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Henry Roberts Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Forbes: The World's Billionaires - Henry Kravis September 2015 He is a co-founder of the private equity and investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
His lavish lifestyle has been criticized by activists looking to reform private equity regulations and restrict the practice of he pioneered. His buyout of RJR Nabisco was portrayed in the 1989 book and 1993 film Barbarians at the Gate.
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. 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.http://www.answers.com/topic/kohlberg-kravis-roberts-co (Answers.com profile)
Kohlberg invested $100,000 while Kravis and Roberts invested $10,000 each of their own capital in their new firm. Early investors in KKR included the Henry Hillman and the Griffith family (who are also large shareholders in MGM and Warner Bros. Discovery).Refers to Henry Hillman and the Hillman Company. The Hillman Company (Answers.com profile) 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.*Burrough, Bryan. Barbarians at the Gate, New York: Harper & Row, 1990, pp. 136-140 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, The Biggest Deal Ever. DeMott, Deborah A. Duke Law Journal, 1989, no.1 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. Kravis was portrayed in the film by actor Jonathan Pryce.
In early 1995, KKR divested its remaining holdings in RJR Nabisco, taking an overall loss on the deal. A journalist for the New York Times wrote a few years later that "the deal will go down in history as showing just how difficult it can be to get out of a huge deal that goes badly, and of the perils of putting too much money on one investment." KKR pledged not to commit so much of its fund to a single investment again in the future. However, other investments proved more profitable, and the fund still did well overall.
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,Lonkevich, Dan and Klump, Edward. KKR, Texas Pacific Will Acquire TXU for $45 Billion Bloomberg, February 26, 2007. Playtex, Beatrice Foods,Dodson, Steve. BEATRICE DEAL IS BIGGEST BUYOUT YET. The New York Times, November 17, 1985. Safeway,FISHER, LAWRENCE M. Safeway Buyout: A Success Story. The New York Times, October 21, 1988 Toys "R" Us,SORKIN, ANDREW ROSS and ROZHON, TRACIE. " Three Firms Are Said to Buy Toys 'R' Us for $6 Billion." New York Times, March 17, 2005. Borden, First Data" K.K.R. Offer of $26 Billion Is Accepted by First Data." Reuters, April 3, 2007. and Regal Entertainment Group.MYERSON, ALLEN R. and FABRIKANT, GERALDINE. " 2 Buyout Firms Make Deal To Acquire Regal Cinemas." New York Times, January 21, 1998. A takeover of the battery maker Duracell proved particularly profitable.
On December 24, 2013, KKR closed their first real estate specific investment fund, which raised $1.2 billion of new money to invest. With additional funds from within KKR, the new fund provided over $1.5 billion to utilize.
In July 2017, Kravis and Roberts announced that they would eventually be succeeded by Joseph Bae and Scott C. Nuttall, who were named co-presidents and co-chief operating officers so that they might gradually take over daily operations. This succession plan was enacted in October 2021, with Kravis and Roberts stepping down from their positions as co-CEOs but continuing as co-executive chairmen.
Kravis mainly lives in New York City and has a seasonal residence in Palm Beach, Florida; he also owns homes in New York City; Southampton, New York; Paris; and Sharon, Connecticut.DeShazer, Danae. " Portraits of New York wealth: Henry Kravis ." Time Out New York, January 17–23, 2008
Kravis also funds the Henry Kravis Leadership Institute that sponsors the Leadership Studies programs at Claremont McKenna College, Kravis Leadership Institute at Claremont McKenna College (program website) 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).
Kravis 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.
Kravis 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. Partnership for New York City 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.
Kravis is a trustee of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, chairman of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity, and was a member of the executive committee of The Business Council for 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014. The Business Council, Official website, Executive Committee Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris Elected Chairman, The Business Council, dow.com, October 19, 2012Press Release: The Dow Chemical Company, Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris Elected Chairman, The Business Council, Yahoo!, October 19, 2012 He has also served as chairman of The Business Council.
Kravis 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 Kravis Gives School $100 Million to Establish Manhattanville Campus and is a vice-chairman of Rockefeller University. The eleven-story Henry R. Kravis Hall, one of the school's two main buildings, is named after him.
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Personal life
Kravis has been married three times. His first marriage to Helene Diane "Hedi" Shulman ended in divorce. They had three children, Harrison S. Kravis (b. 1972, d. 1991 car accident), Robert R. Kravis (b. 1973), and Kimberly Kravis Schulhof (b. 1975). Hedi remarried to James Thompson Ruger, son of William B. Ruger and died of cancer on April 2, 1997, at age 49. Hedi Kravis, Chic Society's Interior Designer, 49" New York Times, April 5, 1997. Kravis later married New York designer Carolyne Roehm (born Carolyne Jane Smith) in 1985, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1993.Shaw, Dan. " The Best Revenge (Isn't It Always)." New York Times, October 15, 2006. Kravis is currently married to a prominent Canadian economist, and former columnist and TV personality in Canada, Marie-Josée Drouin. She 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.Thomas, Landon Jr. " Parallel Paths Diverging Sharply." New York Times, May 17, 2007.
Politics
A supporter of Republican politics, he was a supporter and fundraiser for President 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 M. Eisenberg to establish the Republican Leadership Council. In 2017, he also contributed $1 million to President Donald Trump's presidential inauguration.
Philanthropy and public positions
The Henry R. Kravis Prize in Nonprofit Leadership, established in 2006, 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. Kravis is an alumnus and trustee of Claremont McKenna College. The Kravis Prize is affiliated with the Kravis Leadership Institute, a research institute at Claremont McKenna.
Awards and honors
See also
External links
Categories: 1944 Births, Living People, 20th-century American Jews, 21st-century American Jews, 20th-century American Businesspeople, 21st-century American Businesspeople, American Billionaires, American Chairpersons Of Corporations, American Chief Executives Of Financial Services Companies, American Financial Company Founders, American Financiers, American Investors, American Money Managers, American Philanthropists, Bear Stearns People, Businesspeople From Tulsa, Oklahoma, Loomis Chaffee School Alumni, Claremont Mckenna College Alumni, Columbia Business School Alumni, Corporate Raiders, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts People, New York Republicans, Private Equity And Venture Capital Investors, Stock And Commodity Market Managers, Jews From Oklahoma
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