Alex Navab

Alexander (Alex) Navab is the former Co-Head and Head of the Americas Private Equity Business at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and has over 30 years of experience in financial services and private equity. Navab joined KKR in 1993 where he held several leadership roles at the firm, including member of the Management Committee, Chair of the Americas Private Equity Investment Committee, Chair of the Americas Portfolio Management Committee, and Head of the Media and Communications Team (2002 – 2008). During his leadership of the Americas Private Equity business (2008 – 2017), KKR committed over $14 billion of capital through the Americas dedicated private equity and growth funds, in over 50 companies across a wide variety of industries. KKR’s Americas Private Equity platform had over $36 billion of Assets Under Management at the time of Navab’s departure.

Prior to KKR, Navab was with James D. Wolfensohn Incorporated from 1991 to 1993 where he was involved in mergers and acquisitions as well as corporate finance advisory work. From 1987 to 1989, he was with Goldman, Sachs & Co. where he worked in the Investment Banking Department. Navab received a B.A. with Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from Columbia College, and an M.B.A. with High Distinction, Baker Scholar, Wolfe Award, from Harvard Business School. In 2011, Navab received the John Jay Award for distinguished professional achievement from Columbia College and in 2016, he was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Navab was born in Isfahan, Iran and is Hellenic-Iranian-American. At the age of fourteen, he and his family left Iran and took refuge in Greece during the 1979 Revolution. Following two years of dislocation, the Navabs immigrated to the United States and started a new journey. He speaks about the experience of immigration and the ways in which America’s dynamism and prosperity depend upon the Nation’s continued openness and diversity.

Navab is actively involved in philanthropic, educational, community and national organizations, serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Fidelity National Information Systems, Inc. (“FIS”); member of the Board of Directors at Cornerstone Capital Group; a member of the Board of Trustees at New York-Presbyterian Hospital; a member of the Board of Directors at The Robin Hood Foundation; a member of the Columbia University Board of Trustees; a member of the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a member of the Executive Advisory Council at the George W. Bush Presidential Center; a member of The Hamilton Project Advisory Council; and on the Executive Committee at The Hellenic Initiative.