A version of the following article appeared in the November 16, 2026, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with local business-y news and insights for Charlotte, N.C.
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Longtime Erskine Bowles business partner helped build Charlotte’s private equity industry and expand affordable housing
Charlotte business leader Nelson Schwab III. (Photo courtesy of UNC Chapel Hill)
Charlotte business leader and philanthropist Nelson Schwab III, a pioneer in the city’s private equity industry who supported affordable housing initiatives, died Friday at his Charlotte home, according to a published obituary. He was 81.
Schwab co-founded Charlotte-based private equity firm Carousel Capital in 1996 with longtime friend and business partner Erskine Bowles.
He led the buyout of an amusement park company that owned five theme parks, including Carowinds. He later served as chairman and CEO of Paramount Parks.
Schwab also chaired the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce (the predecessor to the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance) and served as chairman of UNC Chapel Hill’s Board of Trustees.
In 2020, he and Bowles founded the Charlotte Housing Impact Fund, which has raised more than $225M to acquire and preserve affordable apartments.
His obituary said that he was “known to don a costume and dole out flashing party favors, and he could always be counted on to lead the midnight conga line, as he did at one daughter’s wedding.” The obituary did not list a cause of death.
Bowles described Schwab as “the only person in my whole life I’ve known who puts you first in everything he does.”
Schwab is survived by his wife, Jane, four children and four grandchildren. His funeral is scheduled for Nov. 21 at Christ Episcopal Church.