© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Carlyle Corporation is displayed at the corporate office in Tokyo, Japan October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato
By Chibuike Oguh
(Reuters) – Carlyle Group has hired Harvey Schwartz, a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE:) chief executive, as its next chief executive, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
Schwartz’s appointment, expected to be announced on Monday, ends Carlyle’s search for a new CEO following the departure of Kewsong Lee last August.
A spokesperson for Carlyle declined to comment, while Schwartz could not be reached for comment.
Schwartz, 59, left Goldman in 2018 after 20 years at the investment bank, where he held a number of leadership roles, including chief financial officer and global co-head of the trading division. He contested for the position of Goldman CEO of Lloyd Blankfein before losing to David Solomon.
In 2021, he was appointed group chairman of the Bank of London, a British clearing and settlement bank. He is a board member of online lending company SoFi Technologies Inc.
Washington, DC-based Carlyle has been seen as having underperformed rivals Blackstone (NYSE:) Inc, Apollo Global Management (NYSE:) Inc and KKR & Co (NYSE:) Inc in recent years, especially especially in terms of growth in assets under management and stock performance .
Carlyle, whose founders – David Rubenstein, William Conway and Daniel D’Aniello – control about 26% of the company’s shares, refused to renew Lee’s five-year contract after efforts to turn the situation around His stance was not as expected. The founders also feel Lee has not consulted them sufficiently on key decisions, previous sources said.
The tragedy of succession has befallen Carlyle since 2017 when Conway and Rubenstein first ceded the role of co-CEOs to their much younger protégés Lee and Glenn Youngkin.
Lee, who joined Carlyle in 2013 after 21 years at Warburg Pincus, was appointed sole CEO of the company in 2020 following the departure of Youngkin, who stepped down to launch a new one. Successful campaign to become governor of Virginia. Youngkin has worked at Carlyle for 25 years.
Conway temporarily returned to the role of Carlyle CEO following Lee’s departure last year.
Carlyle, the $369 billion asset manager, will report fourth-quarter earnings on February 7.
