David M. Rubenstein, co-founder and managing director of the private equity firm the Carlyle Group, has been named chairman of the board of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) starting from July 1.

Rubenstein succeeds both former US Trade Representative Carla A. Hills, chairman and CEO of Hills & Company, and former US Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, who are concluding their ten-year terms as co-chairs, according to a CFR press release on June 16 .

Rubenstein has been a CFR member and a Board director for more than a decade, and has served as vice-chair since 2012. He is also chairman of Duke University, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institution.

Rubenstein is known for his "patriotic philanthropy" dedicated to preserving important historic documents, such as the Declaration of Independence, and to repairing the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial.

"CFR is among the great American institutions, and I am extremely proud and honored to have been selected as chairman," said Rubenstein in the CFR release. "This is a complicated and complex moment for both this country and the world, and the thoughtful, policy-relevant work of the Council and its scholars is needed more than ever."

CFR has recognized Hills and Rubin's years of service by naming them chairmen emeriti.

"David's broad experience, along with his deep appreciation of history, makes him uniquely suited to lead CFR as it heads into its second century," said CFR President Richard Haass. "The Board of Directors is united in its confidence that he will build on Carla and Bob's impressive legacy, as well as that of Pete Peterson and David Rockefeller before them."