The Carlyle Group is set to announce it has hired former Goldman Sachs executive Harvey Schwartz to be the private equity group’s next chief executive, completing its search for a new leader after the abrupt resignation of Kewsong Lee in August.
Schwartz, a two-decade Goldman veteran who left the Wall Street bank in 2018, was offered Carlyle’s top job and accepted it, people briefed on the matter said.
Carlyle’s board of directors met on Sunday to vote on the nomination, the sources said. The date will be announced Monday morning. The Financial Times reported last week on its discussions of the role.
Carlyle declined to comment, while Schwartz did not respond to a request for comment.
Schwartz will lead one of the world’s largest private equity groups with $369 billion in assets under management, but whose growth and share price have lagged rivals like Blackstone Group and KKR in recent years.
Schwartz left Goldman five years ago after losing to David Solomon in a contest to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as CEO. He had held several senior positions at the bank, including chief financial officer, co-head of the securities division, and co-president and chief operating officer alongside Solomon.
His appointment comes after a lengthy search during which Carlyle vetted internal candidates and contacted a number of high-level finance executives outside the company.
The group’s search committee had polled Goldman chairman John Waldron, former Morgan Stanley chief operating officer Jonathan Pruzan and Citigroup chief financial officer Mark Mason, people briefed on the research said.
The top internal candidates were Peter Clare, chief investment officer of Carlyle’s private equity unit, and Mark Jenkins, head of its expanding credit investment operations.
“We believe the absence of a CEO has been an overhang for the stock, so a new CEO, particularly of Mr. Schwartz’s caliber, would be positive for stocks,” said JMP Group analyst Brian McKenna. .
Schwartz will be tasked with stabilizing Carlyle after a period of leadership uncertainty and setting a strategy as a decade of benign capital markets for private equity firms gives way to tougher conditions.
Industry-wide fundraising has slowed as investors gauge their exposure to private markets, prompting Carlyle to seek an extension to fundraising for its new buyout fund. Carlyle is also following its peers in expanding beyond buyouts and into real estate, infrastructure and credit-based investments to grow the asset mix.
Schwartz has experience overseeing large operations in times of uncertainty.
At Goldman, Schwartz was best known for his operational and risk management skills in leading the bank’s business division through the financial turmoil of the 2008 financial crisis.
He was co-head of Goldman’s securities division in the years during and immediately after that time, becoming chief financial officer in 2013.
As chief financial officer, he helped Goldman adapt its global operations to a tighter regulatory environment in the wake of the financial turmoil.
He held the position for four years before being promoted to co-chairman in January 2017, alongside Solomon.
A year later, Goldman’s succession plans for Blankfein were clarified when Solomon was named sole chairman of the bank, while Schwartz announced his decision to step down from the bank.
Additional reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York and Kaye Wiggins in Hong Kong
