KKR, a global investment firm, has appointed Kate Richdale as member and head of strategy and business development in Asia Pacific. In this role, Richdale will work with KKR’s senior leadership team in Asia to help the firm expand its platform across business and new investment strategies. She will also work with KKR’s Asia investing businesses to assist in advancing the deal origination pipeline and to get involved at a strategic level with the firm’s key client relationships across the region.
Richdale’s appointment builds on KKR’s significant investment in its Asia franchise. Over the past year, KKR has hired two additional members, John Pattar and David Luboff, to head KKR’s real estate and infrastructure investing platforms, respectively. In addition, Brian Dillard relocated from KKR’s New York office to Hong Kong to lead the firm’s credit business.
Joseph Y. Bae, co-president of KKR, said, “Asia Pacific holds enormous opportunity for investment and partnership and is an integral part of KKR’s global growth strategy. Given our market position and commitment to building out our platform, now is the right time to bring in a talented executive like Kate Richdale. Kate has an unparalleled quarter-century record of serving clients with strategic advice. We warmly welcome Kate to KKR in a role that will help us advance our market position and be the leading Asia Pacific provider of alternative investment strategies to companies and our investors.”
Ming Lu, member and head of KKR Asia, said, “Since we started investing in Asia nearly 15 years ago, KKR has grown from a private equity investor to a diversified alternative solutions provider spanning credit, capital markets, real estate and infrastructure. Our first phase of growth has focused on scaling our private equity business, and now we have the great opportunity to meet the growing needs of Asian businesses and entrepreneurs. Appointing Kate as our head of strategy & business development will accelerate our growth in Asia.”
Richdale joins KKR from Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, where she was chairman of investment banking in Asia Ex-Japan. Prior to that, she was the co-head of the firm’s investment banking division in Asia Ex-Japan. While at Goldman Sachs, she helped the firm achieve the number-one ranking in Asia across equity and in M&A for 2018. She was previously the head of investment banking for Asia Pacific at Morgan Stanley.
