Global private capital investment firm The Carlyle Group announced the launch of a new energy transition-focused investment platform, centralizing the firm’s infrastructure and energy capabilities to capture emerging investment opportunities arising from global decarbonization efforts.

The new platform, operating within Carlyle’s Global Infrastructure business, will launch with over 40 of the firm’s investment professionals and with 38 portfolio investments. The platform will be led by Macky Tall, Chair of the firm’s Infrastructure Group, expanding his role with responsibility for Carlyle’s investment strategy across infrastructure and energy.

Kewsong Lee, Carlyle CEO, said:

“We continue to adapt and align the firm to ensure Carlyle is at the forefront of capturing the tremendous global investment opportunities presented by the energy transition. By combining our expertise into a single platform, enhancing our leadership, and drawing on the firm’s considerable global resources and portfolio companies, we are even better positioned to capitalize on these opportunities for our investors.”

Carlyle’s announcement comes as major private markets firms globally are positioning to capitalize on the significant investment opportunities arising from the transition to low carbon energy sources. Private equity firms Apollo and Blackstone have each recently said that they anticipate opportunities to invest $100 billion in energy transition and climate change solutions over the next decade, and each have launched energy transition-focused platforms over the past few months.

Carlyle has been actively investing in the energy transition, committing over $1.2 billion over the past two years to renewable and sustainable energy companies. In 2021 the firm launched utility scale sustainable infrastructure platform Copia Power, kicked off with the acquisition of a 6 GW U.S. solar and storage development pipeline from energy developer and operator Tenaska.

With the launch of the new platform, Carlyle also announced a series of new executive appointments and leadership changes, including hiring Avik Dey as Co-Head of Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), the firm’s strategy targeting global energy investment opportunities outside of North America. Dey joins the firm from NOVA Chemicals, where he served as SVP, CFO & Chief Transformation Officer, responsible for the company’s finance, strategy, corporate development, information technology, transformation and government relations teams. Prior to NOVA, Dey served as Managing Director, Head of Energy & Resources, Real Assets at CPP Investments, the investment manager of the Canada Pension Plan , leading the firm’s energy, power & renewables and energy ventures team. CIEP will be co-lead by Carlyle Partner Bob Maguire.

Marcel van Poecke, currently head of CIEP will become Vice Chair of CIEP. van Poecke said:

“We are delighted to welcome Avik to Carlyle. He is one of the industry’s leading energy investors specializing in decarbonization and we will benefit greatly from his deep expertise.”

Dey added:

“I am thrilled to be joining a team with such impressive experience investing behind the energy transition. I look forward to working with Bob to identify opportunities across the energy spectrum to help drive sustainable change and create value for investors over the long-term.”