At Carlyle, we believe diverse teams ask better questions and inclusive teams find better answers.
Our Strategy and Commitment
Our diverse and inclusive community makes us better partners and ultimately, helps us to build better businesses. As we continue on our journey to build a more inclusive work place, we have identified four key elements to sustainable change.
At Carlyle, we believe diverse teams perform better, so we seek to create a community where we continually exchange insights, embrace different perspectives and challenge the status quo.
- A Compelling 'Why'
So that teams and individuals are inspired and take action - Data
To guide action, monitor progress and strengthen accountability - Education paired with changes to systems and decision-making processes
So that everyone knows the steps they can take and our structures support inclusive action - Concerted, credible stewardship & Governance
Carlyle's Spheres of Influence
We continuously strive to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into everything we do. This requires us to be actively inclusive, rewire processes, practices and norms, and leverage our spheres of influence to make progress against our goals. By igniting action within our firm, our investments, and our community, we are making strides in DEI in the near term and laying the foundation for even greater impact into the future.
DEI at Carlyle
Each of our business segments has a DEI Business Lead who helps to shape a customized plan and executes against diversity goals, with progress assessed during quarterly business reviews.
- Building upon the requirement that at least two diverse candidates be interviewed for each open role, we now require that, in the US, at least one of the candidates is Black, Latinx, Pacific Islander or Native American.
- Inclusion is now a core management and leadership competency. All nominees for promotion to Managing Director take part in a full-360 assessment that includes evaluation of their skills in inclusive leadership and management.
- We launched focused development efforts including a program for mid-level Black and Latinx professionals and a board-readiness program for female and multicultural employees.
- Our Career Strategies Initiative (CSI) is a virtual sponsorship program for underrepresented professionals which pairs participants with Executive Sponsors who help develop and advocate on their behalf, providing enhanced growth opportunities. Previous cohorts of CSI participants have shown twice the promotion rate of the firm average and half the turnover rate.
- The Compensation Committee of Carlyle’s Board of Directors established progress toward diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives as one of the factors that informs a portion of CEO compensation, which Carlyle’s senior leadership also expanded to factor into compensation decisions for all employees.
- Year-end bonuses for all employees across all levels are performance-based, which includes meeting previously-set individual diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives
We also believe in the importance of engaging our people throughout the firm to take action to drive DEI progress. Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) are essential to Carlyle’s diversity strategy, as they provide the opportunity for colleagues to share ideas, engage, and offer professional development. Over the past year, our ERGs have evolved tremendously due to the leadership and concerted effort of our people.
Employee Resource Groups
• DiverseAbility
• LGBTQ+
• Multicultural
• NextGen
• Veterans
• Womens
• Working Parents
In 2021, we launched the DEI Incentive Awards, a program recognizing employees who have gone above and beyond to contribute to DEI progress at the firm. DEI Changemakers are representative of all levels, from around the globe, who have gone above and beyond to contribute to DEI progress at the firm.
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1 Based on the Total AUM by fund data, including funds classified as US Buyout (Sandra Horbach), Global Investment Solutions (Ruulke Bagijn), Europe Structured Credit, US Structured Credit (Lauren Basmadjian), and Infrastructure, Power, Renewable Energy (Pooja Goyal)
2 U.S. only with ethnic minorities defined as Asian, Black, or African American, Hispanic, or Latin, American Indian, or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Other Pacific Islander, Two or More Races
Transparent and Inclusive Practices
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At Carlyle, we work hard to create a community where we continually exchange insights, embrace different perspectives and leverage diversity as a competitive advantage. |
DEI Council
In 2018, we established our global DEI Council, which is comprised of 17 senior leaders. Carlyle’s DEI Council meets at least three times a year to review and refine the firmwide DEI Strategy, help create inclusive environments, and work to build the systems needed to embed diversity and inclusion across our business segments.
Portfolio Boards
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1 Carter, D, Simkims, B, Simpson W. “Corporate Governance, Board Diversity and Firm Value”, The Financial Review 2003 |
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As a result of multiple years of investment, we are making progress on the composition of the boards of our portfolio companies. In 2016, we created a goal within our US corporate private equity business to have diverse boards for all of our majority-owned company boards within 2 years of taking control of the company. At the time, 38% of eligible boards met the goal. Four years later, that figure rose to 88% overall and 100% in our flagship US Buyout funds. And in 2020, we expanded our portfolio company diversity goal to achieve 30% diversity of all directors in corporate private equity-controlled companies around the world by 2023. By embedding DEI into many of our investments, we signal the significant role it plays in building better businesses. As of March 31, 2022, over 200 portfolio company board seats have been filled with diverse directors. Our progress is due, in part, to tying incremental milestones to credit facilities totaling over $8 billion in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Cost savings are produced when progress is made against our goal. |
Portfolio Company Management
Kara Helander, Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer is joined by Sandra Wu (CEO of Kokusai Kogyo) and Reid Jason (CEO of Unison) on a panel for a discussion on how to build better businesses with diversity as a driver of change at Carlyle’s Global Investor Conference 2022.
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Network of Talent |
Managing Our Investments
Carlyle is committed to providing guidance and support to portfolio company management teams and boards on effective diversity and inclusion strategies through our networks, as well as our policies for addressing workplace diversity, equity and inclusion and enhancing supplier diversity.
Network of Resources
We also use our investments to drive change. For example, HireVue, a Carlyle portfolio company, offers recruiting technology that improves diversity in hiring. In addition to adopting the technology for its own hiring, Carlyle has also helped introduce HireVue to many of its portfolio companies; three have already adopted the technology and several more are expected to become customers in the near-term.
Business and Community
We support several initiatives to improve diversity and promote an inclusive culture for women and underrepresented professionals within the industry.
Ruulke Bagijn, Head of Global Investment Solutions, presents at the SuperReturn 2022 International Conference, an event that brings industry leaders together to connect and build new relationships, hear innovative ideas, and exchange strategic insights.
- Carlyle has joined The Milken Institute as a strategic partner and first underwriter for the DEI in Asset Management Program. The program was created to improve recruitment, retention and advancement for women and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) within the asset management industry.
- The Business Roundtable spotlights Carlyle in their DEI campaign.
- Carlyle supports The Equality Act which creates clear, consistent protections to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
- Carlyle recently partnered with Ascend and 100 other organizations that champion diverse communities to support an action agenda to address the adverse impact of the pandemic. As a firm, Carlyle has donated $10 mm towards causes in light of the pandemic.
- The Board Diversity Alliance added Carlyle as a supporting partner that will aid it in its efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion at the corporate board level and strengthen talent pipelines.
- The ILPA Diversity in Action initiative brings together limited partners and general partners who share a commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in the private equity industry. The goal of the initiative is to motivate market participants to engage in the journey towards becoming more diverse and inclusive and to build momentum around the adoption of specific actions that advance DEI over time.
- The 30% Coalition - Members work together to achieve diversity in senior leadership and the corporate boardroom.
- CEO Action for Diversity, the largest CEO-driven business commitment to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace. By signing on to this commitment, CEOs are pledging to take action to cultivate a workplace where diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected, where employees feel encouraged to discuss diversity and inclusion, and where best known—and unsuccessful—actions can be shared across organizations via a unified hub, CEOAction.com, in an effort to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
- In the UK, Carlyle recently announced its support for the #10000blackinterns initiative which reflects on the lack of black employees in senior front office roles in the asset management industry. The objective is to invite 100 asset management firms to commit to offering a six-week internship to a Black candidate next year in a portfolio management position.
We are pleased to share this year’s ESG report, entitled “The EBITDA of ESG” to reinforce our belief that integrating ESG factors into our investment processes provides an additive lens that we believe can provide opportunities for our portfolio companies to drive revenues, reduce costs, secure more efficient financing, and strengthen their competitive positioning.