The Carlyle Group announced that Kewsong Lee will join the firm as Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Corporate Private Equity. Mr. Lee comes to this newly-created position at Carlyle from Warburg Pincus where he was Managing Director and Member of the Executive Management Group. Mr. Lee begins his duties in late December and will be based in New York and Washington, DC.
Carlyle Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer William E. Conway, Jr. said, “Carlyle’s greatest strength is the depth, continuity and collegiality of our global investment professionals. Kew will be a great addition to this team and will play a critical role in helping us ensure the platform we have created continues to make superb investments and create value for our investors.”
Mr. Lee said, “It is an honor to have the chance to join one of the industry’s most successful buyout platforms and to work with Bill and his team. This is an exciting time in Carlyle’s history and I am eager to learn and contribute. After 21 wonderful years at Warburg Pincus, I wish my colleagues all the best.”
As Deputy CIO, Mr. Lee will assist Mr. Conway in a range of activities related to investing and managing Carlyle’s Corporate Private Equity platform, which consists of 11 buyout and growth capital funds totaling $58 billion in assets under management. In addition to becoming a member of each fund’s investment committee, Mr. Lee will join the firm’s Management and Operating Committees, and also help with corporate development for the firm.
Mr. Lee joined Warburg Pincus in 1992, and was a Member of the Executive Management Group. Most recently, he led the firm’s Consumer, Industrial and Services group, and in the past, played an instrumental role in developing Warburg Pincus’s leveraged buyout and special situations efforts. He also led the firm’s financial services practice and helped drive the firm’s capital markets activities. Prior to Warburg Pincus he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, Inc.
During his Warburg Pincus tenure, Kewsong Lee led numerous transactions, including The Neiman Marcus Group, Aramark, Transdigm, Polypore and Arch Capital Group.
In addition to serving on a variety of corporate boards, he is involved with several committees at Harvard University, and is a Trustee of Choate Rosemary Hall and a member of the Executive Committee of Lincoln Center Theater.
Mr. Lee, 48, earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and his AB in Applied Mathematics in Economics from Harvard College