Carlyle Tycoon Lowers His Gaze to Discover a Vision

After Befriending Street People, Conway Opens His Wallet

When he isn't crisscrossing the globe in search of investment opportunities, Carlyle Group co-founder William E. Conway Jr. will often take a few minutes in the morning to consult with five guys named Earl, Norman, Sam, Lorenzo and Tim.

They aren't bankers. They aren't rich investors. They don't own sports teams and aren't looking for stock tips. They are homeless. Conway finds them sitting by a doorway or lying on the sidewalk. He asks them where they stayed, if they have eaten and where their friends are. Some names he knows. Others he knows just by the nicknames he has given them.

They are the reason the usually private billionaire agreed to talk last week about himself, the economy, Carlyle's future and his $5 million gift to the District charity So Others Might Eat to help build homes for the less fortunate.

"I used to think if people were able-bodied, I wouldn't help them out," said Conway, who would pass the men on brisk morning jaunts near the Carlyle offices on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. But over time, he began to make eye contact, and that led to conversation. "A lot of times, those homeless guys, most of whom are men, they really almost need this communication with other people."

Conway is providing $5 million to serve as equity so the charity can borrow or raise $125 million more from individual donors, city government, banks and commercial lenders. It's the same financial leverage model that made him worth $2.5 billion, according to Forbes magazine, and may potentially build 1,000 homes.

Conway said his gift is part of a personal initiative to step up his involvement in the Washington community and to exhort others to contribute. Now 58, he said he plans to work at Carlyle "several more years," but will spend his later life giving his fortune away.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and I am going to give away every penny before I die," he said. He will give the money away personally and through his family's Bedford Falls Foundation. The charity has $15 million to $20 million but is likely to grow significantly , Conway said.

His charitable interest follows a career in which he built a reputation as a hard-nosed dealmaker and whose firm is known for its relentless pursuit of profit. During interviews, Conway talked at length about his business and philanthropic interests.

He said it was unlikely Carlyle would go public this year "if ever," warned that the economy would continue to deteriorate over the coming year, and emphasized that there will be fewer but "more spectacular" deals ahead for his firm.

He also expressed admiration for the way Warren E. Buffett decided in 2006 to give about $31 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates is stepping down from a day-to-day role at Microsoft to devote his time to philanthropy.

Conway's gift comes on the heels of a donation by another Carlyle co-founder, David M. Rubenstein, to the National Archives. Rubenstein purchased one of the few remaining copies of the Magna Carta for $21.3 million at Sotheby's auction house in New York last month and permanently lent it to the archives.

The normally guarded Carlyle Group has boosted its public profile in recent months as it pondered whether to go public and has defended itself against critics, including some in Congress, over its role in a buyout binge that preceded the collapse of the credit markets. The Service Employees International Union is conducting a national campaign accusing Carlyle of making its partners wealthy at the expense of the employees at the companies it buys and sells.