Kravis, Henry R (1944– )

US investment banker. He developed the method of ‘junk bond’ corporate financing at Bear Stearns in New York City. His own investment firm, Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts and Co, which he founded in 1976, led the surge of leveraged buyouts of US corporations in the 1980s. KKR specialized in buying, restructuring, and managing or selling off undervalued companies; it became one of the world's largest privately held corporations with such major acquisitions as Beatrice Foods in 1986 and RJR Nabisco in 1988. Kravis was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.