Who is David Rubenstein?

In 2009, Carlyle sold 5 percent of itself to CalPERS at roughly a 2 billion dollar valuation, at a time when private equity firms were not believed to have sellable franchise value.

“Nobody thought that a private equity firm in those days had franchise value and could be sold, but we sold 5% to CalPER.”

Rubenstein explains how he differentiated his role at Carlyle by letting MBA partners assess deals while he focused on fundraising, recruiting, and being the public face of the firm.

“I would say that my partners had MBAs. I didn't have an MBA. So, they really knew the investment world. So, I figured, okay, they can really assess deals better than I can. what I'll do is I'll raise the money and then I'll ultimately recruit people and then I'll be the face of the firm because I was better at that than maybe they were.”

Rubenstein deliberately declined free office space at Carlyle to avoid the temptation to grow the firm too quickly, treating size as a risk rather than a goal.

“I said I don't want it because I don't want to be tempted to ever grow that big.”

David Rubenstein on using interviews as a cognitive exercise in later life.

“One of the things I do is I read a lot and I interview people. And when you interview people, you got to keep your brain sharp, as you can see. You got to go back and forth, listen to what the person's saying, think of the next question while you're listening to a person, and you got to keep your brain active. And it's a good way to keep your brain active when you reach my age. So, I do it as my anti-oszheimer's device.”

David Rubenstein purchased one of the last privately held copies of the Magna Carta for $21 million.

“He owns one of the I think it's one of the last privately owned copies of the Magna Carta, which is a historical one of the most like historical documents of all time for $21 million. He bought it.”

The Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms, was seeded with capital generated from a tax-loss scheme involving Alaskan natives, sometimes called the 'great Eskimo tax scam'.

“Him and a couple friends organized roughly $2 billion in these like in like or in transacting these tax losses. And after doing that for two or three years, they had made something like $20 million. And that's the money that they used 3 years later to eventually start Carile Group.”