Carlyle tinkers PR strategy ahead of IPO

The Carlyle Group has named Randall Whitestone principal and director of communications for the Americas, effective today.

Whitestone will head up Carlyle’s communications activities in North and South America, including advising senior executives and investment professionals, and will also be responsible for supporting the firm’s portfolio companies. He will be based in New York.

“Randy is going to be the point person for media relations in the Americas,” Carlyle head of global communications Chris Ullman told Private Equity International.  “I’m going to focus more on strategy and big projects.”

Randall Whitestone

 Whitestone joins Carlyle from Neuberger Berman. He was senior vice president of corporate communications at Lehman Brothers and global head of media relations for the investment management and mortgage capital divisions since 2005. Neuberger became independent in 2008 after Lehman collapsed.

Carlyle’s planned initial public offering increases its need for additional communications resources that come with being a listed firm. Carlyle’s S-1 filing – the document it has to lodge with the Securities and Exchange Commission in advance of its IPO – ran to well over 300 pages. The IPO is not expected to happen until next year.

Carlyle has also grown its assets under management 43 percent from last year to $153 billion, thanks largely to the acquisitions of fund of funds manager Alpinvest and hedge fund ESG.