General David H. Petraeus (U.S. Army, Ret.) has been a partner at the global investment firm KKR and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute since May 2013.  He is also a Director and Venture Investor in more than one dozen start ups.

Prior to joining KKR, General Petraeus served over 37 years in the U.S. military, culminating his career with six consecutive commands, five of which were in combat, including command of coalition forcers in Iraq during the Surge, command of U.S. Central Command, and command of coalition forces in Afghanistan.

Following retirement from the military, he served as Director of the CIA during a period of significant achievements in the global war on terror.  General Petraeus received numerous U.S. military, State Department, NATO, and United Nations medals, including four awards of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal and the Bronze Star Medal for Valor.

General Petraeus graduated with distinction from the U.S. Military Academy and subsequently earned a Ph.D. from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Over the past 15 years, General Petraeus was named one of America’s 25 Best Leaders by the U.S. News and World Report, a runner up for Time magazine’s Person of the Year, the Daily Telegraph man of the year, a Time 100 selectee, Princeton University’s Madison Medalists, and one of Foreign Policy magazine’s top 100 public intellectuals.

General Petraeus is also believed to be the only person, while in uniform, to throw out the first pitch of a World Series game and to do the coin toss at a Super Bowl.

George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century, which won the 2020 Los Angelses Times Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.  He has published five other works of non-fiction–including The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, which won the National Book Award for non-fiction in 2013, and The Assasins’ Gate: America in Iraq, a Pulitzer finalist and winner of the Overseas Press Club Book Award and the New York Public Library Book Award in 2006­–as well as two novels and a play.

Critical Praise for Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

“Riveting…A pitch-perfect portrait.”–Norman Pearlstine, Los Angles Times

“As Packer so artfully shows us, the diplomatic journey of Holbrooke and the U.S. in the last half-century carries a ton of insightful lessons about how to resolve complicated challenges that haven’t been solved–or even considered–before.”–Howard Homonoff, Forbes

“Packer’s energetic prose…carries the reader easily through the three main acts of Holbrooke’s diplomatic life…impeccably sourced.”–Paddy Hirsch, NPR