The private equity giant has created two co-president/co-COO posts and filled them with company veterans.
Private equity giant KKR & Co. L.P. recently announced that it is expanding its executive leadership team with the appointment of Joe Bae and Scott Nuttall as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers (COOs) for the firm and members of KKR’s board of directors.
Scott Nuttall, co-president & co-COO
KKR’s founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts, who serve as co-chairmen and co-CEOs for the firm, will continue to lead the firm. But they add that the executive shuffle is about finding the right successors for the firm.
“Today’s announcement is about the future and ensuring we have the right team and leadership structure to serve our clients and partners for decades to come,” Kravis and Roberts say in a joint statement. “They think and act globally, they embody KKR’s core values, and they are two of our most accomplished business leaders, with proven track records of managing large teams, building new businesses and driving value for our fund investors and our public unitholders.”
In their new roles, Nuttall and Bae will oversee the day-to-day operations of KKR, and will share responsibility for “the execution and implementation of KKR’s strategy, but will have different areas of primary responsibility,” officials say.
Joe Bae, co-president & co-COO
“Mr. Bae will focus on KKR’s global private equity businesses as well as the firm’s real asset platforms across energy, infrastructure and real estate private equity,” KKR officials say. “Mr. Nuttall will concentrate on KKR’s corporate and real estate credit, capital markets, hedge fund and capital raising businesses together with the firm’s corporate development, balance sheet and strategic growth initiatives.”
Before his promotion, Bae, who joined KKR in 1996, most recently was the managing partner of KKR Asia and the global head of KKR’s infrastructure and energy real asset businesses. Officials at the firm say that he has been the architect of KKR’s Asian expansion since 2005 and “has helped KKR build the largest and most successful Asia-Pacific platform in the market.”
Bae is the chairman of KKR’s Asia and Americas private equity investment committees and serves on KKR’s European private equity, growth equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and special situations investment committees, officials say. He is also a member of KKR’s risk management committee and inclusion and diversity council.
Prior to his years at KKR, Bae worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in its principal investment area, where he was involved in a broad range of merchant banking transactions.
Like Bae, Nuttall joined KKR in 1996. Most recently, Nuttal was the head of KKR’s Global Capital and Asset Management Group, where he oversaw KKR’s public markets & distribution businesses, which includes credit, capital markets, hedge funds and our client and partner group.
Nuttal played “a significant role in driving the strategic development of KKR for the last 15 years, including his leadership on KKR’s public listing, developing the firm’s balance sheet strategy, helping build KKR’s platforms in the credit and hedge fund space and creating the firm’s capital markets and capital raising businesses,” officials say.
Nuttall also serves on KKR’s balance sheet committee and the firm’s inclusion and diversity council, officials say. He is currently a member of the board of directors of First Data Corp., a KKR portfolio company. Prior to joining KKR, he was with the Blackstone Group where he was involved in numerous merchant banking and merger and acquisition transactions.
The executive shuffle includes Alex Navab, who announced that he is stepping down from his role as head of Americas Private Equity, officials say. He will retire from KKR “after an orderly transition.”
In a separate move, Todd Fisher, KKR chief administrative officer, announced his intention to depart from KKR at the end of the year to pursue a second career outside the investment arena, officials say.
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