Ken Mehlman talks about how private equity has changed at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) and what they have done to do that.

1. Ken Mehlman: Private
Equity – Kinder and
Gentler?
Ken Mehlman on CNN Money
By Dan Primack November 8, 2012: 5:00 AM ET

2. Mitt Romney's candidacy put his former profession in the spotlight. KKR'S Ken Mehlman
is trying to make sure the industry doesn't get burned.
FORTUNE -- Ken Mehlman isn't a private equity investor, but he has been one of the
industry's most influential figures this year. As global head of public affairs for Kohlberg
Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), Mehlman has spearheaded a campaign to defend his firm
and its peers from attacks that have resulted from Mitt Romney's presidential
candidacy.
"Private equity is no longer private," Mehlman quips in an interview.
Indeed, for the past year firms such as Bain Capital, which Romney co-founded, have
been very much in the public eye, portrayed in ads and remarks by President Barack
Obama's campaign (and earlier, by Romney's GOP rivals) as job-slashing, greed
monsters.
As the former head of the Republican National Committee and a campaign manager
for President George W. Bush, Mehlman is particularly qualified to help financiers shape
their message in an election year. Mehlman's main talking point? Private equity firms
take the kind of bold financial risks that strengthen businesses in ways that benefit the
American economy. "You can't invest in large businesses around the world today
unless you are willing to help provide a thorough understanding of who you really
are, and engage around issues that affect things like the environment, workers, and
local communities," Mehlman explains.

3. It hasn't been an easy sell. For starters, the men and women who run private equity firms are
notoriously guarded; they don't like talking to the media about anything, let alone about how
their operations really work. Even Romney shied away from discussing specifics of Bain's
investments.
Mehlman's strategy has been to work through the Private Equity
Growth Capital Council, a trade group formed in 2006, to spread
the word.
In its early years, PEGCC was considered so ineffective that some
of its earliest member firms bailed (including Bain Capital), and its
founding CEO was sacked in the summer of 2011. Since then, the
group has sprinted to relevance -- publishing data, putting out
papers explaining private equity's relationship with public pensions,
and even producing a video series about private equity-backed
companies.
And it's Mehlman who is widely credited with the group's new strategic direction, along with
fellow PEGCC board member David Marchick (a former Clinton Administration official who now
runs external relations for The Carlyle Group).
"Ken, and maybe to a bit of a lesser extent David, recognized early that we all had a lot at
stake if Romney was the nominee," explains a senior private equity executive. "They've really
put in place something that we probably should have had long before this."

4. Mehlman, of course, defers praise to others, including new PEGCC CEO Steve Judge and
communications chief Ken Spain (a former National Republican Congressional Committee
spokesman). But the initial vision mostly was Mehlman's, with Judge and Spain deftly working
out the details and translating it into action.
Private equity executives will long remember 2012 as the year in which they were reluctantly
thrust into the public spotlight. And they will remember that Ken Mehlman helped keep the
unwelcome glare from burning too badly.
A shorter version of this story appeared in the November 12, 2012 issue of Fortune.