High-Level Executive Switches to Carlyle From Warburg Pincus

The Carlyle Group has hired Kewsong Lee away from his post as managing director at Warburg Pincus, an unusually high-level transition within private equity’s executive ranks.

Mr. Lee, who had been at Warburg for more than two decades and recently served as member of the executive management group, will hold the new position of deputy chief investment officer for corporate private equity. He will assist the firm’s co-founder and co-chief executive, William E. Conway Jr., in a “range of activities related to investing and managing” the firm’s largest sector, according to a statement from Carlyle announcing the appointment on Monday.

“It’s kind of like a classic deputy position,” a Carlyle spokesman, Christopher Ullman, said in a phone interview. Mr. Lee came to Carlyle’s attention after the firm hired an executive recruiting firm to identify candidates for the new position.

Mr. Lee declined to comment, Mr. Ullman said.

Carlyle, one of the world’s largest global alternative asset managers, has $180 billion under management. That includes $58 billion from 11 funds in its corporate private equity platform, which advises buyout and growth capital funds. Mr. Lee will become a member of each fund’s investment committee and will join the company’s management and operating committees, as well as help with corporate development.

“Carlyle’s greatest strength is the depth, continuity and collegiality of our global investment professionals,” Mr. Conway said in the statement. “Kew will be a great addition to this team and will play a critical role in helping us ensure the platform we have created continues to make superb investments and create value for our investors.”

Carlyle’s holdings include positions in Beats Electronics, Getty Images and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Senior executives at Mr. Lee’s level rarely switch firms, and hee had been with Warburg since 1992. He most recently led the company’s consumer, industrial and services group and was instrumental in a number of prominent transactions, including the 2006 buyout of Aramark and last month’s sale of Neiman Marcus for $6 billion.

“We appreciate Kew’s 20-plus years of dedication and contribution to the firm,” a Warburg spokesman said in an email. “We wish him well in his new role.”