Carlyle Group Inc. hired a new investor relations head as new Chief Executive Harvey Schwartz reshapes the leadership at the private equity firm.
(Bloomberg) — Carlyle Group Inc. hired a new investor relations head as new Chief Executive Harvey Schwartz reshapes the leadership at the private equity firm.
Jeff Nedelman, 56, is joining Carlyle as head of distribution, directing dealings with pensions, endowments and investors, the Washington-based firm plans to announce Monday. The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. veteran of over 25 years has been a senior managing director at Certares Management, an investment firm known for bets on travel and tourism.
This is the third major leadership appointment Schwartz has made since taking the top job at Carlyle as he confronts the task of charting a path of steady growth and boosting the firm’s flagging stock price. In his first months, Schwartz has been installing the C-suite with trusted lieutenants.
Both Schwartz and Nedelman rose up the ranks at Goldman Sachs over the years, working closely along the way. Schwartz started as a vice president in the bank’s commodities trading business and ascended to co-president of Goldman over his two decades at the Wall Street firm. Nedelman moved from head of Americas equity sales to co-chief operating officer of global equities by the end of his tenure, taking on roles dealing with clients and running operations. He joined Certares in 2020.
Schwartz stressed the need to provide as much value to clients. “I am confident in Jeff’s leadership as we focus on delivering for them in the most effective way,” he said in a statement.
Changes
Schwartz has been pushing to get different sales forces to work together in more strategic ways. Carlyle faces the challenge of restoring some big clients’ confidence in the firm after leadership shifts made them more hesitant about ponying up money for key buyout strategies.
Nedelman’s role also underscores Carlyle’s growing push to reach wealthy individuals after years in which it lagged rivals. The firm is consolidating the private wealth team as well as the investor relations and sales forces that deal with institutions like pensions under one chain of command.
Nedelman replaces Dave McCann in leading investor relations, an office that has been through several changes in recent years. McCann, who took on the role in late 2022 when Carlyle was dealing with a CEO vacuum, will now focus on working with key clients. The firm’s prior investor relations head, Nathan Urquhart, left Carlyle to become Coatue Management’s president in 2022.
Schwartz has also made various changes to the investor relations group. He promoted Eleena Melamed, who worked on strategy and operations in the executive office, to chief operating officer of investor relations and head of client strategy. Meanwhile, Carlyle hired Shane Clifford from Franklin Templeton to head the firm’s private wealth push.
The new CEO has been soliciting feedback from investors across more than 150 meetings in the past seven months.
He has personally asked co-founder David Rubenstein to become more involved in fundraising, said people familiar with the matter. The pair have held numerous investor meetings together, in a shift for the firm. Rubenstein became less involved in fundraising after Schwartz’s predecessor, Kewsong Lee, became CEO. Lee left after tensions with founders and key top executives.
Schwartz has also named two other executives to the C-suite. John Redett, who headed and oversaw Carlyle’s investments in financial institutions, is the firm’s new finance chief. Lúcia Soares, who played a key role shaping technology operations at portfolio companies, became chief information officer for Carlyle earlier this year.
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