Kenneth Mehlman - Blog Posts

Private Equity has a new Lobbyist: Ken Mehlman

Ken Mehlman former head of the RNC and the public affairs chief at KKR is now the top lobbyist for the private equity industry. Mr. Mehlman was elected on Thursday to be the chairman of The Private Equity Growth Capital Council.

PEGCC is the most prominent advocacy group for equity and capital firms such as TPG Capital, Silver Lake, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group. PEGCC was launched in 2007 and is currently being run by president and chief executive officer Steve Judge. Mehlman is succeeding Mark Tresnowski in this position. Tresnowski was a top lawyer for Madison Dearborn Partners.

“As a member of the PEGCC’s Board of Directors, Ken has long been a driving force behind our major initiatives,” said Steve Judge, PEGCC President and CEO. “We’re very pleased to have him as our new chairman. Ken is a unique talent with two decades of experience at the highest levels of government, politics and business. The PEGCC and our members will benefit tremendously from his leadership, advice and counsel.” 

Mr Mehlman's primary responsibilities will be to help expand the PEGCC's outreach as well as educate and engage stakeholders about the value of the private equity industry. At KKR Mr. Mehlman has had a large role in formalizing KKR's outreach efforts including creating robust environmental, social and governance programs for the firms and its portfolio companies. 

“I’m privileged to succeed Mark as Chairman of the PEGCC,” said Mr. Mehlman. “I have enormous respect for the PEGCC’s important work engaging with public policy makers to encourage more economic growth and retirement security for millions of Americans. I also share the PEGCC’s goal of building a community of investors who seek superior returns while also emphasizing active, responsible governance, long term investment and measuring success in years not quarters.

“I would personally like to thank Mark for his invaluable contributions and leadership for PEGCC and the industry as a whole throughout his tenure as Chairman,” said Steve Judge, PEGCC President and CEO. “From our many legislative battles over carried interest and the Dodd-Frank Act to the 2012 presidential election that brought our industry into the national spotlight, Mark provided the PEGCC with exceptional leadership."

So the world is still moving despite everyone in the United States being pissed off at our politicians. For the last couple weeks we have been following KKR’s spending spree in Asia. KKR has been investing substantially in Asian markets, from China to Japan and now Indonesia. They have been...

KKR and Panasonic Agree on a Price

Earlier in the month we wrote about the announcement of the Panasonic health sale to private equity firm KKR. The sale has now been finalized, KKR will own 80% of the Panasonic healthcare unit for a price of $1.67 billion an Panasonic will hold the remaining 20%. Panasonic has lost more than $7 billion a year for the last two years on their healthcare unit. The chief executive of Panasonic when asked about his thoughts on KKR said, "We believe that partnering with K.K.R will also allow us to learn from K.K.R.'s global operational and business management expertise as we pursue the next stage of growth for Panasonic." KKR's founder Henry Kravis said in a statement that Japan was, "a very important and attractive market for K.K.R., and our experienced tam on the ground in Japan looks forward to leveraging KKR's Global expertise experience." Other notable leaders on KKR's global team include former General David Petraeusand former RNC Chairman Kenneth Mehlman.

http://aclassasset.blogspot.com/2013/10/kkr-and-panasonic-agree-on-price.html

Former Bush aide now top private equity lobbyist

By Lawrence Delevingne

Kenneth Mehlman, the public affairs chief at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. who was previously a leading Republican operative in Washington, is now the top lobbyist for the private equity industry.

Mehlman was elected Thursday as the chairman of The Private Equity Growth Capital Council, the most prominent industry advocacy group for firms like TPG Capital, Silver Lake, Apollo Global Management, Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group.

He will continue several long-running fights in Washington, including higher taxes for PE firms from a potential change in the treatment of carried interest and increased registration and disclosure rules from the Dodd-Frank Act.

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Henry McVey, KKR, explains why he likes allocation in emerging markets with Fed tapering looming.

Mehlman succeeds Mark Tresnowski, the top lawyer for Madison Dearborn Partners. PEGCC, launched in 2007, is also led day-to-day by president and chief executive officer Steve Judge.

Mehlman joined KKR in 2008 from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, where he was a partner in the law firm's legislative and regulatory counseling practice. He is best known for his work on behalf of conservative politicians before: chairing the Republican National Committee and running George W. Bush's presidential reelection campaign in 2004.

Mehlman is also a prominent gay rights advocate and serves as a director of the American Foundation for Equal Rights.

Mehlman's primary responsibilities will be to "help expand the PEGCC's outreach efforts to educate and engage a broad set of stakeholders about the value of a vibrant and dynamic private equity industry," according to a statement from the association.

"I have enormous respect for the PEGCC's important work engaging with public policy makers to encourage more economic growth and retirement security for millions of Americans," Mehlman said. "I also share the PEGCC's goal of building a community of investors who seek superior returns while also emphasizing active, responsible governance, long term investment and measuring success in years not quarters."

Mehlman also credited Tresnowski for his work in helping block changes to carried interest taxes as yet and countering negative views of the private equity industry that emerged during former Bain Capital executive Mitt Romney's failed presidential bid.

DOMA Ruling Prompts Change in Federal Student Aid Rules

By Philip Elliott Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Students in same-sex marriages will be treated the same as their straight married classmates when it comes to federal college loan applications, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Friday in a shift that reflects this year’s Supreme Court ruling that broadened gay rights.

“We must continue to ensure that every single American is treated equally in the eyes of the law, and this important guidance for students is another step forward in that effort,” Duncan said in a statement.

The Education Department also revised its required Free Application for Federal Student Aid to reflect more inclusive language about students and their parents. The department said it would recognize a student — and parents — as legally married if the couple was legally married in a state that permits same-sex marriages.

The new application forms do not distinguish between gay or straight marriages.

The department also said students’ eligibility for federal aid would be the same in all 50 states, regardless of where the student attends school.

For instance, a same-sex couple from Massachusetts, where gay marriage is legal, would be treated the same as a straight couple if one or both applied for a federal student loan to attend a school in one of the 34 states that do not permit gay marriage. The same standards would apply to parents in same-sex marriages.

“As students fill out their FAFSA this coming year, I’m thrilled they’ll be able to do so in a way that is more fair and just,” Duncan said, using the financial aid application’s acronym.

Before the Supreme Court ruled this summer, the Education Department was bound by the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibited all federal agencies from recognizing same-sex marriages. The Clinton-era law defined marriage as between one and one woman and hurt many applicants in same-sex marriages.

Friday’s move is the latest from the Education Department to be more helpful to students in same-sex marriages or with married gay parents.

Even before the ruling, Duncan instructed the department to collect information on both of the student’s legal parents, regardless of marital status. That meant children being raised by unmarried couples — regardless of sexual orientation — would have both adults’ incomes factored into financial aid eligibility.

That was an effort to reflect that same-sex couples share financial responsibilities for children, even if their state does not sanction gay marriages.

Kenneth Mehlman also talks about progress after DOMA

Kenneth Mehlman, Bush campaign manager comes out as gay

Former Republican National Committee chairman and Bush-Cheney campaign manager Kenneth Mehlman has announced publicly that he is gay, CBS News chief political consultant and politics editor for The Atlantic Marc Ambinder reports.

"It's taken me 43 years to get comfortable with this part of my life," Mehlman said. "Everybody has their own path to travel, their own journey, and for me, over the past few months, I've told my family, friends, former colleagues, and current colleagues, and they've been wonderful and supportive. The process has been something that's made me a happier and better person. It's something I wish I had done years ago, but I didn't."

Mehlman was RNC chairman from 2005 to 2007 after serving as Bush-Cheney campaign manager in 2004. He also served as White House political director during President Bush's first term.

Mehlman told Ambinder that he had recently come to the conclusion that he is gay and was looking to become an advocate for gay marriage. He went public in part because he expected to be asked about his sexuality when it became known he was participating in a fundraiser next month for the American Foundation for Equal Rights (AFER), which is supporting a legal challenge to California's Proposition 8 initiative banning gay marriage.

Mehlman said President Bush "is no homophobe" but acknowledged that the Bush administration used antigay initiatives for political gain. In private conversations with senior Republicans, he said, he fought back against attempts to demonize same-sex marriage.

Activist Mike Rogers, as Ambinder notes, has waged a years-long campaign to force Mehlman out of the closet, including confronting him with questions about his sexuality on video. (Mehlman regularly denied that he was gay.) Rogers responded to the news that Mehlman was coming out by awarding him a "Roy Cohn Award" for "managing the most anti-gay presidential campaigns in history."

"Ken Mehlman is horridly homophobic and no matter how orchestrated his coming out is, our community should hold him accountable for his past," Rogers wrote.

Mehlman told Ambinder he understands that some people in the gay community will be upset that he did not come out until he was out of government.

"I can't change the fact that I wasn't in this place personally when I was in politics, and I genuinely regret that. It was very hard, personally," he said. He acknowledged that if he had come to terms with his sexual orientation earlier, "I could have worked against [the Federal Marriage Amendment]" and "reached out to the gay community in the way I reached out to African Americans."

Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner moves into Private Equity

Tim Geithner left the treasury with two goals, the first being to write his own account of the financial crisis and the second to make some of his own money. His book is done and due to be published next year, so that is goal one. Last Saturday Mr. Geithner announced he is joining Warburg Pincus so that would be goal two. Mr Geithner will be joining the ranks of other public officials such as David Petraeus KKR's Chair of the Global Institute and Kenneth Mehlman who became their Head of Global Public Affairs.

Mr. Geithner's wealthier friends have said that he, "needs to make some money". Spending most of his career in government finance, in the treasury he made around $200,000 a year plus $411,000 a year and a $436,686 separation payment from the Federal bank of new york. This may seem like a lot of money but compared to the corporate salaries of his friends in the private sector it is not much. Warburg Pincus trusts that they will get more than just high level contacts and insider knowledge of the treasury from Geithner. They know that he has proved himself as investment savvy. While working at the treasury Geithner dealt with hundreds of billions of dollars in  investments for financial institutions to prop up the economy. “The roots of Warburg Pincus go back 45 years and we are really much more a global growth-oriented entrepreneur-centric investor,” says Chip Kaye, co-chief executive. “We have been active in starting and building businesses in energy, technology and healthcare; and we were very early investors in China and India. I think that’s one of the things that most attracted Tim – a broader investing context.”

“He supervised the management of what was, for a time, the largest investment portfolio in the world,” says Mr Millstein. “And though the public will never give him credit for it, he did it very successfully.”

GOP activists work for Gay rights, leaders Ken Mehlman and Paul Singer

Wealthy gay republicans are using their political influence to nudge GOP lawmakers to support gay marriage. They are being led by Kenneth Mehlman and Paul Singer. 

To read more about the equal right fight read here. 

If we ever get over this political crisis, is there growth ahead?

So far the market has not really been phased by the government shutdown. We have seen a small downturn this week but no large change. However if the U.S. does does not come to a consensus over the Affordable HealthCare Act and we don't raise the Debt Ceiling it could have catastrophic consequences on the economy. Most investors seem to be complacent saying that the shutdown/debt ceiling is not a reason to sell stocks. However, if the U.S. does reach what many think to be a 0% chance scenario where we are unable to pay the interest on our loans it is predicted that the S&P 500 would crash to 850, about a 50% drop. However if we do make it past this Political fiasco the economy may still have juice left to climb. I have written a few times before about KKR, as experts in the market they often provide useful insights. Alex Nevab KKR's co-head of Americas private equity said, "We actually see the economy recovering and has further to go through 2016 or 2017." KKR believes that if we do get past this debt ceiling crisis that the market was not at a low point or a high point and is showing a good environment for growth. Other notable leaders in KKR include former RNC chairman Kenneth Mehlman and General David Petraeus.

http://assetsandmanagement.blogspot.com/2013/10/if-we-ever-get-over-this-political.html

The role everyone has is simply coming out and telling their story to their family and their friends and their colleagues. There are so many examples every day

Kenneth Mehlman is awesome

KKR to invest in China

Supported by their global institute run by David Petraeus and Ken Mehlman KKR has been expanding into Asian markets. In China specifically they have recently agreed to buy a 10% stake in Qingdao Haier Co Ltd. a large appliance maker. This stake in QHC is KKR's biggest investment in China to date and is their third asian deal with in a week. The investment is speculated to be around $550 million, a small portion of their $6 billion Asian investment fund. KKR expects to see a large growth in the appliance market in China, at lease 1/5th in the next two years and they are not the only ones. Two months ago Whirlpool Corp, the worlds larges appliance maker also invested a similar sum into China. 

Investments after the natural gas revolution.

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