KKR brings in more resource

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) has appointed Dr Axel Eckhardt to head Capstone Europe, a London-based management consultancy that is solely retained by the firm. Reinhard Gorenflos joins KKR as a director also in London.

Capstone Europe advises KKR on strategy for its existing portfolio companies as well as new deals primarily in Germany.

Eckhardt has spent the last 20 years as a management consultant, first with McKinsey & Co and more recently at Droege & Comp. Prior to he ran a construction and engineering company, Berlin-based Elpro.

Gorenflos began his career as a management consultant before moving to Thyssen where he was managing director of the company’s industrial services division.  For the last three years, he has been a member of the executive board and CFO of ARAL, a Central European gas station operator. At KKR, he will concentrate on the German market.

KKR’s use of consultancy services is reminiscent of an arrangement that the Blackstone Group put into place, another leading US buyout player keen to do more business in Europe. In August last year Blackstone formed a partnership with Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, the Munich-based management consultancy, to help Blackstone identify suitable investment opportunities predominantly in the German market.