Carlyle Establishes DEI Leadership Network of Portfolio Company CEOs as it Continues Push to Advance Diversity Standards Across the Private Equity Industry

DEI Leadership Network to Convene Global CEOs to Accelerate DEI Strategy and Goals Across Sectors

New York and Washington – As part of its long-standing commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) across its spheres of influence, Carlyle today announced the creation of the Carlyle DEI Leadership Network, a coalition of the firm’s portfolio company CEOs around the globe to develop a peer group for shared resources, insights, and learnings to advance diversity, equity and inclusion within their respective companies. The DEI Leadership Network will gather for the first inaugural meeting on March 24th.

Spearheaded by Carlyle’s CEO Kewsong Lee and Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Kara Helander, the network will leverage the firm’s global reach and span across industries to provide CEOs in Carlyle’s portfolio with tools and tangible strategies to effectively lead with DEI at the forefront. Key components include:

• Annual meeting with participating CEOs to hear experts, share successes and challenges, and engage with leaders spanning all sectors.
• Quarterly Expert DEI Speakers Series, which will be made available to participating CEOs’ respective portfolio companies’ employees. Topics will range from how to be an effective ally to habits of inclusive and high-performing teams.
• Dedicated communications channel to facilitate an open forum for leaders to have honest conversations and exchange ideas on pressing DEI issues.
• Access to resources and tools to support actionable DEI initiatives within companies. For instance, Carlyle’s training program on mitigating unconscious bias, Better Decisions, in which more than 80% of the firm’s employees have participated, will now be available to participating portfolio companies’ employees.

“We believe DEI plays a critical role in propelling performance. We developed this network to ensure management teams have the tools and resources they need to drive meaningful change within their companies and the communities they touch,” said Kewsong Lee, Carlyle’s CEO. “We look forward to collaborating with the DEI Leadership Network to ensure management teams are equipped to lead and inspire as they drive focused progress across their organizations.”

“We are thrilled to host the first annual meeting for our DEI Leadership Network, gathering leaders within the Carlyle community who are eager to advance DEI,” noted Kara Helander, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Carlyle. “Our aim is to leverage our collective strength to keep ourselves and our portfolio companies accountable to foster inclusive, equitable and diverse teams that in turn make better decisions.”

Carlyle’s mission to create diverse, equitable and inclusive communities across its spheres of influence, including within its portfolio companies, has been well underway and has already started to effect change. Notably, in the U.S. and Europe, Carlyle secured the largest ESG-linked credit facilities of more than $6 billion tied to achieving its goal of 30% diverse directors across its controlled portfolio companies by 2023. In 2021, 59% of the new directors added to goal-eligible companies were executives from underrepresented groups, bringing the overall diversity of goal-eligible companies globally from 22% to 29% year over year.

Carlyle’s focus extends beyond board positions. To support our portfolio companies in their efforts to advance DEI, Carlyle developed a DEI Playbook that outlines foundational standards and provides resources and tools to support effective action, which is in the process of being rolled out globally.

About Carlyle

Carlyle (NASDAQ: CG) is a global investment firm with deep industry expertise that deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit and Global Investment Solutions. With $301 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2021, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest. Carlyle employs nearly 1,850 people in 26 offices across five continents. Further information is available at www.carlyle.com. Follow Carlyle on Twitter @OneCarlyle.

Contact

Brittany Berliner
+1 (212) 813 4839
brittany.berliner@carlyle.com