2009-04-15 15:19:02 -

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) announced today that KKR has become the inaugural partner of SEO’s new Alternative Investment Fellowship Program, designed to provide a pathway, training, and mentoring opportunities for talented young financial executives of color to increase their presence in the private equity industry.

The fellowship is an industry-wide initiative, backed by SEO – a leader in helping talented students of color to pursue careers in finance – that will be meaningfully supported by a three year commitment from KKR.
The core of the fellowship will consist of the annual selection of four to six analysts to participate in a series of education, training, and mentoring initiatives over an 18 month period.

Those analysts will be then eligible for consideration as KKR associate hires.

“Focusing on the private equity industry is a natural next step in SEO’s evolution as partner to Wall Street and Corporate America in creating successful workplace diversity programs,” said William Goodloe, SEO President & CEO. “We are delighted to launch this program with KKR, one of the oldest and most successful private equity investors. Together we hope this program becomes attractive for other private equity and alternative asset managers to support as well.” With more than 5,000 alumni of its Career Program, SEO has become an essential source of talent for major investment banks and global companies.

Joseph Y. Bae, a senior member of KKR, head of KKR in Asia, and a graduate of SEO’s Career Program, said, “A diverse workplace is a proven competitive advantage and a business imperative. We recognize that we – and the private equity industry overall – can do more to engage with talented professionals of color when hiring young executives. We hope the Alternative Investment Fellowship Program will be a meaningful first step in a long-term industry commitment.”


About SEO

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1963 as one of New York City's first mentoring programs for high school students of color. SEO currently provides services through three major programs: the Career Program, the Scholars Program, and Alumni & Philanthropy Programs. Over the past four decades, SEO has grown into an established national nonprofit organization with offices in New York City and affiliates in London and Beijing, 40 full-time staff, and programs that serve over 1,000 young people each year, helping them develop throughout high school, college and their careers.
The SEO Career Program, the organization’s flagship program, recruits and trains outstanding college students of color for summer internships that lead to full-time jobs with investment banks, corporate law firms and other leading global companies. The program has over 5,000 graduates. More information about SEO can be found on SEO’s web site at www.seo-usa.org : .


About KKR

Established in 1976, KKR : is a leading global alternative asset manager. KKR's franchise is sponsoring and managing funds that make investments in private equity, fixed income and other assets in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Throughout its history, KKR has brought a long-term investment approach, focusing on working in partnership with management teams of its portfolio companies and investing for future competitiveness and growth. Funds that KKR sponsors include traditional private equity funds and KKR Private Equity Investors, L.P. (Euronext Amsterdam: KPE), a permanent capital fund that invests in KKR-identified investments; two credit strategy funds, KKR Financial Holdings LLC : (NYSE: KFN) and the KKR Strategic Capital Funds, which make investments in debt transactions; and separately managed accounts focused on a variety of asset classes. KKR has offices in New York, Menlo Park, San Francisco, Houston, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai and Sydney. More information about KKR is available at: www.kkr.com : .



SEOJulian Johnson, 646-435-9572Senior Vice President jjohnson@seo-usa.org : mailto:jjohnson@seo-usa.org orKKRPeter
McKillop, 212-230-9475Director of Global Communications Peter.Mckillop@kkr.com : mailto:Peter.Mckillop@kkr.com orKristi
Huller, 212-230-9722Deputy Director of Global Communications Kristi.Huller@kkr.com : mailto:Kristi.Huller@kkr.com