David M. Rubenstein is an investor, philanthropist, interviewer, author, and historian. He is co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlyle Group, one of the world’s largest and most successful private investment firms. Established in 1987, Carlyle now manages $447 billion from 29 offices around the world. Rubenstein, a Baltimore native, is the chairman, CEO, and Principal Owner of Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles.
A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Rubenstein serves as chairman of the boards of the council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago. He is a trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine, the Institute for Advanced Study, the National Constitution Center, the Brookings Institution, and the World Economic Forum; and a director of Moderna, Inc., the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Rubenstein is a member of the American Philosophical Society, the Business Council, the Harvard Global Advisory Council (chairman), the Madison Council of the Library of Congress (chairman), the Board of Dean’s Advisors of Harvard Business School, the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University (former chairman), and the Board of the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Community.
He is an original signer of The Giving Pledge, a major donor to all of the aforementioned nonprofit organizations, and a recipient of the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and the MoMA’s David Rockefeller Award, among other honors.
A leader in the area of patriotic philanthropy, Rubenstein has made transformative gifts for the restoration or repair of the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Monticello, Montpelier, Mount Vernon, Arlington House, Iwo Jima Memorial, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian, the National Archives, the National Zoo, the Library of Congress, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has also loaned rare documents to the US government, including copies of the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment, the first map of the United States (Abel Buell map), and the first book printed in the United States (Bay Psalm Book).
Rubenstein hosts The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS; Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg TV; and Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein on PBS. He is the author of five books published by Simon & Schuster, four of which are New York Times bestsellers: The American Story: Conversations with Master Historians (2019), How to Lead: Wisdom from the World’s Greatest CEOs, Founders, and Game Changers (2020), The American Experiment: Dialogues on a Dream (2021), How to Invest: Masters on the Craft (2022), and The Highest Calling: Conversations on the American Presidency (2024).
Rubenstein has served as chairman of the boards of Duke University and the Smithsonian Institution, co-chairman of the board of the Brookings Institution, and as a fellow of the Harvard Corporation.
He is a 1970 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Rubenstein graduated in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.
From 1973 to 1975, he practiced law in New York with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. From 1975 to 1976, he served as Chief Counsel to the US Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments. From 1977 to 1981, during the Carter administration, Rubenstein served as Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy. After his White House service and before co-founding Carlyle, he practiced law in Washington with Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman).
