In the days leading up to his 57th birthday on Friday, Kewsong Lee was growing uneasy. The now-former Carlyle Group chief executive had, months earlier, proposed a $300mn pay package that would cement him as one of the most powerful figures in finance for the next half decade.
The Korean-American dealmaker was playing the role of Wall Street titan, while privately harbouring rising doubts. His bosses, Carlyle’s three septuagenarian billionaire founders, hadn’t responded to the nine-figure pay gambit; Lee felt his situation was becoming untenable, said close confidantes. He thought his days were numbered.
On Sunday, the trio — David Rubenstein, Bill Conway and Daniel D’Aniello — finally showed Lee the door, unwilling even to discuss his proposal. It threw one of the world’s largest private equity firms into disarray and wiped more than a billion dollars from its market value.