Dan Pietrzak has become global head of private credit at KKR as his colleague and co-head of private credit Matthieu Boulanger departs to pursue other opportunities.
Pietrzak joined KKR in early 2016, while Boulanger joined KKR in London the next year from HPS Investment Partners. KKR’s private credit business includes direct lending, junior debt and asset-based-finance strategies and has grown from $8 billion at the start of 2017 to $76 billion today.
Last July, KKR finalized $2.1 billion in commitments for its first fund dedicated to asset-based finance investment, KKR Asset-Based Finance Partners.
Pietrzak in addition to his responsibilities overseeing private credit, he is co-president and chief investment officer for FS KKR Corp. and sits on the boards of FSK and several of KKR’s credit portfolio companies.
“As traditional lenders pull back, scaled private credit investors have a real opportunity to provide capital to high quality issuers and the breadth and depth of our platform enables us to support issuers with bespoke solutions,” said Chris Sheldon, co-head of Global Credit and Markets at KKR. “Dan has been instrumental in helping build our private credit business into what it is today. We look forward to its continued growth under his leadership and are grateful to Matthieu for his contributions to KKR.”
KKR’s broader credit business manages over $200 billion of assets with a global team of approximately 190 investment professionals, including 110 dedicated to private credit.
The firm also announced that Michael Small, a partner in London who serves as a portfolio manager for the firm’s global junior debt strategy, will take on the additional responsibility for managing KKR’s direct lending efforts in Europe. Small has over 20 years of credit investing experience. Prior to joining KKR in 2021, Small was a partner at Park Square Capital, where he served on the investment committee and executive committee and helped establish junior debt and direct lending businesses.
