KKR started out as a private equity house but now spans a variety of asset classes. To some extent, its performance as a business is a bellwether for the private markets space as a whole.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, one of the world’s biggest players in fields such as private investing – a space drawing in heavy wealth management inflows – has named two new co-chief executives.

Joe Bae (pictured) and Scott Nuttall are taking up the co-CEO slots, and co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts will remain actively involved as executive co-chairmen of KKR. The leadership transition is effective immediately, KKR said today in a statement. 

Bae and Nuttall are the second pair of co-CEOs at the firm, which oversees $429 billion in assets under management (as of June 30). Bae and Nuttall both joined KKR in 1996 and have served as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers of KKR since July 2017. 

Before his latest role, Bae - who joined KKR in 1996 - served as co-president and co-COO and has been a member of the board of directors of KKR & Co since July 2017. Bae has held numerous leadership positions at KKR. He was the architect of KKR’s expansion in Asia. Bae serves on the firm’s inclusion and diversity council. He is active in a number of non-profit educational and cultural institutions, including co-founding and serving on the board of The Asian American Foundation, serving as a member of Harvard University’s Global Advisory Council and he is as a member of the Board and Executive Committee of the Lincoln Center.

Nuttall joined KKR in 1996. He has held various leadership positions at KKR. He was the architect of the firm’s major strategic development initiatives, including leading KKR’s public listing, developing the firm’s balance sheet strategy, overseeing the development of KKR’s public markets businesses in the credit and hedge fund space as well as the creation of the firm’s capital markets, capital raising and insurance businesses. Nuttall serves on KKR’s balance sheet committee and the firm’s inclusion and diversity council. 

The business was founded in 1976 by first cousins George Roberts and Henry Kravis together with Jerome Kohlberg.

Structure
The firm said that it intended to change its structure and governance. In a transaction expected to be completed in 2022, KKR will combine with KKR Holdings LP, an entity through which certain current and former employees hold interests in KKR. 

On December 31, 2026, subject to exceptions, KKR will eliminate its controlling Series I preferred stock and also acquire control of KKR Associates Holdings LP. Holders of the firm's common stock are entitled to vote on a one vote per share basis with respect to certain corporate actions including, among others, a sale of all or substantially all of the firm's assets or amendments to its certificate of incorporation, which adversely change the rights or preferences of its common stock. 

When the Series I preferred stock is eliminated, all common stock will vote on a one vote per share basis on all matters customarily presented to common stockholders, including with respect to the election of directors. These reorganization transactions are expected to increase the rights of the firm's common stockholders, KKR said.