Building Wealth for All: Ownership Works is Fundamentally Changing the Private Equity Industry

Peter Stavros (New York) joined KKR in 2005 and is Co-Head of Global Private Equity. This includes oversight of assets across Europe, Asia and the Americas and traditional large and mid-cap private equity, core and growth equity.

Prior to this role, Mr. Stavros served as Co-Head of the Americas Private Equity platform. He is a member of several investment committees at KKR and has also served as Co-Chair of the firm’s global Inclusion and Diversity Council.

As an investor, Mr. Stavros 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, Mr. Stavros led the Industrials industry team where he pioneered an innovative employee engagement and ownership model. This approach has been successfully implemented at more than 50 KKR companies and has positively impacted more than a hundred thousand employees.

Mr. Stavros is the Founder and Chairman of Ownership Works, a non-profit focused on building a worker ownership movement globally and enhancing the financial resiliency of the workforce. The goal of Ownership Works is to create more than $20 billion of wealth for working families over the next decade. Mr. Stavros is also the Founder and Chairman of Expanding ESOPs, an organization focused on dramatically expanding the number of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) in corporate America. Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Stavros 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. 

Yup S. Kim serves as the chief investment officer for Texas’ $44 billion municipal retirement system (TMRS) and chairs its staff investment committee. Previously, he served as the head of investments for private equity at CalPERS, California’s $490 billion pension fund, where he helped lead the private equity program across all functions, including strategy, team management, and investment activities across primary, secondary, and co-investment opportunities globally. 

Previously, he served as the senior portfolio manager at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, an $80 billion sovereign wealth fund, where he helped lead its private investment activities. The private equity and special opportunities portfolio generated 25% net of fee returns over a decade. He has also held positions at DB Private Equity, where he served on the Investment Committee, Performance Equity, and Silver Point Capital, and he began his career at Citigroup in New York. 

Kim received his B.A. in economics from Yale University, speaks six languages and chairs the Milken Institute Rising Allocator forum. He serves as a board member of the Korea Finance Society, a term member for the Council of Foreign Relations, a global investment ambassador for the Seoul Metropolitan Government and a visiting lecturer at Harvard Business School, The Wharton School, Yale University and many other academic institutions.

As Chief Executive Officer at ACG, Brent oversees all aspects of the organization's operations and plans for strategic growth.

He has a long career in middle market M&A, with more than 25 years of sell-side and buy-side advisory experience, closing more than 200 transactions with a combined value of more than $1 billion. He also has a long and dedicated history supporting ACG in a volunteer capacity, serving in multiple positions on the ACG Board of Directors, and was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 DealMAX event.

Brent has been an active participant in numerous chapter leadership events for 20+ years, forming deep connections with ACG's chapter network. He has attended more than 250 ACG events throughout the U.S. and has been a key member of his local ACG St. Louis chapter, serving in multiple positions including Board President, Membership Chair, Chair of the Corporate Peer Group, as well as Chair of a key multi-chapter Midwest event, the Growth Conference.

Immediately before joining ACG, Brent served as Managing Director at Nolan & Associates, a leading boutique investment banking firm with a focus on the middle market.

Prior to joining Nolan, Brent spent 18 years as Managing Director of a St. Louis independent investment bank. He also has extensive experience growing private companies through acquisitions, serving as CEO of a food manufacturing company that more than quadrupled its sales in eight years, and continuing to serve on the boards of several privately held companies.