Carlyle is courting ex-Goldman manager Harvey Schwartz as CEO

The Carlyle Group has spoken to former Goldman Sachs executive Harvey Schwartz about taking over the board of the private equity group as the company seeks to complete a protracted search for a new head following Kewsong Lee’s abrupt resignation in August.

Schwartz, a two-decade Goldman veteran who left Wall Street in 2018, has spoken about taking the top job at Carlyle, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Though Carlyle has been working to complete his search for a new leader earlier this year, no formal decisions have been made, warned a person briefed on the process.

Schwartz did not respond to a request for comment. Carlyle declined to comment.

Should Schwartz get the job, Carlyle would recruit one of Wall Street’s most experienced executives. He left Goldman five years ago after losing to David Solomon in a contest to succeed Lloyd Blankfein as the company’s CEO.

Schwartz has held several senior positions at Goldman, including chief financial officer, co-head of securities, and co-president and chief operating officer alongside Solomon.

Since leaving Goldman, Schwartz has been CEO of Bank of London, a clearing bank, and also sits on the board of US online lender SoFi. He was also reportedly a candidate for the post of CEO of Wells Fargo, a post that eventually went to Charles Scharf.

His potential appointment comes after a lengthy search that included internal candidates and a number of high-profile external finance managers.

The group’s search committee had probed Goldman President John Waldron, former Morgan Stanley chief operating officer Jonathan Pruzan and Citigroup chief financial officer Mark Mason, people briefed on the search said.

The best in-house candidates are Peter Clare, an experienced dealmaker who is chief investment officer of Carlyle’s private equity unit, and Mark Jenkins, head of the fast-growing debt investing business.

In a memo to employees late last year, William Conway, Carlyle’s interim CEO and co-founder, said the New York and Washington-based buyout pioneer is working to complete the search in the “near future.”

Conway had previously told employees that the $369 billion group was…

Carlyle is expected to report fourth-quarter results on February 7th.

Schwartz co-headed Goldman’s securities practice during the years during and immediately after the 2008 financial crisis before becoming CFO in 2013. He held that role for four years before being promoted to co-president in January 2017, working alongside Solomon.

A year later, Goldman’s succession plans for Blankfein were settled when Solomon was named sole president of the bank while Schwartz announced his decision to retire from the bank.

During his time at Goldman, Schwartz was best known for his operational skills, which helped steer the bank’s vaunted trading arm through the financial turmoil of the 2008 crisis and managed risk.

Later, as CFO, he was tasked with helping Goldman adapt its entire operations to a more stringent regulatory environment in the wake of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act and the implementation of Basel III.

The news was first reported by Semafor.

Additional reporting by Kaye Wiggins in Hong Kong