient. Collectively, the first five Prize recipients have impacted more than 500 million people in more than 60 countries on five continents.
The 2011 Kravis Prize was awarded to Vicky Colbert and the Escuela Nueva Foundation. Past recipients include Pratham
Pratham
Pratham is a non-governmental organisation that works towards the provision of quality education to the underprivileged children in India. Established in Mumbai in 1994 to provide pre-school education to children in slums, it now has activities in 21 states of India and has supporting chapters in...
in 2010, Sakena Yacoobi
Sakena Yacoobi
Sakena Yacoobi is the founder of the .Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning , an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. The organization was established to provide teacher training to Afghan women, to support education for boys and girls, and to provide...
in 2009, F.A.W.E. in 2008, Sir Fazle Hasan Abed
Fazle Hasan Abed
Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, KCMG is a social worker with dual Bangladeshi/ British nationality and the founder and chairman of BRAC . For his outstanding contributions to social improvement, he has received the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the UNDP Mahbub Ul Haq Award and the inaugural Clinton Global Citizen...
in 2007, and Roy Prosterman
Roy Prosterman
Roy Prosterman is Professor Emeritus of Law at the University of Washington and the founder of the Rural Development Institute , which changed its name to Landesa in January 2011. He is also active in the fields of land reform, rural development, and foreign aid...
in 2007
Additionally, Kravis funds the Henry Kravis Leadership Institute that sponsors the Leadership Studies
Leadership studies
Leadership studies is a multidisciplinary academic field of study that focuses on leadership in organizational contexts and in human life. Leadership studies has origins in the social sciences , in humanities , as well as in professional and applied fields of study...
programs at Claremont McKenna College, and the "Henry Kravis Internships for Teachers of Color" program. He has also financed the construction of extensive facilities at Middlesex School
Middlesex School
Middlesex School is an independent secondary school for grades 9 - 12 located in Concord, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1901 by a Roxbury Latin School alumnus, Frederick Winsor, who headed the school until 1937. Winsor set up a National Scholarship Program for the school, the first of its kind...
(Kravis House), the Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School
Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding school for boys in Deerfield, Massachusetts. It is located on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on a campus which is also preserved by the Deerfield Wildlife Trust....
(Kravis Dorm), Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
(Kravis Arena) , and The Loomis Chaffee School (Kravis Hall).
He is a benefactor and a past chairman of New York's public television station and sits on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
. A Trustee of the Mount Sinai Medical Center, Henry and wife Marie-Josée Kravis donated $15 million to establish the "Center for Cardiovascular Health" as well as funding a Professorship. They have also endowed the chair in Human Oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center is a cancer treatment and research institution founded in 1884 as the New York Cancer Hospital...
in New York.
He previously co-chaired with Jerry Speyer
Jerry Speyer
Jerry I. Speyer is an American real estate tycoon. He is one of two founding partners of the prominent New York real estate company Tishman Speyer...
the influential Partnership for New York City, founded by David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller
David Rockefeller, Sr. is the current patriarch of the Rockefeller family. He is the youngest and only surviving child of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and the only surviving grandchild of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, founder of Standard Oil. His five siblings were...
in 1979, and now sits on its board of directors. He created the New York City Investment Fund, a non-profit organization to create jobs and new business in New York City.
He is a Trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
in New York and is a member of the leading business group, the Business Council. He co-chairs the Columbia Business School
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Board of Overseers where he recently pledged a gift of $100 million to support the school's new campus project and is a vice-chairman of Rockefeller University
Rockefeller University
The Rockefeller University is a private university offering postgraduate and postdoctoral education. It has a strong concentration in the biological sciences. It is also known for producing numerous Nobel laureates...
.
Quotations
- "We've got a portfolio of companies that range all the way from hotels to television stations and cable TV companies, oil and gas, consumer products, and industrial products. If there's anything that I want to know more about, I have the opportunity. It's right in our portfolio. I can spend time at the factory or with the management and learn as much as I want. You can't get bored doing that."
- "A real entrepreneur is somebody who has no safety net underneath him or her."
- "If you don't have integrity, you have nothing. You can't buy it. You can have all the money in the world, but if you are not a moral and ethical person, you really have nothing."
Wealth
With an estimated net worth of around $3.9 billion, he is ranked by ForbesForbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
as the 281st richest person in the world.
He donated The Kravis dorm to the Loomis Chaffee School, his alma mater, to house freshman boys.
See also
- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts
- History of private equity and venture capitalHistory of private equity and venture capitalThe history of private equity and 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...
- Private equityPrivate equityPrivate equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
- Leveraged buyoutLeveraged buyoutA leveraged buyout occurs when an investor, typically financial sponsor, acquires a controlling interest in a company's equity and where a significant percentage of the purchase price is financed through leverage...
- RJR NabiscoRJR NabiscoRJR Nabisco, Inc., was an American conglomerate formed in 1985 by the merger of Nabisco Brands and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. RJR Nabisco was purchased in 1988 by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co...
External links
- Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (company website)
- KKR Private Equity Pioneers (from KKR website)
- For TXU, One of the Street’s Fabled Barbarians Is Back in the Hunt February, 2007 New York Times article profiling Kravis.
- Management: Consultants Put Aside Rivalries for New York November, 2001 NYT article on Kravis and the New York City Partnership.
- Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People (2005)
- Forbes 400 richest americans (2005)
- ATLAS, RIVA D. "What's An Aging 'Barbarian' To Do?." New York Times, August 26, 2001
New York Magazine article documenting Kravis and Roehm party at Metropolitan Museum of Art
- http://books.google.com/books?id=jegCAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA20&ots=AFUfxZm045&dq=is%20metropolitan%20museum%20of%20art%20%22patrons%20lounge%22%20worth%20it%3F&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q=&f=false