In a statement posted on its website recently, global investment firm Carlyle announced the appointment of Goldman Sachs’ former Global Head of Commodities Research, Jeff Currie, as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways, “effective immediately”.
Carlyle described Currie as a seasoned economist in the statement, highlighting that he helped to build Goldman Sachs’ commodities business.
“During his nearly three decades at the firm, Currie became one of the leading commodity market strategists on Wall Street, known for advising clients through the commodity ‘super cycle’ of the 2000s, the shale supply shock of the 2010s, and most recently the twin shocks of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war,” Carlyle noted in the statement.
In his new role, Currie will report into Marcel van Poecke, Carlyle’s Chairman of Energy, according to the statement, which revealed that Currie’s responsibilities at Carlyle will include “conducting analysis of commodity market trends and the evaluation of new investment opportunities across energy markets and the commodity supply chain central to the energy transition”.
Carlyle said in the statement that it believes the energy transition is entering a new phase amidst the backdrop of significant geopolitical and macroeconomic shifts globally.
“Decarbonizing our global economy is not a simple linear transition from carbon-intensive energy generation to lower-carbon energy sources,” Carlyle added.
“It is a complex, multi-dimensional transition that involves energy production, distribution, transportation, refining, efficiency, and end usage, along with decarbonizing all other sectors of the economy,” the company continued.
“An effective and orderly energy transition will require new energy pathways – balancing energy availability, security, and affordability, as our energy systems simultaneously decarbonize. Carlyle has a large and diverse global energy platform that invests across the full spectrum of electrons and molecules necessary to develop these new energy pathways,” the company went on to state.
In the statement, Carlyle Chief Executive Officer Harvey Schwartz said, “the need to decarbonize our global economy is one of the most significant investment opportunities today”.
“Jeff is a leading expert on global markets and commodities and his experience and insights will help us better address the unprecedented market dislocations arising from the global energy transition for the benefit of our investors,” he added.
Marcel van Poecke, the Chairman of Energy at Carlyle, and Pooja Goyal, the Chief Investment Officer of Infrastructure and Head of Renewable and Sustainable Energy at the company, jointly said in the statement that “pursuing investment opportunities across the global energy transition requires a deep understanding of global commodity markets and the complex intersecting forces of energy availability, security, and affordability”.
“We are thrilled to welcome Jeff who can add a further layer of analysis to aid our investment decision-making,” they added.
Commenting on his new role in the statement, Currie said, “I am excited to join Carlyle, a firm with a leading global energy franchise that is uniquely positioned to build these new energy pathways, and take advantage of this growing global opportunity across commodity markets”.
“I look forward to working with Marcel, Pooja, and the entire team,” he added.
Carlyle highlights on its site that it deploys private capital across its business and conducts its operations through three business segments – Global Private Equity, Global Credit, and Global Investment Solutions.
“With $426 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2023, Carlyle’s purpose is to invest wisely and create value on behalf of its investors, portfolio companies and the communities in which we live and invest,” the company notes on its site.
The business employs more than 2,200 people in 28 offices across four continents, according to its site.
Earlier this year, Carlyle announced the appointment of Eriko Sakurai, the former President of Dow Japan and Korea, as Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Japan advisory team.
In October last year, the company announced that Jeff Nedelman would join the firm as Global Head of Distribution. He joined Carlyle from Certares, where he was a Partner and Senior Managing Director. Prior to Certares, Nedelman spent over 25 years at Goldman Sachs in both client-facing and operational roles, Carlyle highlighted in a statement posted on its site at the time.
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