Carlyle hires ex-Goldman executive Harvey Schwartz as next CEO

By Chibuike Oguh

(Reuters) -Carlyle Group has hired Harvey Schwartz, a former Goldman Sachs executive, as its next chief executive officer, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.

Schwartz’s appointment, which is expected to be announced on Monday, brings to an end Carlyle’s search for a new CEO following the departure of Kewsong Lee in August last year.

A Carlyle spokesperson declined to comment, while Schwartz couldn’t be reached for comment.

Schwartz, 59, left Goldman in 2018 after a 20-year career at the investment bank where he served in several leadership roles including as its chief financial officer and global co-head of its trading division. He was in contention to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as Goldman CEO before losing out to David Solomon.

In 2021, he was named group chairperson of the Bank of London, a British clearing and transaction bank. He sits on the board of online lender SoFi Technologies Inc.

Washington, D.C.-based Carlyle is viewed as having underperformed rivals Blackstone Inc, Apollo Global Management Inc and KKR & Co Inc in recent years, particularly in growth of assets under management and stock performance.

Carlyle, whose founders – David Rubenstein, William Conway and Daniel D’Aniello – control about 26% of the firm, had declined to renew Lee’s five-year contract after his turnaround efforts fell short of expectations. The founders also felt Lee didn’t adequately consult them on major decisions, sources have previously said.

Succession drama has plagued Carlyle since 2017 when Conway and Rubenstein first relinquished their roles as co-CEOs to their much younger protégées Lee and Glenn Youngkin.

Lee, who had joined Carlyle in 2013 after spending 21 years at Warburg Pincus, was named sole CEO of the firm in 2020 following the departure of Youngkin, who stepped down to launch a successful campaign to be the governor of Virginia. Youngkin had worked at Carlyle for 25 years.

Conway returned to his role as Carlyle CEO on an interim basis after Lee’s departure last year.

Carlyle, which has $369 billion in assets under management, is set to report its fourth-quarter earnings on Feb.7.

(Reporting by Chibuike Oguh and Lavanya Ahire in Bengaluru; editing by Diane Craft, Shri Navaratnam and Edwina Gibbs)