Carlyle creates a dedicated family office group, with a London lead for Europe and Asia
Carlyle has hired David Seeberan as global head of a new family office group and Victoria Matthews, formerly of BlackRock, to run it across Europe and Asia from London. What the move says about how large managers now approach families.
On 25 September 2026, Bloomberg reported that Carlyle Group had hired two senior executives to lead a family office business, both in newly created roles. David Seeberan joins as a partner and global head of the family office group. Victoria Matthews joins as a managing director and head of the family office group for Europe and Asia. Bloomberg cited an internal memo; Carlyle later confirmed the appointments separately to WealthBriefing and its sister title Family Wealth Report.
Who has been hired
Seeberan is based in San Francisco. He comes from Cercano Management, an investment firm that works for ultra-wealthy individuals and family foundations. Matthews is based in London and was previously head of UK family offices and endowments at BlackRock. The European and Asian mandate sitting in London is the detail most relevant to families on this side of the Atlantic: it gives Carlyle a named senior point of contact for family offices outside the United States, rather than coverage folded into a broader private wealth or institutional team.
The numbers behind the move
According to Bloomberg, Carlyle puts the addressable family office market at $5 trillion and has raised about $50 billion from wealthy families and individuals since it was founded. Those are the firm’s own estimates, not independent figures.
The hires fit a fundraising plan Carlyle set out in February. The firm said it aimed to raise more than $200 billion of new capital by the end of 2028, compared with $158 billion raised between 2023 and 2025, as reported by Private Equity Wire citing Reuters. Of that target, about $90 billion is expected from credit, $60 billion from its AlpInvest secondaries unit and $50 billion from private equity. Carlyle managed around $477 billion at the time.
Carlyle has also been buying into the firms that advise wealthy families. In March it took majority control of MAI Capital Management, and in August its credit arm agreed to put around $600 million into Prime Capital Financial, as we reported at the time. It has also been reported as one of the two final bidders for Wealth Enhancement Group.
What it means for family offices
A dedicated family office group at a manager of Carlyle’s size tells families two things. They are now a fundraising target in their own right, separate from both institutions and the mass-affluent wealth channel. And they should expect more direct approaches, whether for funds, co-investments or secondaries, from people whose job is to place capital with them. For a family office, the useful response is procedural rather than reactive: be clear internally about which asset classes and liquidity terms the family will consider, and diligence a direct offer with the same rigour as one arriving through a private bank. The same manager may also, through its wealth management stakes, own some of the firms advising the family. That is worth knowing when the advice concerns its own products.
Sources: Bloomberg Law (Bloomberg News), 25 September 2026; WealthBriefing, 29 September 2026; Private Equity Wire, 27 February 2026.