KKR hires global fundraising director

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts has hired Suzanne Donohoe as managing director and global head of its client and partner group, which coordinates all of the firm’s fundraising activities. Donohoe, who previously ran the international asset management unit at Goldman Sachs, will also oversee the firm’s global capital-raising efforts.

“We believe the current economic environment provides us with attractive new opportunities to build stronger relationships with our investment partners,” KKR co-founders Henry Kravis and George Roberts said in a statement. Donohoe, who will be based in New York, will work closely with Scott Nuttall, who oversees the firm’s global capital and asset management group.

Donohoe is the highest-ranking woman at the firm, KKR said.

Her hiring continues the expansion that KKR has made in its workforce and operations in the last few months, even as many of its competitors have had to cut back due to the current recession and lack of deals.

In December the firm named former TCW Group president William Sonneborn as head of its new asset management division, while Alexander Navab and Michael Michelson were appointed to the newly created positions of co-head of North American private equity, taking some of the management responsibilities previously held by Kravis and Roberts.

KKR has also recently appointed Leigh Clifford as senior advisor to its Australia operations, Gianemilio Osculati as a senior advisor in Italy and Sanjay Nayar as chief executive officer and country head in India.

In contrast, in the last week alone it was revealed that Fortress Investments cut 11 percent of its 900-member staff in the fourth quarter of 2008, while HgCapital announced it has closed down its consumer and leisure investment unit.