Remembering Lou Gerstner: Business Titan, Generous Soul

first appeared in “From David’s Desk” on January 29th, 2026

I knew that Lou had been facing some health challenges, mainly from a series of orthopedic surgeries that had taken a toll, and I was not sure he would be able to attend. But a few weeks earlier, Lou had called me to say that I should do much more for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he had vouched for me as a potential board member about a dozen years ago. So, I knew Lou was still focused on the kind of undertaking – cancer research – that has been a hallmark of his remarkable life.

To my delight, Lou and Robin were able to come to the brunch, and we had a wonderful conversation about a subject I had not known Lou was an expert on – bagels. I recommended a new bagel place in his neighborhood; Lou explained his love for bagels, and, as I later learned, he followed up and bought some bagels from that shop. Lou’s knowledge of many subjects was so vast that I shouldn’t have been surprised he knew a great deal about bagels. He always possessed and could articulate an extraordinary command of information on an impressive array of topics.

I did not realize then that this brunch would be the last time I would ever see that remarkable business leader, philanthropist, advisor, mentor, and friend.

Over the holidays, I was very saddened to learn that Carlyle’s former Chairman, Lou Gerstner, passed away, leaving behind a giant legacy as a business leader, humanitarian, philanthropist, friend, and advisor to so many.

During Lou’s heyday as business leader – as, successively, President of American Express, CEO of RJR Nabisco, and CEO of IBM – I really did not know Lou Gerstner. In fact, I had not even met him. But I admired from afar his legendary leadership skills in strengthening these companies, often in the face of great, seemingly insurmountable odds.

When I learned that Lou was stepping down as IBM’s CEO at age 60, then the company’s standard retirement age, I began to explore whether it might be possible to recruit him to serve as Carlyle’s Chairman. I asked Arthur Levitt, a former SEC Chairman and then an advisor to Carlyle, to introduce us, and he did so at a meeting in Connecticut. To my surprise and delight, Lou was familiar with the firm, and seemed to have an interest, provided the position did not prevent him from pursuing his principal philanthropic interests: primary and secondary education, cancer research, biomedical research, and efforts to address homelessness.

Fortunately, we were able to work out everything to Lou’s – and our – satisfaction, and he joined the firm as Chairman in 2003.

From that moment on, Lou became an indispensable force in transforming the firm’s management. He helped the founders and partners move to a professional, organized, and disciplined system, bringing much-needed structure, planning, and control to the firm. The result was that Carlyle continued to grow in the U.S. and overseas, expanded its investor base, and brought far more thorough analytics to the investment committee and oversight process.

Lou served as Chair until 2008, and then became a Senior Advisor until 2016. During Lou’s association with Carlyle, the firm’s assets under management grew more than ten times from $13 billion to more than $160 billion.

By the time Lou joined Carlyle, he had already developed a legendary reputation for highly focused analysis and intelligence at four successful companies. At McKinsey, he became one of the firm’s youngest partners at age 28, ultimately rising to lead its financial services practice. At American Express, he led the Travel Related Services division, by far the company’s largest business, where he dramatically enhanced the core charge card franchise and expanded its global reach. At RJR Nabisco, Lou became CEO after the $25 billion buyout by KKR in 1989 and worked to stabilize operations and successfully manage an extraordinary debt load.

But Lou’s greatest business accomplishment was undoubtedly at IBM. When he became CEO in 1993, the company was widely thought to be just weeks away from a possible bankruptcy filing. Instead, he led one of the most celebrated corporate turnarounds in business history, restoring profitability and competitiveness to a company widely viewed as well past its prime. During Lou’s tenure, IBM’s stock price increased by more than 800%, and the once-prevailing belief that IBM could no longer compete as a leading technology and information company was dispelled.

These accomplishments in the business world might have satisfied the average corporate CEO and business leader. But Lou was always driven more to give back to society and humanity than to win corporate CEO awards (though he won every CEO award there was).

Lou established Gerstner Philanthropies in 1989, and it has since made more than $300 million in grants supporting biomedical and cancer research, environmental initiatives, educational opportunities, and programs that prevent homelessness and other crises for families in need.

In the education area, Lou was a strong proponent of improving public education. He created a national commission on public school education, whose recommendations reshaped how educators across the country thought about public schools and how they could be dramatically improved. Before and after that commission, Lou was a vocal and active advocate for better public education and a dedicated philanthropist in this field.

For more than 39 years, Lou was on the board of trustees of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, serving for many years as Vice Chairman of its Board. Lou led the funding in 2004 for Sloan Kettering’s graduate education school, named in his honor as the Gerstner Sloan Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Lou served as the School’s Board Chair from the Institute’s creation in 2004.

Lou’s interest in biomedical research led him to also join the Board of Trustees of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, which does cutting-edge research in biomedical sciences, and he served as Chair of its Board for seven years.

Lou also had a deep passion for natural history and served as a Trustee of the American Museum of Natural History for 17 years, from 2003 to 2020. As a child, he had been a frequent visitor to the museum, a place that nurtured his lifelong curiosity about the natural world. He was also a long-time member of the board of directors of The New York Times.

Lou’s concern about the persistent problem of homelessness reflected his deep compassion for others, especially those far less fortunate than himself. Through his Helping Hands program, he provided financial assistance to thousands of families, supporting efforts to address and alleviate homelessness.

All of Lou’s professional and philanthropic achievements stemmed from his razor-sharp intellect and boundless intellectual curiosity. And that was all evident from Lou’s youth.

An outstanding high school student at Chaminade High School in Mineola, NY, Lou matriculated at Dartmouth College, from which he graduated magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1963. Lou then attended Harvard Business School, from which he graduated as a Baker Scholar (top 5% of the class) in 1965.

In all of his business, professional, and philanthropic activities, Lou was fortunate to have his wife Robin as his partner for 57 years. She survives Lou, as does his daughter Dr. Elizabeth Gerstner, a clinical neuro-oncologist at the Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, and four grandchildren (his son, Lou Gerstner III, predeceased Lou).

I learned a great deal from Lou during his time as Carlyle’s Chairman and as a Senior Advisor. My only regret is that I did not listen to him as much as I should have. His intellect, judgment, and experience were truly unrivaled.

For those who would like to learn more about what made this legendary person tick, I highly recommend his best-selling book from 2002, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?: Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround. Lou was always willing to be brutally honest and direct, and the book reflects that style.

But, as noted, Lou was not purely a driven business leader, focused only on profits. He was always focused on making the lives of those who worked for him better and more meaningful. He also wanted to make the lives of those he did not know better and more meaningful. He did that through his unwavering commitment to philanthropic causes that make people better educated and healthier.

But all of these outstanding attributes did not keep Lou from being a passionate friend to so many, even those who might be slightly better than Lou (a longtime member of Augusta National) on the golf course, where he was a competitor like few others.

Those of us who knew Lou regarded it as a privilege to know him and to learn from him.

So many of us owe so much to Lou – for his vision, his generosity, and his unfailing friendship – and his passing leaves a profound and irreplaceable void in our lives.

We shall not see the likes of Lou Gerstner again anytime soon. May he rest in peace, and may we thank his family for sharing him with us.