Other departures that came to light after the earnings call included Nathan Urquhart, partner and Carlyle's global head of investor relations, who is leaving the firm to become president at Coatue Management LLC, and Mike Gozycki, a Carlyle Group managing director, who resigned to join Capitol Meridian Partners, an investment firm founded by former Carlyle executives Adam Palmer and Brooke Coburn. Messrs. Palmer and Coburn both left Carlyle last year after 25 years at the money manager. Mr. Palmer had been head of Carlyle's global aerospace, defense and government services business, and Mr. Coburn had been deputy chief investment officer of real assets.
Mr. Urquhart's departure is not related to that of Mr. Lee, a Carlyle spokeswoman said.
"Nathan's departure was a situation of getting a great job," she said, referencing Mr. Urquhart's reported new position at Coatue Management.
Other recent departures include Jay W. Sammons, Carlyle Group's global head of consumer, media and retail who also left Carlyle this summer, Bloomberg reported.
Executive turnover is a big deal for all firms, even the largest alternative investment managers, consultants and other industry executives said. Departures of people seen as critical to an alternative investment firm "could be a significant impediment to fundraising," said Fraser Van Rensburg, co-founder of placement agent Asante Capital Group and managing partner.
However, large firms have an advantage over smaller, boutique firms when top executives leave, Mr. Van Rensburg said.
Very large firms do not depend on one individual or a small handful of individuals, he said. "There's a much broader platform that keeps the ship afloat," Mr. Van Rensburg said.
But even established alternative investment firms without recent departures like Carlyle are not expected to have an easy time on the fundraising trail.
Fundraising, in general, will take longer due to economic conditions and uncertainty whether the economy is or will be going into a recession, he said. Investors struggle to make decisions when there is uncertainty, Mr. Van Rensburg said.
There is also an "overabundanace of private equity managers raising capital," he said.
Blackstone Inc. wants to raise a total of $150 billion from major institutions over its current 18-month fundraising cycle ending around mid-year 2023, executives said during the second quarter earnings call, reaffirming a goal announced in January. TPG Inc. is actively raising several funds including its flagship buyout fund TPG Partners IX, health care-focused private equity fund TPG Healthcare Partners II and impact investing-focused private equity fund The Rise Fund III. KKR & Co. Inc. executives said in February they plan to raise capital for more than 30 strategies in 2022.
"Every LP is overwhelmed with the number of private equity fund opportunities in front of them," Mr. Van Rensburg said. And with a slowdown in transactions, alternative investment firms are distributing less capital back to investors that they could commit to new funds, he said.
Carlyle executives acknowledged the challenging fundraising environment on their second-quarter earnings call.
"The world has changed, in particular around some of the traditional private equity strategies, and that's fundamentally going to result in some of those raises taking longer in general, and maybe not raising the same amounts as they would have otherwise in a different environment," Mr. Buser said."