David Rubenstein co-founded
The Carlyle Group
in 1987, and it has since become a private-equity behemoth with $369 billion under management and 29 offices across five continents. A lawyer by training, Rubenstein is now Carlyle’s co-chairman, but he wears many hats, as a philanthropist, author, and host of two shows on Bloomberg Television.
This year has seen a worsening landscape for private equity, with high inflation, rising debt costs, and a poor fund-raising environment for much of the industry. Rubenstein has seen such economic conditions before: He worked in the White House during administration of President Jimmy Carter. His career also included a stint working alongside Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, whom Rubenstein hired at Carlyle in 1997.