The Carlyle Group, the big alternative investment firm based in Washington, has hired a UBS executive to bolster its capital markets expertise.
Boris Okuliar, recently a managing director at UBS, is joining Carlyle as head of capital markets in the investment firm’s global market strategies group, which invests in equities, hedge funds and various types of credit, Carlyle said on Friday. Mr. Okuliar will also hold that title at Carlyle GMS Finance, a business development company focused on middle-market lending.
Mr. Okuliar, 37, who was head of leveraged capital markets in London for UBS, is starting at Carlyle in February. He will be based in New York.
“With his extensive background in syndicated and middle-market leveraged finance in the U.S. and Europe, Boris will play an important role in helping ensure that global market strategies, and in particular our GMS Finance business, are strongly anchored within the banking and sponsor community, enabling us to continue to invest wisely and create value for our investors,” Mitch Petrick, Carlyle’s head of global market strategies, said in a statement on Friday.
A number of investment bankers have left UBS to pursue other opportunities in recent months. The big Swiss bank, facing pressure from regulators to wall off its riskier activities, has moved to reduce its investment bank and focus more on businesses like wealth management.
On Thursday, the Blackstone Group, another private equity giant, announced that it had hired James R. Schaefer from UBS, where he was was global head of the power and renewable energy group.
During his time at UBS, Mr. Okuliar oversaw the structuring and execution of leveraged loans, bridge financing and high-yield bond placements. He previously worked for Barclays and Bank of America’s investment banking division.
Carlyle, which had $185 billion of assets under management as of Sept. 30, is best known for its private equity deals. But its global market strategies business is also a major focus, representing $35.4 billion in assets under management.