Virginia's Governor elect Glenn Youngkin served as Co-CEO for The Carlyle Group from late 2017 to September 2020. He served as Chief Operating Officer and member of the Executive and Operating Committees prior to his appointment. Under Glenn's leadership Carlyle became the "first major private equity firm to make a carbon neutrality commitment in 2017."
Youngkin is on video highlighting his ESG bona vides in May 2020. Yet he has made clear his intention to pull Virginia out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
RGGI is the "first market-based, cap-and-invest regional initiative in the United States." That sounds exactly like something Youngkin would've supported at Carlyle.
Companies can also significantly reduce their Scopes 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while driving cost savings by developing a focused energy procurement strategy.--Carlyle Impact 2021
Consider Carlyle's approach to better business and climate resilience:
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, creating unprecedented risks and opportunities for businesses across all industries. Companies that can navigate these emerging challenges – from physical risks to policy shifts and technological disruptions – and seize the mounting opportunities of the energy transition, we expect will have the climate resilience to thrive in a changing world.
Youngkin's longtime employer has a greenhouse gas private equity offering:
As a core pillar of our firmwide strategy on climate change, we launched our Renewable and Sustainable Energy Fund (RSEF) to capture the opportunities created by the energy transition and commit to invest globally in the renewable and sustainable resources sector.--Carlyle Impact 2021
We modeled out investment implications under different carbon-pricing scenarios. We also incorporated improved monitoring of greenhouse gas emissions and a more robust approach to reducing those emissions over our hold period as part of our investment thesis, as we believe this would position us for a stronger exit.--Carlyle Taskforce om Climate Related Financial Disclosures Report 2020.
Achieved our third year of carbon neutrality across our 32 global offices and the activities of our more than 1,750 employees, after we became the first major private equity firm to make a carbon neutrality commitment in 2017.--Carlyle Taskforce om Climate Related Financial Disclosures Report 2020.
Youngkin won't be the first politician for flip-flop on an issue. Citizens just need to forget his twenty five year career at Carlyle, a politically connected private equity underwriter (PEU). It's Youngkin's turn to steer Virginia's state budget toward the greed and leverage boys.
Polticians Red and Blue love PEU and some are one.
Update 3-5-22: PEU Youngkin wants the "E for equity" removed from Virginia government. Does that make him a PU Governor?
The crusade against equity strikes Del. Don L. Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) as especially confounding because Youngkin took such a different tone when he led the Carlyle Group. Youngkin and co-CEO Kewsong Lee hired a chief diversity officer and put out a strongly worded statement condemning “racism and injustices” in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder by Minnesota police in 2020.
Update 6-17-22: WaPo found Youngkin's diversity roots. Apparently they were just shallow roots for his PEU image.
Youngkin was recognized for diversity practices when he was co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group private equity firm, but has adopted a far more hard-line stance since running for office last year.
Update 8-14-22: A pension fund lawsuit names individual Carlyle executives, including Glenn Youngkin for unjust enrichment at the expense of Pittsburgh first responders.
The 136-page lawsuit alleges that Youngkin received about $8.5 million of a $344 million payday engineered for a small group of top executives in 2019 and 2020, when he served as co-CEO.The executives “were unjustly enriched at the expense of and to the detriment of Carlyle and its stockholders,” according to the suit.
Update 12-30-22: As Co-CEO of The Carlyle Group Glenn Youngkin sung the praises of ESG. His political Red Team is fervently anti-ESG. How will this wash should Youngkin become a credible challenger for the White House in 2024?
Update 1-9-23: Carlyle set the standard for ESG reporting and transparency. Gov. Youngkin, once a huge fan of ESG, said transparency standards have gone too far.
Update 1-14-23: It seems independent voters aren't buying Youngkin's brand of politics.
Update 3-24-23: Forbes reported:
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ recently announced anti-ESG alliance has grown with the addition of Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
Another Youngkin flip-flop. Forbes missed two things with this characterization of the Virginia Governor:
Governor Youngkin is the former CEO of the Carlyle Group....If Youngkin can convince the General Assembly that ESG is harmful to state investments
Youngkin was co-CEO of Carlyle and very pro-ESG. In a 2020 Impact Review letter Youngkin and Kewsong Lee stated:
This work remains grounded in our long history of ESG integration, as we believe that strong ESG competencies are hallmarks of management excellence. This commitment is critical for investment performance...
...we have increased the transparency and detail of our own corporate ESG disclosures through our first Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) disclosures...
