Pete is the Founder and Chairman of Ownership Works. Pete’s interest in employee ownership began with his Dad who worked as an hourly construction worker in Chicago for 40 years and experienced what most Americans do — a lack of incentive alignment with his employer and no opportunity to create wealth. His interest in employee ownership deepened when he worked with an ESOP nearly 25 years ago, and later had an opportunity to study the topic in depth at business school. He has been experimenting with different models of employee ownership since that time.
Pete joined KKR in 2005 and is Co-Head of Global Private Equity. This includes oversight of $165 billion of assets across Europe, Asia and the Americas and covers traditional large and mid-cap private equity, impact, core and growth equity.
Prior to this role, Pete served as Co-Head of the firm’s Americas Private Equity platform. He is a member of several investment and management committees at KKR and has also served as Co-Chair of the firm’s global Inclusion and Diversity Council.
As an investor, he has helped lead a number of successful investments across sectors and sizes, including HCA Healthcare, Nielsen, Gardner Denver / Ingersoll Rand, Capsugel, Capital Safety, Hyperion, Flow Control Group, Charter Next Generation, Minnesota Rubber and Plastics, Geostabilization International, Crosby Group and CHI Overhead Doors.
Prior to becoming Co-Head of Americas Private Equity, Pete led the Industrials industry team, where he pioneered an innovative employee engagement and ownership model. This approach has been successfully implemented at a number of companies and has positively impacted tens of thousands of employees.
Prior to joining KKR, Pete was an investor with GTCR Golder Rauner, where he was an investor in the healthcare sector. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry, magna cum laude, from Duke University and an M.B.A. with high distinction, Baker Scholar, from Harvard Business School.
