Venerable private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has made three senior executive appointments, including the recruitment of David Sorkin, a noted M&A lawyer and long-time adviser
Venerable private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has made three senior executive appointments, including the recruitment of David Sorkin, a noted M&A lawyer and long-time adviser to KKR while at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, who becomes a member of the firm and its general counsel.
Robert Gottlieb, who spent nearly 20 years at Goldman Sachs in senior human resources management and administrative functions, becomes KKR’s chief human resources officer, while Edward Brandman has been appointed the firm’s chief information officer.
‘Our more than 400 employees in seven offices around the world are capitalising on a diverse and exciting range of investment opportunities as a global alternative asset manager,’ say KKR co-founding members Henry Kravis and George Roberts. ‘As we continue to grow our talent pool and expand our activities, a strong corporate infrastructure of senior executives will help support our global development.
‘David Sorkin has been a legal advisor to KKR for more than two decades on both M&A transactions and the firm’s ongoing development, and Bob Gottlieb and Ed Brandman bring top-notch experience in their respective fields. With us they will work on preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that is central to KKR’s culture and success.’
After joining Simpson Thacher in 1985, Sorkin, 48, specialised in mergers and acquisitions and corporate and securities law matters, including a wide range of private equity transactions. He worked on numerous KKR transactions, including RJR Nabisco, Borden, Duracell, SunGard Data Systems, Texas Genco, HCA and TXU, as well as advising on the initial public offering of KKR Private Equity Investors in 2006.
Gottlieb, 49, spent nearly 20 years at Goldman Sachs starting in 1987, becoming successively head of HR, chief training officer and co-leader of a firm-wide compliance and reputational judgment initiative. He was most recently chief administrative officer of the investment banking division with the rank of managing director. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Gottlieb was a management consultant with McKinsey.
Brandman, 39, has joined from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he was a managing director in its advisory services group, focused on best-in-class technology strategies to support capital markets and trading activities for clients in the financial services and investments industries. At KKR he will be responsible for global technology and information strategy to support financial reporting, transactions and capital-raising.
Between 2003 and 2006 Brandman was a managing partner at OMT Partners, a boutique advisory firm. Previously he founded and served for two years as chief executive of Renaissance Trading Technologies, a technology firm focused on trading solutions for the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq markets. Brandman began his career at JP Morgan in 1991.
Established in 1976, KKR sponsors and manages funds that make private equity investments in North America, Europe and Asia from offices in New York, Menlo Park, San Francisco, London, Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The firm also sponsors KKR Private Equity Investors, a Guernsey-domiciled permanent capital fund that invests in KKR-identified investments, and two credit strategy funds, KKR Financial and the KKR Strategic Capital Funds, which invest in debt transactions.
