In Memoriam
John H. Kissick
John Kissick
1964 Yale graduation
On April 15, 2024, we were advised by Kathy Kissick that her husband John Kissick ’64 had died on February 29, 2024 after a long battle with frontotemporal dementia.
John was a co-founder and director of Ares Management Corporation, a global investment management firm specializing in the credit, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure asset classes. His professional biography reads as follows.
Mr. Kissick is a Co-Founder of Ares and Director of Ares Management Corporation. Until February 13, 2017, Mr. Kissick was a Partner of Ares in the Corporate Strategy and Relationship Management Group and served on the firm's Management Committee and several investment committees across the firm. Mr. Kissick serves on the Ares Private Equity Group's ACOF Investment Committee.
John Kissick
recently
Prior to joining Ares in 1997, Mr. Kissick co-founded Apollo Management, L.P. in 1990. Mr. Kissick oversaw and led the capital markets activities of Apollo Management, L.P. from 1990 until 1997, particularly focusing on high-yield bonds, leveraged loans, distressed debt, and other fixed-income assets.
Prior to 1990, Mr. Kissick served as a Senior Executive Vice President of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., where he began in 1975, eventually heading its Corporate Finance Department. Mr. Kissick also serves on the Board of Directors of City Ventures LLC and on the boards of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Stanford University Athletic Department and its Graduate School of Education, L.A.'s Promise Fund which helps economically disadvantaged children graduate from high school through a variety of mentoring and other programs, and College Match Los Angeles, which helps talented students from low-income families in Los Angeles get into and graduate from the nation's top colleges and universities.
Mr. Kissick graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics and with highest honors from the Stanford Business School with a M.B.A. in Finance.
Obituary, John Harold Kissick
Over his impressive career, John was a leader in the finance world, co-founding and leading Apollo Management in 1990 and Ares Management in 1997 until his retirement in 2019. Prior to co-founding Apollo and Ares Management, John was a Senior Executive Vice President of Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. where he began in 1975 and eventually headed its West Coast Corporate Finance Department. John graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics, attended the Navy Officer Candidate School to serve as a Naval Officer during the Vietnam War, and later graduated with highest honors from the Stanford Graduate School of Business with a M.B.A. in Finance.
John was known for his judgment, composure and uncanny ability to see the big picture. He believed that to build a great business you “just do what you think is the right thing — not necessarily the most profitable, not necessarily the most creative, just what you think we’d all be proud of.” This philosophy extended into his philanthropic endeavors. John was the founding president of the Kissick Family Foundation and served on numerous charitable foundation boards, including Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford School of Education, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Harvard-Westlake School, and a number of Los Angeles inner-city public and charter schools. His passion for investing in the underserved and ability to take smart risks and bet on talent guided his philanthropy through the Kissick Family Foundation.
John’s legacy continues through the Kissick Family Foundation, which is now guided by his wife, son, and daughter. John was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) in 2018, a form of dementia that affects the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain and impacts language and cognition. Although not in time for John, the family is determined to galvanize the resources and leaders needed to make headway against FTD and other dementias through its work. If John were able, he would have led the charge to confront and hopefully cure FTD once and for all. He faced the world with brilliance, compassion, determination, humility, and purpose, and has left a lasting legacy for friends, family, and colleagues alike.