PODCAST: Inside KKR’s employee ownership initiative

New Private Markets talks to Pete Stavros, partner and co-head of Americas private equity at KKR, about the firm’s approach to giving employees equity in their companies, and how it could catch on.

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“First of all, we think this is just the right thing to do.”

KKR’s US industrials team, under the leadership of partner and co-head of Americas private equity Pete Stavros, has been honing an approach to employee engagement that could reshape private equity.

The team has now completed eight deals in which equity has been granted to all employees in the form of options. It is a simple idea that draws on a long-standing PE principle: that ownership is a powerful aligning force. This, however, goes beyond the conventional approach of “cutting in” only a select group of managers.

In this episode of the Spotlight podcast, New Private Markets asks why the firm has been doing it, and why – given the success – all companies don’t do it.