Kewsong Lee steps down from Carlyle
Curious what happened here, if anyone has any intel? Wasn't he supposed to be the long-term heir apparent, especially after he elbowed out youngkin (according to reports)? Compared to other PE firms that did succession well (KKR, BX), this one feels super botched and the resignation feels abrupt...
Does this assume they are looking externally? Anyone hear what Kewsong will do? Launch a fund?
Guy is already old.. just retire..
Agreed that there's likely more to the story.
We received a lengthy firmwide email tonight from Bill Conway saying he is taking over as interim CEO. Interesting that this note is not coming from Kew. They're also putting in place an "office of the CEO" comprised of key segment heads.
right, and his bio is no longer on carlyle's website.
per bloomberg: "With his five-year employment agreement due to expire at the end of the year, Lee and board directors clashed over his contract in recent discussions, said a person familiar with the matter."
I have no intel whatsoever but I bet someone here does - who would they be looking at externally? I don’t see anyone that makes sense there internally - Joe Baratta would seem pretty logical for that role no?
theoretically a lot of ppl could make sense on paper, but i would imagine they would try to parachute in some that's overseen multiple asset classes, not just corporate PE (say, a julian salisbury type). but what do i know
Baratta is part of Blackstone's central investment committee which overlooks pretty much every investment process, so I'm sure he's seen his fair share of other industries.
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this mans is literally head of PE at BX and your analysis determines hes not top dawg material wtf.... if he isnt, who the fuck is????
Lloyd blankfein and warren buffett also like to self deprecate…doesn’t mean they’re not top dog material
He doesn't seem like CEO material tbh. Gives off super jumpy and awkward vibe with a nasal voice unlike CEOs with a strong calm voice with confident body language.
I met him once at the renewal ceremony of Harvard's Lowell House (Harvard calls its undergrad dorms "houses"). Lowell had just finished an extensive renovation/restoration, and this was the "opening ceremony" given to a select number of Lowell House alums who contributed (read: donated) to the project. Kewsong Lee was one of these donors.
Anyways, during the event, Harvard President Bacow was giving a speech and everything was proceeding normally when halfway through a group of 20 or so current undergrads ambushed the event and very loudly started protesting / chanting in unison the Harvard endowment's refusal to divest from fossil fuels or something like that.
All guests in attendance stood there in place quietly and uncomfortably for the 5 or so minutes (it felt much longer) that the kids were protesting until security arrived.
The sole exception was Kewsong Lee, who was very visibly irritated (he was standing right next to me) and less than a minute into the protest said (audibly) "Fuck this shit" and left us to go to the bar area to help himself to a drink.
Obviously, a very brief episode. Too brief to pass judgment... but something tells me Kewsong Lee isn't the easiest person to get along with.
Kewsong about to launch an O&G/Coal Power MF to spite these ESG hippies
Lol
https://fortune.com/2022/02/10/we-cant-invest-in-the-energy-transition-…
On the contrary, he sounds cool as shit based solely on that.
“cAnT bELiEvE hE diDnT sTaNd tHeRe awkwardly with uS bRo!!” 🤣
LOL. Reminds me of a lot of older Korean folks, very typical reaction.
lmfao based
What a dude. I'd probably be going with him to the bar.
Just cautioning this is how rumors start and reputations get marred... Sometimes for no good reason at all.
Here's a fresh perspective.
Lots of Asian Americans have some sort of resentment based on feeling like a cultural misfit or feeling discriminated growing up and in career. You'll also see among fairly conservative (not necessarily in politics but mannerisms) Asian Americans, there's this distaste (almost disgust) for American "kids" acting "entitled". While other minority groups love to express this vocally, Asian Americans especially older ones like to keep it to themselves.
Even when they do, it's done in very subtle ways that most Americans won't be able to pick up on (Asian cultures emphasize more implicit and often non-verbal communication compared to the rest of the world). To the Americans, this could easily be misinterpreted and perhaps even make them uncomfortable. Regardless, creates room for misunderstanding...
As a first gen immigrant from Asia who moved at a young age by myself, I feel this way quite a bit. Even though I'm young and come from an affluent and "prestigious" family (or whatever the WASP equivalent of Asia is - really defined by the behavior and mannerisms and often correlated with wealth).
I have personal experience of this happening and my resentment towards "uncultured Americans" (just explaining my internal thought process when I got upset) grew and grew. And this made others around me who don't know me too well a bit uncomfortable. I found some consolence from other immigrants of course (Asian and European and actually some Jewish Americans...). But this was really not a good solution.
I'm starting to realize the solution is to be open and honest about how I feel in a calm and respectful way to these "Americans". I found that many of them simply wanted to get to know me and I refused because of my cultural biases. Whenever I see behaviors I don't like, I should calmly but firmly express it.
This to me is the plight of Asian Americans - being culturally misunderstood and just being angry about it without finding a solution. I'm speculating but perhaps Kewsong also feels this way. Perhaps he never got over it despite being so successful. An ideal approach in the above situation IMO would have included 1) directly express his feelings and justify them with clear logic while proposing some solution or 2) let someone in his close circle who can let everyone else know privately about his feelings and intentions.
I wish him the best. Kewsong proved that Asian Americans can become BSDs in industries like PE where it's very much your soft skills that matters.
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I mean the guy when to CRH for prep school....I don't know how excluded he was from affluent circles from an early age
Dude, sorry as a fellow Asian but this is a horrible take. Not every Asian on the street came to the US as an awkward international student who chose to drive ridiculous BMWs on campus to compensate for lack of personality then harbored resentment around failing to “integrate” into the “mainstream” well into their adulthood and careers.
It’s weird truculence like this and projecting your own racial insecurities into every situation that reinforces people’s perception of you as not fit for leadership (because people like that aren’t). I can easily see a Mark Cuban or Carl Icahn type being the character in this “fuck this” story at a student ceremony, and yet somehow you concocted a whole critical race theory about repressed Asian anger. Not the way.
I’ve met Kew at a Korean American event briefly and he struck me as another hot shot finance exec type I’ve met a thousand times over whether they were white, jew, indian, or asian (the few black and hispanic moguls I’ve managed to meet in my life were decidedly cooler personalities than all of the above). This seems to me like 99% driven by performance, politics, and greed over comp as happens to individuals of all stripes at this level of power games. You’re doing a disservice to our kind by speculating that somehow the old guard kicked him out because of his culture and race. Sure, there is a lot of plight and injustice in America against Asians and other minorities in many facets of society, but getting pushed out from the CEO post of one of the biggest PE shops in the world ain’t it. He played the game like a champ up to this point, the chips just didn’t fall in his favor this one time. Happens to power players of all stripes/races and even at mere MD/Partner levels all across American finance.
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Funny enough, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more racist group than Asians and it's not very subtle. Contrastingly, America is the least racist country in the world. Also, calling them "Americans" because they're of a lower socioeconomic class makes you a douchebag.
You talk about being "culturally misunderstood", but what you explained is unwarranted elitism. If you want to compare America's class to the majority of Asian countries, it's night and day. You didn't specify which country you came from, but I'd be happy to pick apart your culture and customs as to how they would make most Americans uncomfortable. Lastly, if you go to any other country, it's incumbent on you to learn their culture and conform. If I were to go to China or Japan, it would be expected that I follow all of the basic laws, rules, and etiquette.
In closing, the fact that you're attributing being an out of touch trust fund bitch to being misunderstood because of your race is rich.
Lol this pathetic quant research writing 1000 words essay for a billionaire, touch some grass piss
So you saw the CEO of a MF walk off by himself to a bar, knew exactly what he wanted to bitch about, and just stood there?
Seems pretty based to me
funny how BX's transition was seamless, KKR's was seamless, apollo lost harris but rowan stayed, carlyle lost both youngkin and lee
it's obvious he got fired and did not willingly step down as ceo - performance hasn't gone well compared to other industry peers and he's getting severance as part of the package. goes to show even big firm name that handpicks next generational leaders may not pan out well in the end as they expected - much like a sequel to any other OG movie
Yah this makes more sense, does sound like he got fired. Some sources say he got severance. The fact he didn’t put out an email for his departure sounds like he left angry
Have intel from a global head at TCG. Apparently he was forced out. Old guard didn’t love the direction he was taking the firm. Relocation of HQ (culture change), heavily on the analytics that didn’t generate much return, and falling short on fundraising goals. Those were some of the highlights I was given.
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Anything about his pivot toward private credit?
Yup that was a big point also. Private credit and investor solutions economics don’t drive money to the firm like good old 2&20 us buyout.
They relocated their HQ?
Not officially. Kew was working towards it. Apparently he wanted to be more like every other MF and operate out of NYC but all the LPs loved coming to DC because they were the one different firm.
In the space and this is correct. Additionally, he was likely looking for a significant increase in comp since he doesn’t have the carry base like the old guard and stock price has only been fine.
Carlyle returns have lagged for a long time. I don't know if he's to blame specifically...
Lagged vs who?
Their flagship PE returns seem in line with BX/TPG/Apollo/KKR.
Apollo seems to have the worst, KKR slightly better than the others.
Stock price returns
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+1 point for taking hot Asian gf from competition
they needed real roof top koreans
I love how if some analyst like me said the first line, they would've gotten instant MS. Reminds you that even the VPs in this business are humans.
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I'm sorry but this is probably one of the worst takes I have ever heard...way too much of an over-generalization
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This is a pretty weak take.. Lee was not one of those bookish Asians trying to ring every last point out of a test; he led Warburg Pincus and Carlyle, two of the biggest and most “white shoe” PE funds out there… the dude was definitely a smooth operator. But as others have alluded to performance was so-so and he probably asked for a giant comp package.
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ME WANT MORE COMP I GIVE U SUCK SUCK
Do not try and justify your lack of leadership qualities by stereotyping an entire demographic lmao
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He is the PE guy Chloe Kardashian was dating.
Their acrimonious relationship breakdown had her threaten to blackball Carlyle and have them blue balled next funding cycle by influencing other LPs via exclusive premium OF content distribution / handies and blowies
Obviously the dude had to go
Is that really true? He doesn’t live in LA. Plus, and this could be true, why does / how would Kewsong be friends with kim lmao?
Found the hardo
best take by far
Fair play to him if he was really dating Chloe lmao
He seemed like he was doing a great job with raising new funds and setting up Carlyle for the next generation. Clearly missing something from the picture here...
Yeah raising new funds for private credit and investor solutions, two product lines that don’t have strong economics for the firm.
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Unrelated, but is his wife korean? Don't really see that many interacial relationships if not
probably because bae took home 500 mil whereas kew only got 40mil in '21 - that difference tho lol
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-09/carlyle-s-billionair…
Non-pay wall:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/carlyle-billionaire-founders-reached-bre…
Seems it was to do with a new contract: https://www.ft.com/content/0d0187d3-e0fb-4e87-bbfb-2e63f467f9f4
$300m payout if stock roughly doubles over 5 years.
Three decent comments and one great story from a donor celebratory event. Then countless BS about ethnic views that let the trolls fly in. This is why WSO had gotten annoying no one gives a shit what you think of how your college classmates from a race act in connection to how a ceo from that race would. Also no one cares if your gf is hot or not, unless she slept with the CEO in question before it does not impact his 5 year returns.
Why is this thread full of racist shit. Wtf.
The real question is why are you even surprised? I'd estimate 25-50% of the general American non-Asian population view Asians as sub-human feces. Some are more low-key about it then others.
This is WSO, so you should not be surprised. See any discussion about diversity programs, LGBT, black people, etc.
Ah, there it is. I got married on Sunday and took a bit of a break from this website (obviously, WSO > wife), but I knew 100% that this would be a post when I checked it today for the first time. To make it better, I have now received 3 PMs asking me if I know anything.
I'm not sure if my GH still checks this website... I know he has before and knows my actual account. As much as it's a pain in the ass, I actually do like my job so I'm going to hold off on saying that full (the word 'full' meaning what they tell the non-important people) story. More will come out in a little bit. I wish it was some juicy gossip scandal (would make things a little less boring around here), but it's just a lot of behind-the-scenes action and moving pieces. It'll make waves in WSJ a little bit once more shit comes to light, but it'll be a five-minute news story then everyone will forget about it.
Things that I will say, and Jamie if you're reading this I don't give a shit: the 'office of the CEO' is fucking stupid. The whole Youngkin/Lee co-CEO thing was weird enough, not even touching upon how that whole thing ended. Now we have the OFFICE OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER. If any other PE firm is reading this, don't implement that title into your group, LOL
what's GH stand for? who's jamie?
GH = Group Head, AKA MD. I use the two interchangeably. Jamie is my boss's boss. He's chill.
didn't work out because of racism? all this woke shit is funny.
everyone needs to read the book extreme ownership
FWIW, all the public PE firms have been crushing it EXCEPT Carlyle. From the press, it reads like Kewsong was actually advocating to do the right stuff and the Board/founders were the ones resisting.
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