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 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.
Most of Roberts’ fortune stems from the profits he has earned during his 36 years at the helm of buyout firm KKR. From 1976 to 1996, KKR funds generated $33.8 billion in profits, according to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Based on typical industry practice, KKR probably took 20% of the profits, the majority of which were split evenly by Roberts and his partner, Henry Kravis. A third co-founder, Jerome Kohlberg, left the firm in 1987. KKR had $510 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2023, according to the company’s website.
KKR became publicly traded in 2010. Roberts owns about 84.7 million shares in the company according to a February 2023 filing not including 1.4 million shares held by a partnership exclusively for charitable distributions.
The billionaire also receives tens of millions of dollars in payouts from the carried interest pool each year, according to KKR annual reports.
Roberts contributed $10,000 in capital to start KKR in 1976, the only money he ever put into the business, according “The New Tycoons: Inside the Trillion-Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything,” a book by Bloomberg News editor Jason Kelly.
Biography
Education: Claremont Mckenna College, University of California Hastings College of the Law
With cousin Henry Kravis and former boss Jerome Kohlberg, George Roberts founded KKR & Co., an early pioneer in leveraged buyouts. Today, KKR is the fourth-largest U.S. publicly traded private-equity company by assets under management, behind Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Apollo Global Management.
George Roberts was born in 1944 in Houston, Texas, and graduated from Culver Military Institute in 1962. He earned a degree from Claremont McKenna College four years later.
The relationships that led to KKR were formed at Bear Stearns, where Kravis and Roberts worked for Kohlberg in the corporate finance division. The trio began what they called bootstrap investments to acquire and revive companies that they believed were operating below their potential. After Bear declined a proposal to form a division dedicated to the practice, the three left to form KKR in 1976. Kravis and Roberts each invested $10,000, while Kohlberg contributed $100,000.
Kohlberg left over a disagreement on strategy in 1987. Kravis and Roberts bought RJR Nabisco in a $30 billion leveraged buyout in 1988, a deal memorialized in the book Barbarians at the Gate. From 1976 to June 2010, KKR funds generated $43.8 billion in profit, a total return of 91 percent. In 2010, KKR listed shares on the New York Stock Exchange; the publicly traded entity represents 30 percent of the KKR partnership.
Milestones
- 1944 George Roberts is born in Houston, Texas.
- 1966 Graduates from Claremont McKenna College in California.
- 1969 Earns law degree from Hastings College.
- 1976 Co-founds KKR. First fund invests $31 million, earns $506 million.
- 1984 KKR engages in its first billion-dollar buyout.
- 1986 Buys Safeway Stores, then the world’s largest food retailer.
- 1988 KKR bids against a Shearson Lehman group for RJR Nabisco.
- 2010 Shares of KKR begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Philanthropic and public positions
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. 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.
In 2012, he donated $50 million to Claremont McKenna College. He again donated $140 million to CMC in 2022
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