Carlyle promotes human resources

With $46.9 billion under management and global operations, there is little room for error in hiring, retaining, compensating and training the talent to manage a private equity firm like The Carlyle Group.
Carlyle’s recent move to promote Lori Sabet, formerly senior vice president for global human resources, to managing director in its Washington DC office, underscores the growing importance of managing human capital as the industry races ahead.
Prior to joining Carlyle in 2000, Sabet was vice president of human resources and administration at Octagon Marketing and Athlete Presentation. She earned her BA in public administration/human resources management from Minnesota State University-St Cloud and her masters in human resource management from Marymount University.
Carlyle banks on more than 390 investment professionals operating out of its offices in 16 countries in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Sabet and her team of 11 are responsible for setting and driving Carlyle’s human resource strategy globally.
Carlyle’s own co-founder and managing director, David Rubenstein, recently noted that talent is the “heart” of the firm. In the introduction to Human Capital in Private Equity, a book recently published by Private Equity International Books, Rubenstein wrote: “Private equity firms need to recognize that their ultimate, long term success is dependent not just on raising large sums or achieving high rates of return, but rather on the skill with which their individuals are recruited, retained, trained, compensated, promoted, and (in appropriate situations), transitioned or retired.”
The storied firm, led by Louis Gerstner, Jr, former chairman of IBM, knows a thing or two about human capital. It currently counts among its senior advisers Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Kent Kresa, chairman emeritus of Northrop Grumman. George H. Bush, former US president, John Major, former UK prime minister and a host of other luminaries were previously advisers to Carlyle.
With plans this year to launch fundraising on a US buyout vehicle that may target $15 billion or more, according to sources close to the firm, it’s safe to say that the flow of resumes to Carlyle will only increase.