Rubenstein to discuss global economic leadership, March 31

David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the Carlyle Group, will explore the topic "Is America's Global Economic Leadership a Relic of the 20th Century?" in this year's G.S. Beckwith Gilbert '63 Lecture on Wednesday, March 31, on the Princeton University campus.

The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 4:30 p.m. in Bowl 016 in the lower level of Robertson Hall. A reception in the Bernstein Gallery of Robertson Hall will follow the lecture.

Rubenstein co-founded the Carlyle Group, one of the world's largest private equity firms, in 1987. Today it has 19 offices around the world and manages more than $86 billion. Previously, Rubenstein practiced law in New York and Washington, D.C., served as deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, and was chief counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Constitutional Amendments.

He served from May 2006 through December 2008 as a member of the dean's council of the University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he was a strong supporter of the Princeton Project on National Security, a three-year initiative to "develop a sustainable and effective national security strategy" for the United States by bringing together some of the nation's leaders in government, academia, business and the nonprofit sector.

A native of Baltimore, Rubenstein graduated from Duke University in 1970 and earned a law degree in 1973 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

Rubenstein serves on numerous boards, including those of his two alma maters, the Smithsonian Institution, the Lincoln and Kennedy centers for the performing arts, the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Institute for Advanced Study.  

The Gilbert lecture was established in 1988 to bring innovative leaders in business, government and the professions to the Princeton campus to discuss their ventures and the insights gained in their careers. This year's lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School and the University's Office of the Recording Secretary.