What Carlyle Group Looks for in Operating Executives
An inside look at the skills and career paths of Carlyle's top operating executives.
Carlyle Group is one of the more operationally-focused mega-funds. The Washington D.C.-based firm has 30 of what it calls “operating executives,” who are more involved than its “operating advisors,” but not quite full-time operating partners. Carlyle’s operating executives have deep industry expertise – 81% of them are former C-Suite executives – and work across the firm’s 150+ portfolio companies, according to analysis by Value Add.
These operating roles can be lucrative. Carlyle is known to pay well, and because of the inherent flexibility, many operating executives continue working concurrently in industry. This structure suggests that Carlyle values the expertise and active industry engagement of its operating executives, offering them the autonomy to balance multiple professional commitments simultaneously.
In this portfolio operations group profile, we’ll examine the skills and experience that Carlyle looks for in its operating executives, and how it differs from Blackstone and KKR Capstone.
