Ex-Aussie PM hired by global investment firm
May 31, 2019
The multi-millionaire former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has made a return to the world of finance, being hired as global senior adviser to global investment company KKR & CO.
KKR said in a statement to Reuters news agency that Turnbull, 64, would take up the position on June 1.
The company, which is headquartered in New York, describes itself on its website as "a leading global investment firm that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate and credit, with strategic partners that manage hedge funds."
Back to finances
Turnbull, a former lawyer, held a number of high-profile positions in various corporations before serving as Australia's 29th prime minister from September 2015 to August 2018. Among other things, he worked as local managing director of the global investment bank Goldman Sachs group Inc. in the 1990s.
After holing several Cabinet portfolios for the conservative Liberal-National coalition, he became prime minister by orchestrating a leadership coup. However, Turnbull himself was ousted from the job in another leadership challenge — thus becoming one of four Australian prime ministers to be deposed by their own party in a decade.
By taking up the job at KKR, his first appointment since leaving the government, he joins several other senior Australian politicians who have entered financial advisory roles after leaving office.
Among others, former Labour Prime Minister Paul Keating joined the investment bank Lazard Australia and also became chairman of the International Advisory Council of China Development Bank.