George Roberts

A pioneer of the private equity industry, George Roberts, co-founded Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. For over 30 years, George Roberts, along with KKR co-founder Henry Kravis, has led the firm in its growth into a leading global alternative asset manager. After graduating from the University of California Hastings Law School in 1969, Roberts joined Bear Stearns and Company. By the age of 29, he was a partner in the firm. Along with Henry Kravis and Jerome Kohlberg, he pioneered the leveraged buyout, borrowing money to buy a controlling interest in a given company, a practice that revolutionized the financing of American industry. The trio left Bear Stearns to found their own firm, KKR, in 1976. Since its founding, KKR has undertaken the biggest corporate acquisitions in history. The list of the companies Roberts' firm has controlled over the years constitutes a virtual roll-call of great American brands: Safeway, Beatrice, Borden, Playtex, Samsonite, Culligan, Texaco and Nabisco. KKR completed the first leveraged buyout in excess of 1 billion dollars, the first friendly tender offer in the buyout of a public company, and the largest buyouts ever completed in the U.S., the Netherlands, Denmark, India, Australia, Turkey, Singapore, and France. In addition to his historic business achievements, George Roberts is founder and Chairman of the board of directors of REDF, a San Francisco non-profit organization. REDF uses the practices of venture philanthropy to create job opportunities through the support of social enterprises that help people gain the skills to help themselves.