Lindsay LoBue, who joined Carlyle Group in October as a partner and began serving as deputy COO just last month, will become COO in July—making her the fifth woman in Harvey Schwartz’s C-suite.
Schwartz began as CEO in February 2023. In January, Carlyle tapped Jen Barker to be chief human resources officer while Megan Starr was named global head of corporate affairs. Eleena Melamed was appointed head of client strategy last August, a month after Lúcia Soares was promoted to CIO and head of technology transformation.
Schwartz said in a statement he was thrilled to announce LoBue’s promotion. “In her new role,” he added, “Lindsay will be an important part of my executive team as we execute on Carlyle’s strategic priorities.”
Before joining Carlyle, LoBue spent over 20 years at Goldman Sachs, where she most recently was an advisory director, working across global divisions on strategic growth. Prior to that, LoBue was a partner in the global markets division, and, in other roles, managed Goldman’s investment grade corporate bond sales team and founded the credit products group.
LoBue told Fortune that joining Carlyle allowed her to be “part of an iconic brand” renowned for “its level of care to its clients.” It also allows her to work again with Schwartz, also a longtime banker at Goldman, most recently as president and co-COO. (Schwartz had been a contender to take over as Goldman’s CEO before the job went to David Solomon in October 2018.)
Schwartz is an “exceptional leader,” added LoBue, who said she couldn’t turn down the opportunity to work with him again. “He was somebody I always viewed as really supportive of women and all people of diverse backgrounds. He was supportive of clients and shareholders. He really believed in a culture of excellence and collaboration of the teams. That’s something I really wanted to be part of.”
She added: “He’s very approachable and very involved in the day-to-day.”
With LoBue’s promotion, current COO and 28-year Carlyle veteran Chris Finn will be retiring, although he’ll stay on through June 30 and then become a senior advisor.
“Working alongside Chris as deputy COO has been an invaluable experience, equipping me with a deep understanding of our operational and commercial opportunities,” Lobue said in a statement.
Carlyle has long touted the firm’s diversity—women oversee roughly half of the $426 billion it manages, and 71% of U.S. hires are women or ethnically diverse—but it’s still a sore spot among peers.
In alternative assets, women hold just 22% of all jobs, including investors and fund managers, and only 15% of senior positions, according to Preqin. A 2021 report from McKinsey & Co. found that women in North America remain dramatically underrepresented in the financial services workforce, especially at the senior management level and above.
Goldman last week announced the departure of Stephanie Cohen, who was one of the most powerful women at the investment bank. Roughly two-thirds of the women who were partners at Goldman in late 2018, when Solomon was named CEO, have since left or no longer have the title, the Wall Street Journal reported on March 13.
