Carlyle’s Metropolitan Real Estate loses capital markets head

It’s not clear why Lee left. It also is not clear if he is being directly replaced. Elizabeth Gill, a spokeswoman for Carlyle, declined to answer questions beyond confirming Lee’s departure.

Lee had been with Metropolitan since 2012 and was a member of the investment committee, according to his LinkedIn profile. Prior to Metropolitan, Lee was a managing director at UBS from 2002 to 2011, and before that he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, the profile states.

Metropolitan describes itself as a global real estate investment firm that creates targeted portfolios for investors. Since its founding in 2002, it has sponsored more than 20 commingled vehicles, including U.S. funds and five European funds, according to its website. Overall, the firm oversees more than $2.6 billion of client capital in private equity real estate partnerships, the website states.

Metropolitan is in the market raising U.S. real estate-focused Fund X, a source said. It’s not clear how much the fund is targeting.

Carlyle acquired Metropolitan in 2013 using capital from its balance sheet. Carlyle houses Metropolitan in its Investment Solutions group, which includes private equity fund-of-funds AlpInvest Partners and hedge fund group Diversified Global Asset Management.

Metropolitan Real Estate is led by David Sherman, who is co-founder, president and co-chief investment officer. Other senior executives include David Nasaw; co-founder, Felipe Dorregaray, managing director, chief financial officer and chief compliance officer; and Margaret McKnight, managing director and co-CIO.

Carlyle’s Solutions business, led by former Morgan Stanley executive Jacques Chappuis, has $49 billion of assets under management. Solutions overall was generating a multiple of invested capital of 1.5x as of March 31, according to Carlyle’s first-quarter earnings report.