David Rubenstein
David Rubenstein
David Mark Rubensteinis an American financier and philanthropist best known as co-founder and co-chief executive officer of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity investment company based in Washington D.C. He is also currently serving as chairman of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and chairman of the board of trustees at Duke University, his alma mater. According to the Forbes ranking of the wealthiest people in America, Rubenstein has a net worth of $2.5 billion...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth11 August 1949
CountryUnited States of America
Last spring at our general body meeting we took a poll of 50 students and Carville was the top choice of the people we put up for consideration. We wanted someone who was successful, popular, dynamic and engaging, and he fits the bill on all of those.
What do most people say on their deathbed? They don't say, 'I wish I'd made more money.' What they say is, 'I wish I'd spent more time with my family and done more for society or my community.
The world is a complicated place, and there's a lot of division between people. The performing arts tend to unify people in a way nothing else does.
I think it's a little unfair for people to say you're not paying your fair share of taxes. I'm paying what I'm supposed to pay. Change the law, and I'll pay what I'm supposed to pay.
I really hope that the philanthropy movement is seen not just as wealthy people giving money away but wealthy people giving away their time, their energy and their ideas.
People used to think that private equity was basically just a compensation scheme, but it is much more about making companies more efficient.
My father worked in a post office and never made probably more than $8,000 a year as an employee of the post office, so when people can rise up from very modest circumstances and do well economically, I think that's a good thing about America, and we should encourage that kind of activity.
This is an incredible success if you look at the things we got out of it. People seeing who we are and what we're about.
The business of New Orleans is tourism, and New Orleans has got to get back to business. There's all this talk about bringing people back to New Orleans, but without tourism there won't be any jobs for them to come home to.
It is obviously frothy but I have not seen anything that I think will cause a gigantic crash in the near future.
I wouldn't be surprised if returns came down eventually but I don't know what would be the precipitating factor.
We intend to be much more active in the wind, power, solar energy, biomass and geothermal areas.
I realised how rich I had become and I asked myself, 'Do I really want to be the richest person in the cemetery?
Anybody who gives away money is mostly looking at things where they think they can make a difference. I'm trying to help people who helped me, educational institutions that helped me with scholarships, or organizations that were very useful to me in growing up.