Robert Sinnott

Robert "Bob" Sinnott is Co-Chairman of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, a Los Angeles-based alternative investment management firm founded in 1984 by Richard Kayne and John Anderson. He earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia (1971) and an M.B.A. in Finance from Harvard Business School (1976), and served three years as a lieutenant j.g. aboard the U.S.S. Forrestal early in his career.

Before joining Kayne Anderson in 1992, Sinnott spent his career in energy finance. He opened Bank of America's energy lending activities in Houston, financing independent oil-and-gas and pipeline companies, and later was a member of Citibank's LBO "Swat Team" focused on energy and airline companies, where he led syndicated-loan activity in Southern California and midstream finance efforts in Houston. He has more than 40 years of investment experience.

Since joining Kayne Anderson in 1992, Sinnott founded and built the firm's energy platform into one of the largest energy investment franchises in the country — reported at more than $16–22 billion in energy investments at its peak. He served as President, CEO, and Chief Investment Officer, then stepped down as CEO in 2016 (succeeded by Mike Levitt) and was elevated to Co-Chairman alongside founder Richard Kayne, while continuing to oversee the firm's energy strategies and serve on its investment committees. He has been named to the Los Angeles Business Journal's LA500 list multiple years running.

Sinnott has held prominent public-company board seats tied to the energy sector, including director of Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. (NYSE: PAA) and its parent Plains GP Holdings (NYSE: PAGP), and director of California Resources Corporation (NYSE: CRC), California's largest independent oil-and-natural-gas producer.

• Energy-first specialist. Sinnott's personal domain is energy and power infrastructure — upstream oil & gas private equity, midstream/pipeline finance, and energy-sector marketable securities. This is where he maintains direct management involvement and acts as portfolio manager for firm funds.
• Institutional, cash-flow-oriented alternatives. Kayne Anderson's stated approach targets "niche, cash-flow-oriented" opportunities across five core areas: (1) energy/power infrastructure securities, (2) upstream oil & gas and long-life onshore assets, (3) private credit, infrastructure credit, and specialized real estate debt, (4) alternative real estate (medical office, student/multifamily housing, seniors housing, self-storage), and (5) lower-middle-market growth-stage enterprise software.
• Large-scale checks, not seed rounds. With ~$31.6 billion AUM (as of Feb 2025) and multi-billion-dollar funds (e.g., a ~$3 billion middle-market lending fund closed in 2018), the firm deploys institutional-size capital — not angel or seed checks.
• Growth software via a dedicated arm. The only "startup-adjacent" activity sits in Kayne Partners (the growth-equity group), which backs lower-middle-market, revenue-generating software companies — still growth-stage, not seed. Sinnott is not the point of contact for this strategy.