Kewsong Lee (; born August 12, 1965) is a
Korean-American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean ancestry (mostly from South Korea). In 2015, the Korean-American community constituted about 0.56% of the United States population, or about 1.82 million people, and was the fifth-largest Asian Americans ...
businessman who is the former
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
(CEO) of private equity firm
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...
.
Early life and education
Lee was born in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York City ...
on August 12, 1965.
His father, Lee Hak-jong, was a professor at
Yonsei University
Yonsei University (; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the "SKY" universities, Yonsei University is deemed one of the three most prestigious institutions in the country. It is particularly respected in the ...
.
Due to his father's role as a college professor and involvement in the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, Lee would spend his early years in South Korea and Singapore.
He then attended boarding school at
Choate Rosemary Hall
Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private high ...
in
Wallingford, Connecticut
Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...
where he graduated in 1982.
Lee attended
Harvard College
Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...
where he received an
A.B.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in Applied Mathematics in Economics, graduating in 1986.
He would later return to Harvard where he received his
MBA
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
from
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...
in 1990.
Career
Lee's first job after graduation from Harvard was at consulting firm,
McKinsey & Company
McKinsey & Company is a global management consulting firm founded in 1926 by University of Chicago professor James O. McKinsey, that offers professional services to corporations, governments, and other organizations. McKinsey is the oldest and ...
.
He spent two years there before leaving in 1988 to attend Harvard Business School.
Lee did a summer internship at
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...
in 1989 but ultimately decided to return to McKinsey & Company in 1990 after graduating from Harvard Business School.
In 1992, Lee joined private equity firm,
Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. The firm currently has over ...
.
He would spend 21 years at the firm where he became a Partner as well as a member of the Executive Management Group.
While at Warburg, Lee was involved in transactions that included companies such as
Neiman Marcus
Neiman Marcus Group, Inc. is an American integrated luxury retailer headquartered in Dallas, Texas, which owns Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Horchow, and Last Call. Since September 2021, NMG has been owned by a group of investment compani ...
,
Aramark
Aramark Corporation, known commonly as Aramark, is an American food service, facilities, and uniform services provider to clients in areas including education, healthcare, business, prisons, and leisure. It operates in North America (United St ...
,
TransDigm
TransDigm Group is a publicly traded aerospace manufacturing company headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. TransDigm develops and manufactures engineered aerospace components. It was founded in 1993, when four industrial aerospace companies were comb ...
and
MBIA
MBIA Inc. is an American financial services company. It was founded in 1973 as the Municipal Bond Insurance Association. It is headquartered in Purchase, New York, and as of January 1, 2015 had approximately 180 employees. MBIA is the largest bo ...
.
From 2009 to 2017, Lee was a lead director at
Arch Capital Group
}
Arch Capital Group Ltd. (Arch Capital or ACGL) is an American Bermuda-based public limited liability company which writes insurance, reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis, with a focus on specialty lines, the segment of the in ...
as well as a board member for other firms such as Transdigm and Aramark.
The Carlyle Group
In 2013, Lee joined
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...
as deputy chief investment officer for corporate private equity.
In 2016, Lee also assumed the role of leading the global credit unit.
In October 2017, the firm announced that its founders would remain executive chairmen on the board of directors but would step down as the day-to-day leaders of the firm. They named Lee and
Glenn Youngkin
Glenn Allen Youngkin (born December 9, 1966) is an American businessman and politician, currently serving as the 74th governor of Virginia since January 15, 2022. A member of the Republican Party, Youngkin defeated former Democratic governor T ...
to succeed them as co-chief executive officers, effective January 1, 2018. As co-chief executive officers, Lee oversaw the firm's corporate private equity and global credit businesses and Youngkin oversaw Carlyle's real estate, energy, infrastructure businesses, and investment solutions businesses. Lee and Youngkin also joined the firm's board of directors when they became co-chief executive officers.
During Lee and Youngkin's tenure as co-chief executive officers, they oversaw the firm's transition from a
publicly traded partnership
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
into a
corporation
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
.
There was an alleged power struggle between Lee and Youngkin during their time together at Carlyle where Lee eventually won out. This was largely due to Lee being given control of the corporate private equity and global credit units at the onset, which were bigger and more profitable than the others.
In July 2020, Youngkin stepped down from his role at Carlyle, making Lee the sole chief executive officer of the firm.
On August 8, 2022 Lee stepped down from his role as CEO due to a dispute in negotiations regarding his contract renewal.
Lee proposed a $300 million pay package. Co-founder
William E. Conway Jr.
William E. "Bill" Conway Jr. (born August 27, 1949) is an American billionaire businessman, investor and philanthropist. Conway serves as Co-Executive Chairman of the Board, Founder of the The Carlyle Group, Carlyle Group. He also serves as Ch ...
was announced to act as interim leader of the Carlyle Group while the firm searched for a new CEO.
Personal life
Lee is married to Zita Ezpeleta and they have two children.
Lee and Ezpeleta met in
Lowell House
Lowell House is one of twelve undergraduate residential Houses at Harvard University, located at 10 Holyoke Place facing Mount Auburn Street between Harvard Yard and the Charles River. Officially, it is named for the Lowell family, but an orna ...
at Harvard College when they were undergraduates.
Ezpeleta is an attorney who previously practiced at
Sidley Austin
Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,000 lawyers in 20 offices worldwide. The firm's headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. The firm specializes in a variety of areas in both litigation ...
.
References
External links
Profileat
The Carlyle Group
The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and pri ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Kewsong
1965 births
Living people
20th-century businesspeople
21st-century businesspeople
American chief executives of financial services companies
Businesspeople from Albany, New York
Harvard College alumni
Harvard Business School alumni
McKinsey & Company people
Warburg Pincus people
The Carlyle Group people
American people of South Korean descent
Choate Rosemary Hall alumni