Carlyle Group Inc. hired a top executive from BlackRock Inc. to work with major clients including pension funds and endowments.

Doug McNeely will join as a partner later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. At BlackRock, he headed a group that managed some of the most important customers and was a key link to pensions from Connecticut to California.

A Carlyle spokeswoman declined to comment.

McNeely’s move reflects the private equity industry’s growing clout amid a war for talent. It also marks another departure from BlackRock, which lost at least three dealmakers earlier this year.

Executives are switching firms as the alternative investment business has boomed in the past decade, driven by investors seeking higher returns beyond stocks and bonds. With the leverage to charge higher fees than index-oriented fund companies, buyout firms can afford to pay more than traditional asset managers.

At Carlyle, McNeely will join roughly 10 senior relationship managers who focus on institutional clients. The Washington-based firm formalized the group in early 2021, shortly after Kewsong Lee became sole chief executive officer.

Lee and his top lieutenants hoped the group would help such customers think through more customized ways to invest across Carlyle, people familiar with the matter said. That white glove service could supplement sales teams focused on different business lines, the people said, and move Carlyle closer to its goal of raising about $130 billion through 2024.

In a memo to employees, Zach Buchwald, BlackRock’s head of institutional business for U.S. and Canada, praised McNeely’s decade-long tenure building “lasting relationships with key clients of the firm.”

In addition, Buchwald said McNeely helped develop BlackRock’s Impact Opportunities Fund that invests in Black, Latinx, and Native American companies and communities. He will remain with BlackRock through September and members of the firm’s Strategic Client Coverage team will join the broader pensions team, Buchwald said.

This article was provided by Bloomberg News.