KKR exec tells young people to get up from their desks if they want to be successful dealmakers

Yana Lobenko/Getty Images

• Private-equity dealmaking is down, but all is not lost for young dealmakers.
• A panel of private equity execs advised young people to get up from their desks and meet people.
• One exec said it can take 20 years before a relationship pays off.

If you want to be a private-equity dealmaker, you can start by getting up from your desk.

That was the advice from Alisa Amarosa Wood, a KKR executive, at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday.