KKR Further Reduces Interest In Willis

KKR Further Reduces Interest In Willis

By Mark E. Ruquet

NU Online News Service, March 5, 11:26 a.m. EST?Three Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. executives have quit the Willis Group Holdings board after KKR reduced its stake in the brokerage.[@@]

Henry R. Kravis, George R. Roberts, the co-founders of KKR, and Todd A. Fisher, an executive of KKR, have resigned. The board is left with two members affiliated with KKR, Scott Nuttall, an executive of KKR, and Perry Golkin, a member at KKR.

The moves will meet obligations under Sarbanes-Oxley and the New York Stock Exchange that the majority of the board's members be independent, the firm said. Willis also said it is adopting rules to conform to the new corporate governance regulations.

Replacing the three KKR representatives will be Joseph A. Califano Jr., a former Johnson Administration Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare; Wendy E. Lane, chairman of the investment firm Lane Holdings Inc.; and James F. McCann, chairman and chief executive officer of 1-800-Flowers.com, Willis said.

The resignations follow KKR's sale of 24 million shares of Willis common stock last month, reducing its position in the brokerage firm to 7.5 percent.

In 1998, KKR purchased the London-based firm and took it private. The firm went public again in 2001 shortly after Joseph J. Plumeri took over as chairman and chief executive officer.