Like the sport of wrestling, America's corporate business structure offers unique opportunity for hard work, self-discipline and self-improvement. To Henry Kravis, the key word is "opportunity" and his goal is to increase such opportunity.

Born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Kravis is a graduate of Eaglebrook School in Massachusetts and Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut. He wrestled three years at Loomis Chaffee and was co-captain as a senior. He gained a degree in economics at Claremont McKenna College in California, where he was a varsity golfer, then moved to New York to earn an MBA from the Columbia Graduate School of Business.

He was a partner in the corporate finance department of Bear Stearns from 1969 to '76, when he and two partners founded Kohlberg, Kravis, Roberts & Co., a merchant banking firm that pioneered development of the leveraged buyout.

Since its inception, KKR has acquired over 40 companies for a total investment of more than $70 billion. Many of the companies were struggling to achieve modern standards of operation. Reorganized into more efficient packages, these firms gained higher worth in the marketplace and increased opportunity for their stockholders and employees.

Kravis currently serves on numerous corporate boards of directors, including RJR Nabisco, Inc., Duracell Holdings Corp., Safeway, OwensIllinois, Stop & Shop Companies and Union Texas Petroleum.

He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park Conservancy, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Fund for New York City Public Education, and is chairman of the board of New York City public television. He was a member of the President's Export Council under President Bush, and is very active in the prevention of drug and substance abuse.