A senior Carlyle Group executive has told investors that he is leaving the private equity firm, marking the first high-level exit since the company went public in May.

The departure of Brett Wyard, a managing director in Los Angeles who worked at Carlyle for seven years, comes amid a disappointing showing for the firm's latest distressed-debt fund. So far, the firm has raised less than $500m for the fund, far short of the nearly $1.4bn raised for its last distressed-debt fund, completed in 2007.