Mark Genender Joins The Carlyle Group

Mark Genender has agreed to join The Carlyle Group as a New York-based managing director in the firm’s consumer and retail group. He previously co-founded Star Avenue Capital with Irving Place Capital and Creative Artists Agency, and was a managing director with Fenway Partners.

PRESS RELEASE

Global private equity firm The Carlyle Group today announced that Mark Genender will join the firm as a Managing Director in the Consumer & Retail Group. Mr. Genender comes to Carlyle from Star Avenue Capital, an investment partnership which invests in consumer growth businesses. He will be based in New York and begin his duties in early June.

The Consumer & Retail Group pursues investments in the global consumer and retail sector, including food and beverage, retail, restaurants, consumer products, consumer services, personal care products, direct marketing, education and travel.

Sandra Horbach, Carlyle Managing Director and Head of the Consumer & Retail Group, said, “We are pleased to welcome Mark to Carlyle. The consumer and retail space continues to offer attractive investment opportunities, and we expect Mark’s track record and network will strengthen our ability to source and execute deals, and help create value for our investors.”

Mr. Genender said, “This is an exciting time to be a consumer and retail investor, particularly from a platform as broad and established as Carlyle. I am looking forward to helping Sandra and her team build upon the strong foundation they have already established.”

The Consumer & Retail Group has led or advised on Carlyle’s acquisition of numerous companies, including: Dunkin’ Brands, philosophy and most recently in January 2010, CVC Brasil Operadora e Agência de Viagens S.A., Latin America’s largest tourism company.

Prior to co-founding Star Avenue Capital with Irving Place Capital and Creative Artists Agency in 2008, Mr. Genender was a Managing Director and Partner at Fenway Partners, a midmarket buyout firm, since 1996. At Fenway, Mr. Genender invested primarily in consumer and retail companies including Easton-Bell Sports, Harry Winston, Simmons Company and Delimex Holdings. Before Fenway Partners, Mr. Genender held senior management positions at Nabisco International and Frito-Lay Canada, a division of PepsiCo Inc., and earlier began his career in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at Goldman Sachs & Co.

Mr. Genender, 45, earned his M.B.A. with distinction from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and graduated cum laude with an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

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The Carlyle Group is a global private equity firm with $88.6 billion of assets under management committed to 67 funds as of December 31, 2009. Carlyle invests in buyouts, growth capital, real estate and leveraged finance in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America focusing on aerospace & defense, automotive & transportation, consumer & retail, energy & power, financial services, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, technology & business services and telecommunications & media. Since 1987, the firm has invested $59.6 billion of equity in 952 transactions for a total purchase price of approximately $233.0 billion. The Carlyle Group employs more than 860 people in 19 countries. In the aggregate, Carlyle portfolio companies have more than $84 billion in revenue and employ more than 398,000 people around the world. www.carlyle.com