Carlyle replaces GMS head

The Carlyle Group has named Kewsong Lee as head of its Global Market Strategies (GMS) unit, the firm said on Friday (20 May). Current GMS head Mitch Petrick will become a senior advisor to Carlyle and intends to start his own investment management company, according to a Carlyle statement .

“We are grateful to Mitch for his significant efforts building GMS,” said co-chief executive officers William Conway and David Rubenstein in the statement. “Mitch and his team have grown the GMS platform, developing numerous scalable investment strategies. Carlyle intends to continue to invest in and build out the GMS platform.”

Before joining Carlyle in 2010, Petrick (pictured) spent 20 years at Morgan Stanley, heading the firm’s corporate credit, non-investment grade, distressed and leveraged finance and restructurings units before eventually becoming global head of institutional sales and trading. At Carlyle, in addition to his leadership of the GMS credit platform, Petrick was also a member of Carlyle’s management and operating committees and servedbriefly as interim president of Carlyle’s BDC.

In addition to his new role supervising GMS, Lee will continue in his current roles as a managing director, member of the management committee and the deputy chief investment officer for corporate private equity at Carlyle. Before joining Carlyle in 2013, Lee spent 21 years at Warburg Pincus where he served as a managing director and head of the consumer, industrial and services group.

Carlyle GMS has $34 billion in assets under management, with 200 professionals managing 68 active funds, including 43 structured credit funds. GMS’ carry and financing funds specialise in mid-market finance, energy mezzanine and global distressed and corporate opportunities. In April, GMS reached a $576 million first close on Carlyle Strategic Partners IV, a distressed and special situations vehicle. Later that month during Carlyle’s first quarter conference call, Rubenstein outlined challenges facing GMS, including the credit impact of low energy prices and a decline in hedge fund assets under management, and detailed the firm’s plans to expand the business.

Washington D.C. based Carlyle Group manages 125 funds and 164 fund of funds and has $178 billion in assets under management.