The Carlyle Group is a Washington, D.C. based global private equity investment firm with more than $18 billion of equity capital. The firm employs more than 300 investment professionals in 14 countries with multiple offices in North America, Europe and Asia. The firm operates four fund families, focusing on leveraged buyouts, venture capital, real estate and high-yield investments.

Carlyle was founded in 1987 by William E. Conway, Jr. , Daniel A. D'Aniello , and David M. Rubenstein . The three founders are reported to collectively own around a 50% interest in the group's general partnership. The founders named the firm after the upper east side hotel in New York City, "The Carlyle." Carlyle's current chairman is Lou Gerstner, former chairman and CEO of IBM.

Carlyle specializes in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Consumer & Industrial, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Real Estate, Technology & Business Services, Telecommunication & Media, and Transportation. The Group's aerospace and defense investments have been a source of left wing criticism (much due to its depiction in Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11) because of the Group's alleged connections to the Middle East. Carlyle Group's investments are focused on East Asia, Europe, and North America. Defense investments represent about 7% of the group's portfolio.

Critics of the Carlyle Group frequently note its connections to various political figures. Unlike most private equity firms which are predominately located in New York, Boston or around San Francisco, Carlyle is the only large private equity firm located in Washington, DC. Corporate headquarters are on Pennsylvania Avenue, midway between the White House and the Capitol building. In addition, critics will often mistakenly refer to Carlyle as a private defense contractor, due to its history of investment in aerospace and defense.

Politicians affiliated with Carlyle

• James Baker III, former United States Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, Staff member under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, Carlyle Senior Counselor
• George H. W. Bush, former U.S. President, Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003.
• Frank C. Carlucci, former United States Secretary of Defense from 1987 to 1989, chairman emeritus and currently strategic business advisor
• Richard Darman, former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under George H. W. Bush, Senior Advisor and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group
• William Kennard , former chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Carlyle's Managing Director in the Telecommunications & Media Group
• Arthur Levitt, chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under President Bill Clinton, Carlyle Senior Advisor
• John Major, former British Prime Minister, Chairman, Carlyle Europe until May 2004, and other posts to the present
• Frank McKenna, Canadian ambassador (effective March 1, 2005) to the United States, former member of Carlyle's Canadian advisory board
• Mack McLarty, President of Kissinger McLarty Associates , Carlyle Senior Advisor
• Anand Panyarachun, former premier of Thailand
• Fidel Ramos, former president of the Philippines, Carlyle Asia Advisor Board Member until the board was disbanded in February 2004
• Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense
• Park Tae Joon , former prime minister of South Korea
• Colin Powell, former United States Secretary of State
• Alice Albright , daughter of ex-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

The Saudi Arabian relatives of Osama bin Laden (not Osama bin Laden himself) were also minor investors in Carlyle until October 2001 when the family sold its $2.02 million investment back to the firm in light of the public controversy surrounding the bin Laden family after September 11.

Businesspersons affiliated with Carlyle

• Paul Desmarais, Chairman of Power Corporation
• Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the SEC
• Karl Otto Pöhl, former president of the Bundesbank
• George Soros, international investor

See also

• Private equity
• LBO

External links

• The Carlyle Group home page

Articles

• The Guardian on a deal in Kuwait

Criticism

• Making a mint inside "the iron triangle" of defense, government, and industry, Dan Briody, propagandamatrix mirror
• What Did Eisenhower Mean When He Warned of a Military Industrial Complex? Take a Look at the Carlyle Group An interview with Dan Briody
• Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid: Those Spooky Carlyle Rumors, Jonathan A. Knee, page 26 of June 9, 2003 edition of The New York Observer
• Why The Carlyle Group is afraid of Stop Carlyle?
• Exposed: The Carlyle Group and VPRO Tegenlicht: Carlyle Group (uses Flash), documentary created by Dutch VPRO TV program Tegenlicht

Further reading

• Dan Briody, The Iron Triangle: Inside the Secret World of the Carlyle Group, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, ISBN 0471281085.