Bruce Karsh

Bruce Karsh is an American investor and former lawyer. In the early 1980s he was an appellate clerk to former Supreme Court of the United States justice Anthony M. Kennedy, and later worked at O’Melveny & Myers, Sun Life Insurance Company , and the TCW Group.

Bruce Karsh runs Los Angeles-based private equity firm Oaktree Capital Management with longtime partner Howard Marks; they founded it in 1995.

In September 2019, Brookfield Asset Management acquired 61% of Oaktree for roughly $4.9 billion in cash and stock.

A leading debt investor, Oaktree manages over $120 billion in assets, two thirds of which is invested in corporate or distressed debt.

Karsh still runs the company, which went public in 2012 and continues to operate independently, as co-chairman and CFO.

Karsh helps fund scholarships at his alma mater Duke for students from countries such as Ethiopia, Romania and Pakistan.