Craig Farr, who currently heads KKR's capital markets and origination business, has replaced William Sonneborn, who had earlier resigned. William Sonneborn is also chief executive of its publicly traded specialty finance company KFN. Farr only has words of praise for his predecessor. "Bill's calm leadership, long-term focus and commitment to protecting shareholder value not only navigated KFN through the crisis but to its current position of stability and strength," Farr said.

William Sonneborn has resigned as the corporate credit and equity investments head of KKR & Co. LP, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The 43-year-old executive tendered his resignation "to pursue a new challenge."  A spokeswoman for KKR, however, said that he will still continue to serve the firm as a senior adviser.

In a conference call with analysts, Sonneborn said, "If I'm true to my word on doing everything I can to maximize shareholder value, it's an optimal time for me to make a change. Orson Welles once said: 'If you want a happy ending, you need to know when to end your story.'"