KKR promoted Billy Butcher and Chris Lee to co-presidents of KKR Real Estate last month, it has emerged.
Global real estate head, Ralph Rosenberg, took to LinkedIn to share the news.
Both New York-based professionals have been at KKR for many years and also have in common stints at Goldman Sachs.
Rosenberg said: ‘These appointments reflect the natural progression of KKR’s Real Estate business, which has grown from its inception in 2011 to a global business with $65 billion of assets under management, controlling over $245 billion of underlying real estate. Our footprint encompasses 17 offices in 11 countries and over 15 investment strategies across real estate equity and credit.’
‘We have been very deliberate in building a business with integrated Real Estate Equity and Real Estate Credit investing under one global leadership team and connecting it to KKR’s global investment platform. Our team, inclusive of 16 dedicated operating platforms, is over 1000 people strong.
Lee joined KKR in 2012 and was head of real estate Americans, and serves as portfolio manager for KKR Property Partners Americas. He is currently vice chairman of the board of directors of KKR Real Estate Finance Trust
Prior to joining KKR, he spent three years at Apollo Global Management on their global real estate team where he focused on real estate acquisitions, and worked at Goldman Sachs in the merchant banking division's real estate principal investment area (REPIA) for over five years after spending two years in the investment banking division.
Butcher joined KKR in 2004 and is CEO of KKR Real Estate Select Trust, and serves on KKR's global real estate investment committees. He was previously COO of KKR Real Estate and co-led US real estate acquisitions. Before helping to establish the firm's dedicated real estate investment business in 2011, he worked in the firm's corporate private equity business in the US and Asia. Prior to joining KKR, he was at Goldman Sachs.
