David Rubenstein Biography – Who is David Rubenstein?
David Rubenstein is a billionaire businessman who formerly used to work as a lawyer and financial analyst. He co-founded and is a co-executive chairman of the private equity firm, “The Carlyle Group” that is based in Washington, D.C., U.S. Rubenstein is also the chairman of the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Council on Foreign Relations, and is the president of The Economic Club of Washington, D.C.
He is a renown financier and philanthropist who dedicates some of his time to holding talks with various leaders on their paths to success through their stories. He is also among the group of people who have signed up for The Giving Pledge campaign, pledging to donate more than half of their wealth to charities and philanthropic work. He has also individually made donations to various universities, foundations and other institutions.
How old is David Rubenstein? – Age
Born as David Mark Rubenstein, the Carlyle Group co-founder is 71 years old as of August 11, 2020. He was born in 1949 in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
David Rubenstein’s Childhood – Parents
Rubenstein was born and raised as an only-child of a postman with the United States Postal Service and a stay-at-home mother, in Baltimore, a low-income community. He grew up Jewish. After the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, David’s dream became to serve in public office. According to David, Kennedy’s famous statement “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” struck a chord with him, hence, his aspiration to serve in public office.
His family’s income could not allow him to attend college, hence, he depended on scholarships to further his studies. After high school, he joined Duke University Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1970 magna cum laude. He went on and applied to a number of schools and ended up at the University of Chicago Law School on scholarship. In 1973, he graduated from the institution with a J.D. degree and was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review.
How did David Rubenstein make his money?
After finishing his college studies, Rubenstein joined “Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison,” a New York-based law firm. He worked there for two years before deciding to join the world politics. He first worked for Senator Birch Bayh as his chief counsel. During the Jimmy Carter campaign, Rubenstein got a position and in 1977, when Carter took office, David became the deputy assistant to the President for domestic policy. Four years later, when Carter lost on his re-election, Rubenstein also lost his job.
After the abrupt job loss, Rubenstein remained jobless for six months then he got back to practicing law. He took up a newspaper one day and he was reading an article, he read about how William Simon, former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary, bought Gibson Greeting Cards with $79 million worth of debt and $1 million of his own money in a leveraged buyout. He turned the company around and made it a public company for $290 million. This story inspired him and he immediately sought to form a team of professionals in finance as he got the idea of starting a private equity firm with him as the legal consultant.
At first, Rubenstein could not find anyone who was interested in starting a new firm. However, in 1987, he partnered up with two other people and launched the private equity firm idea. They named the company “The Carlyle Group” after the hotel where they held some of their initial meetings, the Carlyle Hotel in New York.
Who owns The Carlyle Group?
The question on who the owner of Carlyle Group is gets thrown around a lot and the answer is that the majority of the company’s shares are owned by it’s three founding partners; David M. Rubenstein, Daniel A. D’Aniello and William E. Conway Jr. Carlyle Group is an asset management company that manages billions of assets for it’s U.S. and international clients.
David Rubenstein Books and Television Hosting
Aside from his work as a financier, Rubenstein has also written a book titled “The American Story: Interviews with Master Historians,” published in October 2019 by Simon & Schuster. This book has records of interviews with historians as they tell stories on their areas of historical expertise.
David has also been the host of The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations, on Bloomberg Television that has been airing since October 2016. The program is also available on CuriosityStream and any PBS stations.
Is David Rubenstein still married? – Ex-wife and Children
Mr. Rubenstein is no longer married. He was previously married to Alice Rubenstein from May 21, 1983, when the two wed, to December 8, 2017, when their divorce was finalized. Alice is the former owner of Alaska Dispatch News and is the founder of the Alaska Native Arts Foundation and the Alaska House New York.
David and Alice Rubenstein met at their then working place, the Carter Administration. From their marriage, the two are parents to three grown-children, namely; Gabrielle, Alexandra and Andrew. Mr. Rubenstein now resides in Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
How much is David Rubenstein worth?
Rubenstein’s net worth is in billions, $3.2 billion, according to Forbes, as of September 2020.
How much did David Rubenstein pay for the Magna Carta?
Magna Carta (“Great Charter”), also known as Magna Carta Libertatum (“Great Charter of Freedoms”), is a royal charter of rights that were agreed to by King John of England on June 15, 1215. The Great Charter of Freedoms was a promise to protect church rights, protect barons from illegal imprisonment, ensure there is access to swift justice, limit feudal payments to the Crown and was to be implemented through a council of 25 barons.
To this day, there are several exemplifications of the Magna Carta, with only two being held outside of England. One is held by the Australian Government, purchased from King’s School, Bruton, England for £12,500. The other exemplification outside of England was originally held by the earls of Cardigan, the Brudenell family, but in 1984 they sold it to the Perot Foundation in the U.S.
In 2007 at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, Rubenstein spent US$21.3 million to buy the last privately owned copy of the Magna Carta. After the purchase, he said, “I have always believed that this was an important document to our country, even though it wasn’t drafted in our country. I think it was the basis for the Declaration of Independence and the basis for the Constitution”. He then loaned the document, permanently, to the National Archives in Washington, D.C.