George Roberts

George Roberts studied economics at Claremont McKenna College and earned his JD from Hastings College of the Law. He co-founded KKR in 1976 alongside his cousin Henry Kravis and their mentor Jerome Kohlberg. Roberts led KKR's West Coast operations from San Francisco, while Kravis ran the New York office. Together they executed a series of landmark leveraged buyouts through the 1980s that transformed the private equity industry. The 1988 RJR Nabisco acquisition — the defining transaction of the LBO era — was carried out jointly by Kravis and Roberts. Roberts has been involved in some of KKR's most significant investments, including Beatrice Foods and Safeway in the 1980s and a range of global investments since then. He has also been deeply involved in KKR's efforts to improve the environmental, social, and governance practices of its portfolio companies — a priority he championed within the firm. Roberts is a major philanthropist in California, donating substantially to Claremont McKenna College, Rice University (where Kravis studied), and other educational institutions. He has been less publicly visible than Kravis but is considered an equal creative force in building KKR.