Marc Rowan, a seasoned private equity veteran known for arranging jumbo-size deals, taking colossal risks, and reaping billion-dollar payouts, is now facing one of the biggest challenges of his storied 35-year career.
Rowan, a co-founder of private equity giant Apollo Global Management who became its CEO in March, is now tasked with taking the firm beyond the controversies surrounding its central founder and ex-CEO, Leon Black. But Rowan must also deal with the cultural turmoil and dysfunction that has long played out behind the scenes, and that snaked all the way up to the firm's C-suite during the Black era.
Apollo's senior management will give an update on the firm's long-term growth strategy at an investor day on Tuesday, Oct. 19.
Rowan was named Apollo's CEO in January, after an independent review conducted by the law firm Dechert revealed the extent of the business ties between Black and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Joshua Harris, a private-equity guru and Apollo co-founder who many saw as Black's likely successor, was passed over for the job.
Rowan, Apollo's third co-founder, had been on a semi-sabbatical from the firm since the previous summer, but the scandal surrounding Black abruptly yanked him back into the fold. A few tumultuous months later — after Black suddenly stepped down and relinquished the chairman's role earlier than planned — Rowan officially took the helm in March.
Insider spoke with more than a dozen current and former Apollo employees, as well as Rowan's close friends, business partners, and rivals, to better understand the man who has sought to avoid the spotlight and is less known than Black or Harris.