Personnel moves continue at Carlyle's global market strategies (GMS) credit platform, with its head of capital markets departing the firm the same week it hired a new head of global credit.
A Carlyle representative said Friday that GMS head of capital markets Boris Okuliar has left the firm. Reuters first reported the departure Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter as saying he will join Ares Management as a partner in London focusing on credit opportunities in Europe.
Prior to joining Carlyle's New York office in early 2014, Okuliar served as managing director and head of leveraged capital markets for UBS in London. Previously, Okuliar held capital markets and syndicated finance positions at Barclays Capital, Banc of America Securities and Chase Manhattan Bank.
Carlyle brought Okuliar on as part of an effort to ensure that its GMS Finance business was “strongly anchored within the banking and sponsor community”, according to a statement announcing his hiring. The role was a newly created position as head of capital markets for GMS.
A source told PDI that Okuliar's departure from Carlyle was related to his family's desire to return to London.
An Ares representative did not return calls seeking further comment by press time.
Okuliar's departure comes amidst other staffing changes related to GMS, which Carlyle executives have said is undergoing a review to improve performance.
On Monday, Carlyle announced that it hired Canada Pension Plan Investment Board senior managing director and global head of private investments Mark Jenkins as head of global credit, another newly-created position. In May, Kewsong Lee was named as head of GMS, replacing Mitch Petrick , who remained with Carlyle as a senior advisor with plans to start his own investment firm. A source close to the matter told PDI on Monday that Jenkins will report to Lee.
On Carlyle's second quarter earnings call in July, founder and co-chief executive officer David Rubenstein said that the GMS unit had been underperforming the firm's expectations in terms of contributions to distributable and fee-related earnings.
Chief financial officer Curt Buser told analysts on the call that while the unit's CLO business, carry-fund platform and BDC continued to grow, its commodities business and some of its hedge funds had posted larger than anticipated losses.
“Overall this is an area where we're looking [at how] we balance continued investment for growth with actual current-term profitability, so that's going to be the analysis that we're continuing to undertake,” he said.
In the statement announcing Jenkins' addition on Monday, Lee reaffirmed that credit is an important strategic priority for the firm.
Carlyle's GMS credit platform has $34 billion in assets under management and focuses on loans and structured credit, private credit, energy credit and distressed credit. The unit is staffed by more than 200 investment professionals and maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angles, Chicago, Hong Kong and London.
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