Kewsong Lee
Kewsong Lee (; born August 12, 1965) is a Korean-American businessman who is the chief executive officer of private equity firm The Carlyle Group. Early life and education. Lee was born in Albany, New York on August 12, 1965. His father, Lee Hak-jong was a professor at Yonsei University. Due to his father's role as a college professor and involvement in the United Nations, Lee would spend his early years in South Korea and Singapore. He then attended boarding school at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut where he graduated in 1982. Lee attended Harvard College  where he received an A.B. in Applied Mathematics in Economics, graduating in 1986. He would later return to Harvard where he received his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1990. Career. Lee's first job after graduation from Harvard was at consulting firm, McKinsey & Company. He spent two years there before leaving in 1988 to attend Harvard Business School. Lee did a Summer Internship at Goldman Sachs 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. 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, Aramark, TransDigm and MBIA. From 2009 to 2017, Lee was a lead director at Arch Capital Group as well as a board member for other firms such as Transdigm and Aramark. The Carlyle Group. In 2013, Lee joined The Carlyle Group 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 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 into a corporation. 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. Personal life. Lee is married to Zita Ezpeleta and they  have two children. Lee and Ezpeleta met in Lowell House at Harvard College when they were undergraduates. Ezpeleta is an attorney who previously practiced at Sidley Austin.