Brad Briner is the leading candidate for the Treasurer of North Carolina in the upcoming November election, a role that includes managing the state’s $115 billion pension fund. Brad put himself in the ring for the seat after twenty-five years of investment experience, serving most recently as Co-CIO of Willett Advisors, Michael Bloomberg’s family office. For more background on Willett, my conversation from 2019 with Chairman Steve Rattner is replayed in the feed. I don’t often get to talk about really poor investment performance on the podcast, but this time we do. North Carolina has finished dead last among peers over the last three and five years, that’s 50th of 50 states. Its twenty-year returns are almost equally dismal. This significant underperformance resulted from an overlay conservative asset allocation that will leave you shaking your head. Unfortunately, it’s what happens when unsophisticated professionals are tasked with serious investment jobs. Our conversation covers Brad’s story, investment and leadership insights from his experience and time at Willett, the problems with North Carolina’s investing and governance, and Brad’s desire and plan to turn around the state’s pension performance. I’ve known Brad for ten years and want to do everything I can to help him both win the important seat and succeed once there. So if you happen to live in North Carolina, please get out and vote – every vote truly counts in low turnout races like thisIf, like most of us, you don’t live there, please tell any friends you have who do live in the state. Lastly, if Brad is successful at the polls, he’ll need to build out a team with talented professionals who share his passion for investing and making a difference. Maybe you can help there too. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Steve Rattner is the Chairman and CEO of Willett Advisors, which invests former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets. Steve’s career has ranged from a journalist for the New York Times to investment banking at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Lazard Freres, to founding private equity firm Quadrangle Group, and lastly to serving in the Obama Administration as head of the successful restructure of the automobile industry after the financial crisis. He returned to oversee Willett Advisors after his work in the government.   Our conversations starts with a quick tour through each of Steve’s careers, and then turns to his work investing the assets of Michael Bloomberg’s family office, including selecting an investment model, building a team of specialists, using internal management to supplement external managers, and thinking through private equity, hedge funds, public equity, and the manager selection process. We close with Steve’s perspectives on China and his ongoing engagement in politics. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Matt Miller is the Managing Director of Grey Rock Investment Partners. Matt co-founded Grey Rock as a traditional oil and gas manager in 2013. Today, the firm manages $1 billion across both natural resources and renewables by identifying attractive niches in each that do not tradeoff human interest for returns. Our conversation covers Matt’s path to the energy sector and founding of Grey Rock, the ongoing need for natural resources, and the identification of dislocations that create niche opportunities. We turn to Grey Rock’s own ‘energy transition’ intended to resolve ESG pressures while meeting client return objectives, including the overcapitalization of most renewable strategies, discovery of an attractive niche in carbon capture, and complexity in making it work. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Kristof Gleich is the President and CIO of Harbor Capital Advisors. Harbor is a forty-year old firm that manages $62 billion by partnering with boutique active managers to roll out active ETFs, collective investment trusts, and historically, mutual funds. Kristof joined Harbor in 2018 and watched as the actively managed mutual fund company had $22 billion of outflows, or a third of its assets, in his first year on the job. He led a turnaround of the business to transition from a traditional mutual fund company to an innovative leader in the active ETF space. Our conversation covers the lessons Kristof learned about culture from his time at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, and his application of those lessons to turnaround Harbor. We discuss the challenges of making it happen, the rise of active ETFs, Harbor’s approach to standing out in a crowded field, its manager selection process, distribution, and the future of alternative investments in the ETF space. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Dan Ariely is a leading behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dan is a founding partner of Irrational Capital, an investment research firm that quantifies the impact of corporate culture and employee motivation on financial performance.    My initial conversation with Dan two years ago has been one of the most downloaded episodes of the show, and a recent research piece by JP Morgan entitled The Human Capital Factor that highlights his work got me excited to catch up with him again.   Our conversation covers many aspects of his continuing research to identify positive human capital practices and performance in the workplace, including data collection and assessment, gender differences, goodwill, ESG, and changes during Covid. We then turn to the practical application of the research in the capital markets through two indexes and customized research.  We close by talking about Dan’s new research projects and some of his favorite recent answers to his Ask Ariely column in the WSJ.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Stephen Nesbitt is the CEO and CIO of Cliffwater, an investment consultant and asset management firm specializing in alternative that oversees a combined $110 billion, including $30 billion in private market interval funds that begin just five years ago. Steve founded Cliffwater in 2004 to serve the burgeoning institutional market for alternative investments and bet the farm with a pivot to managing private credit assets for RIAs in 2019. That shift has been one of the most successful initiatives in the industry in the last five years and catapulted Cliffwater to one of the market leaders and brands serving the RIA community. Our conversation covers Steve's journey as a consultant, formation of Cliffwater, and focus on alternatives. We then discuss his strategic shift to managing assets for RIAs, including the development of a private debt index fund, innovation in fund structures, management of liquidity, distribution in the RIA channel, and new initiatives on the come. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

David Salem has been a pioneer, practitioner and student of institutional investing for the last forty years. David was the founding president and CIO of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), which he led for nearly two decades until 2010. Since then, he has managed a multi-family office, worked and wrote alongside Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory, and now serves as the Managing Director of Capital Allocation at Hedgeye Risk Management. Along the way, David worked closely with and distilled lessons from David Swensen, Jack Meyer in his time at Harvard Management Company, Charley Ellis, Chuck Feeney from Atlantic Philanthropies, and many other leading CIOs and managers. Our conversation covers David’s journey to investing, including sitting alongside Jeremy Grantham during GMO’s early growth stage and founding TIFF. We dive into manager selection, decision-making, investment committees, and risk management. We then turn to David’s views on China, Japan, private equity, and digital assets. Throughout our conversation, David shares his profound understanding of the unique pressures faced by institutional investors and the principles that guide successful investment strategies and leadership in complex environments. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Rahul Moodgal and I first met twenty years ago in his early days in the hedge fund business. We had been friends and professional acquaintances with mutual respect ever since, but an inflection in both our personal and professional relationships came after his appearance on the podcast five years ago. That conversation, sharing his incredible story from a teacher to a master fundraiser, is replayed in the feed. Rahul is a partner at Parvus Asset Management, a $10 billion European equity manager. He’s also my co-founder and partner of Capital Allocators Summits and Capital Allocators University, and is one of the most beloved and respected investor relations professionals in the industry. I asked Rahul to come back on the show to update his thoughts on what it takes to succeed in a far more difficult capital-raising environment, what he’s learned over the last five years, how he shares his wisdom to make the industry better through our partnership, and the world at large better through his extensive charitable work. Our newest creation – Capital Allocators University for IR/BD professionals – was Rahul and my partner Hank’s shared creation. Our first cohort will take place in New York on December 3-4. CAU for allocators will take place the next day, on December 5th. You can sign up for either at capitalallocators.com/university Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Rahul Moodgal has spent 20 years as a fund raiser across long only strategies, hedge funds, fund of funds, customized solutions, start-ups, and non-profits.  Collectively, Rahul has raised and helped raise $60 billion for firms since 2005.  He started his career in the industry at powerhouse TT International, and later joined The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) where he led the marketing effort that raised $20 billion in just 3½ years.  Within TCI’s affiliate model, Rahul also was responsible for the largest India fund raise in history ($1 billion for TCI New Horizon Fund), and the largest sector fund launch in history ($1.1 billion for Algebris Investments). Our conversation covers capital raising lessons learned from teaching, the value of transparency, the gold rush before 2008, the lean times afterwards, modern fee structures, the three key points to effective marketing, the three traits that will kill you, the two biggest issues start-up funds face, the best questions asked by leading allocators, and some of the worst horror stories in attempted capital raising. We close comparing by fund raising for charities and investment firms.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Toby Rodes is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kaname Capital, a value- and quality-oriented manager of small-cap Japanese equities. Our conversation covers the case for Japan and why this time is different. We discuss Toby’s deep-rooted fascination with Japan, his education in Japanese culture, and his transition to investing on the sell side and at GMO. We turn to the past false starts of Japanese activism, recent changes in corporate governance, and Kaname’s process to take advantage of the opportunity. Lastly, we touch on value traps, the carry trade, and the potential for private equity activity in a new era of Japanese corporate stewardship. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Mike Maples Jr. is a partner at Floodgate, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm he co-founded in 2006 with Anne Miuro-Ko. He has been on the Forbes Midas list eight times in the last decade and backed Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, Okta, and many others in their earliest stages. Attempting to understand if he had been lucky or skillful, Mike studied venture winners and created a framework to describe startup capitalism, which he writes about in his recently released book, Pattern Breakers: Why Some Start-Ups Change the Future. Our conversation covers Mike’s path to venture capital and the curiosity that led to writing this book. We dive into his discovery of inflection theory and discuss components of the framework, including the power of incumbents, inflections that change the future, insights to capitalize on inflections, pivots, founder-future fit, creating a movement from misfits to the mainstream, and points of failure along the way.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Dave Breazzano is the head of the Credit Team at Polen Capital, where he oversees $8 billion of the firm’s $43 billion in assets. Dave is one of the OGs in high yield, having started in the early 1980s and invested continuously through more than forty years since.   Our conversation covers some history of the high-yield market alongside Dave’s involvement in it, the founding of his firm in 1996, Polen’s strategy to take advantage of myths in the market, the implementation of the strategy, and Dave’s thoughts on the changing interest rate environment, private credit, and opportunities and risks going forward. In our complex world of investing, I suspect you’ll find elegance in the simplicity and clarity with which Dave approaches investing.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jase Auby is the Chief Investment Officer of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, where he oversees the $200 billion pension fund that’s the fifth largest in the U.S. TRS manages assets that support the retirement security of over two million public education employees in Texas, and has long been known as a thought-leading steward of capital in the pension community, including engagement with emerging managers and innovation in fee structures. Our conversation covers Jase’s background and path to TRS, including early working with computers on Wall Street and entrepreneurship. We discuss TRS’ organizational structure, competitive advantages, and investment approach and close with Jase’s role and accomplishments in his tenure as CIO. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

My latest book, Private Equity Deals: Lessons in investing, dealmaking, and operations from private equity professionals, arrives next week. This post shares how this book came to be, a glimpse at what’s inside, and a rebuttal of common criticisms of private equity. Read Ted’s blog here.

David Eichhorn is the CEO and Head of Investment Strategies at NISA, a $400 billion employee-owned asset manager of risk-controlled fixed income and derivative overlays that is widely respected for its highly collaborative client relationships. The firm is one of the largest derivative overlay managers in the world and the largest U.S. manager of LDI strategies. Our conversation dives into Dave’s twenty-five years at NISA, its client-centric focus, approach across fixed income and derivative strategies, culture, and opportunities and risks in the markets. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s show is quite different from our typical show. It’s an edited replay of a conversation from six years ago with Michael Mervosh, the Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation. Michael created HJF to provide experiential opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. A few weeks ago, I received a FaceTime call from Michael at the tail end of the annual HJF Men’s Journey in the mountains of West Virginia. He called alongside someone I didn’t know, who had listened to the podcast years ago and planted a seed that led to his participation this year. He recently retired after two decades as a partner at a very well-regarded, multi-billion-dollar equity manager. Seeing his ear-to-ear grin and expression of thanks from leading him on the journey had me wanting to share this again, in case you also find the call to the mountain at a future moment in your life. My conversation with Michael took place in the mountains of West Virginia towards the end of a hero’s journey six years ago and discusses the program, how Michael came to creating it, and life lessons across perfectionism, uncertainty, and fear. You can learn more by visiting herosjourneyfoundation.org. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Josh Fenton is the CIO of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, an $8 billion pool he began leading earlier this year upon the retirement of Roz Hewsenian, who served as CIO for the prior twelve years. Roz was a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation follows last week’s about succession, using the live example of a successful CIO transition. We discuss Roz’s plan for her retirement, steps to evaluate and train her successor, and actions upon her retirement announcement eighteen months beforehand. We also cover the transition from Josh’s perspective, including what happened along the way, conversations that took place, and changes when he took over as CIO. Lastly, Josh and Roz share lessons others can apply for transitions in both allocator and manager organizations. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Roz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates.  Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cover opportunistic-based allocation, theme identification, benefits of concentrating in managers, oversight of a team and due diligence, stories from the front lines, exciting investment opportunities, co-investments, and governance. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

As the first generation of investment firm founders approaches retirement age, the issue of succession to the next generation is increasingly at hand. We’ve seen several successful transitions of firms, many that haven’t survived their founders, and an entire sub-industry arise to help facilitate generational transfers across GP stakes, public offerings, and structured transactions. With both managers and allocators thinking more about the inevitability of succession, I thought it would be helpful to share what a leading allocator who reviews thousands of managers has learned about the issue. My guest on today’s show is Sarah Samuels, Partner and Head of Investment Management Research at NEPC, which advises on $1.7 trillion in assets. As part of her work assessing managers, Sarah has created a framework to analyze succession as an investment risk. She was a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation covers that framework across its three key metrics: performance, age, and economics. We discuss the challenges of transitioning both economics and portfolio management, using stories and analogies to other businesses along the way.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Sarah Samuels is the Head of Investment Manager Research at NEPC where she oversees teams across public equities, credit, hedge funds, and private markets for the $1.5 trillion investment advisory juggernaut. Prior to joining NEPC three years ago, Sarah worked at the senior level of both a top notch endowment and a public pension fund. She sought to bring the best of both worlds to her role at NEPC. Our conversation covers Sarah’s early career investing, time in the allocator seat at Mass PRIM and Wellesley College, and decision to join NEPC. We discuss her key investment themes, investment framework blending qualitative and quantitative analysis, second-level thinking, CIO mindset, alignment of interest, private equity allocations, and investment committees. We close discussing Sarah’s work on DE&I and her involvement in Girls Who Invest.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Todd Simkin is an Associate Director at Susquehanna International Group, a global quantitative trading firm comprised solely of internal capital that is known for its rigorous analytical approach to decision-making. Todd is also the CEO of Susquehanna Re, his latest role in a 27-year tenure at SIG that has spanned trading, strategic initiatives, and trader education. Our conversation covers the history of SIG alongside Todd’s roles, trader development, the art and science of trading, risk management, recruiting talent, competitive advantages, luck, and strategic initiatives in venture capital, prediction markets, sports gambling, and reinsurance. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jeff Assaf is the founder and CIO of ICG Advisors, which oversees $7B in assets for a highly curated group of 80 client families. While Jeff keeps his client names confidential, ICG manages money for a roster of successful athletes, entertainers, and business professionals with a combination of tailored investment solutions and white-glove service, many of whom he has served for decades. Our conversation covers Jeff’s path to investment allocation through Oppenheimer, Bear Stearns, and eventually ICG. We discuss defining client objectives, selecting managers, building low-volatility portfolios, assessing re-ups in private equity, and serving as a good partner to managers and clients. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Rob Small and Anil Seetharam are Managing Directors and founding members of the Stockbridge team at Berkshire Partners, a $5B concentrated public equity manager that sits inside the $20B private equity firm. Unlike many public equity strategies at private equity firms, Stockbridge works closely and collaboratively with Berkshire’s private equity team on its investment research and has attracted an enviable client roster of some of the most respected allocators in the world. Our conversation covers Rob and Anil’s history at Berkshire and the steps they took to launch Stockbridge in 2007. We discuss their collaboration with Berkshire’s private equity team, investment criteria, deep dive research, decision-making process, portfolio management, board involvement, management of stock volatility, sell decisions, mistakes, and lessons learned over the last 17 years. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading marketing and communications firm that for 30 years has helped the world’s top brands navigate what comes next. In asset management, Prosek’s clients oversee $60 trillion and comprise a who’s who in private and public markets. Jen is a popular past guest on this show from her first appearance five years ago and second when she shared her thoughts on navigating the pandemic. Our conversation updates Jen’s thoughts on the emerging market of branding in the private markets, the importance of nailing the narrative, power of convening, maximizing value at conferences, and identifying talent. We discuss her thoughts on the trends driving capital flows and some great Jen-isms from her LinkedIn newsletter called Leading in Volatile Times. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Prosek Partners ranks among the top 10 independent public relations firms in the U.S., and among the top financial communications consultancies.  The firm has been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for nine years running.  Jen is also a two-time author.    Our conversation covers the foibles of professional marketing in asset management, building a brand, measuring a successful branding effort, managing the story of weak performance, and describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding.  We then turn to some of Jen’s fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of ‘Just Ask’, behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s show is the second in an ongoing mini-series discussing Training Grounds, organizations that have developed industry leaders. The first episode discussed Carnegie Corporation, where over a dozen years 8 of the 17 investment professionals that came through the doors became CIOs at Carnegie or other institutions. Bain Capital is one of the world’s largest private alternative investment firms. The firm was founded 40 years ago with a half dozen team members managing a $37 million growth equity fund and has expanded to 1,750 people, 180 partners, and $200 billion in assets under management today. During that time, Bain Capital developed leaders across every category of alternative investing, many of whom started in the firm’s private equity business. My guest to discuss this training ground is John Connaughton the Co-Managing Partner & Global Head of Bain Capital Private Equity. Our conversation covers Bain Capital’s founding idea, recruiting and training, governance model, inflection points of growth, compensation, case for staying private, culture, developing leaders, and succession. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Charles Duhigg is a celebrated writer for The New Yorker and author of bestseller "The Power of Habit." His latest book, "Supercommunicators," describes how to effectively communicate in conversation. Our conversation covers Charles’ path to writing business stories and personal books and turn to his latest tour du force. We discuss the science behind connection, three types of conversations, methods to become a better communicator, and tools to navigate challenging conversations. Charles’ book and words feel like unlocking a secret language that can help anyone connect better with others, and he embodies the archetype of the supercommunicator he describes. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ben Hunt is the creator of Epsilon Theory and co-founder of Second Foundation Partners, where he writes and invests through the lens of narratives, or in his words “If a price moves, it is because a human told themselves a story.” Before turning to investing twenty years ago, Ben was a tenured political science professor and founder of two technology companies. He has been studying trends using what we now call big data ever since his first book about predicting international conflict in 1997. Our conversation covers Ben’s path to finance, the power of stories, tracking and measuring narratives in markets, and applying the lens of narrative to investing. Ben’s insights offer a careful consideration of what’s really going on in markets. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

I’ve been thinking about what it takes for allocators to lower the fee burden charged by managers on the path to increasing net returns. Read Ted’s blog here.

Yann Robard is the founder of Dawson Partners, a leading global alternative asset manager overseeing $20 billion that provides innovative structured solutions to the private markets. Formed initially as Whitehorse Liquidity Partners and rebranded as Dawson, both names are inspired by Yann’s 1,000 km bicycle journey in the Canadian Arctic that led to his becoming a trailblazer in the market. Our conversation covers Yann's entrepreneurial career path, including fourteen years in the formative stages of Canadian Pension CPPIB. We discuss the success of the private equity industry, valuations, liquidity, the necessity of scale, and creating solutions that balance the needs of GPs and LPs. We turn to the process and culture at Dawson and the exciting future of the secondaries market. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Please join us for our first Capital Allocators University for Investor Relations and Business Development Professionals. Learn more and sign up here.

Graham Weaver is the managing partner of Alpine Investors, a $17 billion people-driven private equity firm that invests in software and services businesses. Graham founded Alpine on the belief that exceptional people create exceptional businesses. Alpine’s PeopleFirst approach includes hiring, training, and placing an army of CEOs in its portfolio companies. The strategy has led Alpine to be recognized by Prequin as the most consistent top-performing private equity fund manager. Our conversation covers Graham’s early interest in self-help, his path to private equity, and launch of Alpine in 2001. We discuss his early mistakes, discovery of Alpine’s PeopleFirst approach, and the firm’s playbook focused on CEOs and M&A at portfolio companies. We close with Graham’s thoughts on teaching and enlightenment. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Mo Haghbin is the Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Invesco, where he develops and manages asset allocation strategies and portfolio solutions for $88 billion of client assets within the $1.7 trillion juggernaut. Our conversation covers Mo's journey to finance and his path to a leadership role at Invesco. We discuss Invesco’s solutions-based approach that canvasses every type of asset pool and structure and focuses first on top-down strategic asset allocation and tactical positioning, and only later on manager selection. We cover the research that drives asset allocation and factor decisions, importance of scaling customized solutions, and impact of technology in the process. All investing involves risk, including the risk of loss. This should not be considered a recommendation to purchase any investment product. This does not constitute a recommendation of any investment strategy for a particular investor. Investors should consult a financial professional before making any investment decisions if they are uncertain whether an investment is suitable for them. Please obtain and review all financial material carefully before investing. Asset allocation and diversification do not guarantee a profit or eliminate the risk of loss. This material is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on, for tax advice. The opinions expressed are those of the presenter(s), are based on current market conditions and are subject to change without notice. These opinions may differ from those of other Invesco investment professionals. All information as of April 29, 2024, in USD, unless stated otherwise. Invesco and FTSE Russell are not affiliated entities. Capital Allocators and Invesco are not in any way affiliated. The Invesco Solutions (IS) team is part of Invesco Advisers, Inc. (IAI), an investment adviser that provides investment advisory services and does not sell securities. Invesco Advisers, Inc. is an investment adviser; it provides investment advisory services to individual and institutional clients and does not sell securities. Invesco Advisers, Inc. is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Invesco Ltd. ©2024 Invesco All rights reserved. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Anne-Marie Fink is the Head of Private Markets and Funds Alpha at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board or SWIB, which manages $140 billion of pension funds in the state. SWIB is not your typical U.S. pension fund manager. It invests with outstanding governance, alignment with beneficiaries, delegated authority, a competitively compensated team, and cutting-edge strategies, all of which have contributed to a fully funded plan. Anne-Marie joined SWIB to lead its external manager efforts four years ago following a career that spans both direct and fund investing. Our conversation highlights Anne-Marie’s path, applying the skills of picking stocks to assessing stock picking managers, the history and governance of SWIB, its unique payout structure that creates alignment, and their investment approach across portfolio construction, internal and external investing, asset classes, and risk management. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

My last post, The Investment Office Playbook: What Managers Don’t See, discussed part of what happens inside an investment office that managers don’t see but that significantly influences the cadence of capital deployed to managers. Of course, there are two sides to every coin. This post discusses what allocators don’t see when a manager chooses to grow. Read Ted’s blog here.

Alexis Ohanian is the General Partner and Founder of Seven Seven Six, an early-stage venture capital firm with $1 billion under management that he describes as a technology company that deploys venture capital. Alexis was the co-founder of Reddit, one of the most popular online forums in the world, which he sold 18 months after its 2005 launch for $10 million and returned as Executive Chair in 2014 to help lead the turnaround of the business. In between and since, he has invested in early-stage ventures as a partner at Y Combinator, a co-founder of Initialized Capital, and most recently founder of 776. Despite his success in entrepreneurship and investing, Alexis is most well known in the world at large as the husband of tennis star Serena Williams. Our conversation covers Alexis’ initial ride at Reddit, taste of early-stage venture capital, and return to Reddit to scale the business alongside the challenges of managing a modern social media platform. We then turn to his investing as a technology company, including Cerebro – 776’s transparent operating system, thematic ideas, traits of successful founders, social media engagement, investments in women’s sports, and lessons learned from his wife Serena.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Dan Tennebaum is the Managing Director at India Capital, a thirty-year-old investment firm focusing on public equities in India. Dan moved to the country twenty-five years ago and spent time in the start-up world and venture capital before pivoting to the public markets in 2007. Our conversation covers Dan's path from a U.S. Midwesterner to India, the challenges of venture capital investing in the country, and the case for public equities. We turn to India Capital’s perspective on sourcing, research, management, regulation, valuation, portfolio construction, risk, and misperceptions, colored with some examples along the way. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Brett Barakett is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Tremblant Capital, a 23-year-old long-short equity and long-only firm focused on deep fundamental stock research with a senior team that has been together for at least sixteen years. Brett has invested through rising and falling tides in the industry, ups and downs in fund flows, and alongside friends and peers who have since retired. Yet he keeps skating to where the puck is going. Our conversation covers Brett’s path to launching Tremblant, including lessons from hockey, operational experience, and the early days in a terrible market for the strategy. We discuss the long-short and long-only models, primary research, portfolio construction, sell decisions, risk management, compensation structure, and Tremblant’s launch of TOGA, one of the first active ETFs run by a longstanding hedge fund manager. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Cliff Asness is the Founder and CIO at AQR, an investment management firm at the intersection of financial theory and practice that oversees $100 billion in assets. He is famously intelligent, comical, and irreverent, all wrapped into one. Our conversation covers Cliff's journey from studying market efficiency under Eugene Fama to capitalizing on market inefficiencies at AQR. We discuss regime changes in factors, difficult periods for performance and AQR’s business, research innovation, machine learning, index funds, pod shops, areas of cognitive dissonance, private equity, and serving on investment committees. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

3G Capital’s buyout of Burger King may be the most successful private equity deal you’ve never heard about. Over the last fourteen years, or the length of a typical private equity fund, 3G turned a $1 billion investment into $28 billion in value. The annual dividends from the investment accruing to 3G today are around 70% of its invested capital. The deal is one of the highest earning buyouts ever. 3G is an organization with a storied history. Founded by Jorge Paolo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicupira, and Marcel Herrmann Telles, the group created an owner-operator model of investing. They rose to prominence through building the largest beer company in the world, initially buying local brewer Brahma in 1989, expanding it and merging with a competitor to become AmBev in 1999, merging with Interbrew to become ImBev in 2004, and taking over Anheuser Busch in 2008 to become AB InBev. Twenty years ago, Alex Behring, a young star on their team, moved to the US to form 3G Capital and take the approach abroad. Burger King was the second largest hamburger fast food chain after McDonalds in 2010 when 3G took it private. What it accomplished since then has been extraordinary. My guests to discuss 3G and the deal are Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz. Co-Managing Partners of 3G Capital. Our conversation covers the history of 3G, Alex's journey to form 3G Capital, and the 3G playbook. We then dive into the deal, covering the sourcing and deal dynamics, improving operations, growing the business, taking the company public unexpectedly, and reloading to buy Tim Horton’s, Popeye’s, and Firehouse Subs. Today’s Burger King is part of Restaurant Brands International (QSR), a public company with a $32 billion market cap and $50 billion enterprise value. This classic deal will widen your aperture on what’s possible with a long-term, compounding holding period and operational excellence. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Alex Abell is a Managing Partner at RCP Advisors, which at $14 billion of committed capital, is one of the largest firms focused exclusively on lower-middle market buyouts. Alex has spent twenty-three years in the business, starting on the LP side, building Atlas Diligence – a research and advisory platform focused on advanced analytics, and then merging Atlas with RCP a decade ago. Today, he helps manage RCP’s research efforts, its customized solutions, and advisory services. Our conversation covers Alex’s path and lessons learned investing in lower middle market buyout funds across assessing managers with data, benchmarking, blending quantitative and qualitative factors, and applying insights to primary and secondary investing. Alex and I just scratch the surface on what’s possible with analytics in the private markets. If you’d like to learn more, reach out to Alex directly at [email protected] Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Letitia Johnson is the CIO of Amherst College, where she manages the school's $4 billion endowment. After thirteen years working with twenty-five clients and attending over 1,000 Investment Committee meetings at Cambridge Associates, Letitia developed a view about investing that differs from many similar pools of capital and has applied that view over the last five years. Our conversation covers the subtleties of managing an endowment with a concentrated, bottom-up manager-selected approach for the long-term, including portfolio construction, risk and liquidity management, long-term investing, and competition for capital.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

David Morehead is the CIO at Baylor University, where he oversees the $2.2 billion endowment. David came to Baylor thirteen years ago after an eighteen-year investment career that spanned every aspect of public markets investing. He created an approach to investing at Baylor that is quite different from others in the seat. David recently started sharing his insightful perspectives on the craft on Twitter/X under the handle @CIO_Baylor. Our conversation covers David’s background and path to Baylor, the three styles of endowment management pursued in the industry, and the thematic top down approach he employs. We discuss his implementation of that approach across risk management, portfolio construction, private markets, manager selection, and turnover.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s show, we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. We’ve shared conversations under this theme about a range of forgotten opportunities from specific emerging markets to biotech. Previous episodes are available under the mini-series or topic search at capitalallocators.com. This time around, we discuss a room that was overflowing two years ago, has been abandoned since, and might be coming back once again - crypto and blockchain technologies.   My guest is Chris Dixon, a general partner at a16z and one of the leading voices and investors in the space. Chris recently published a book entitled Read Write Own, which explains the history, thesis, features, and importance of blockchain technology in his classic framework-driven, non-technical style.   Our conversation covers aspects of the book, including the history of the internet, rationale for blockchains, and tokenomics. We then turn to what’s happened in the ignored space since the fall of FTX across stablecoins, NFTs, DeFi, Bitcoin ETFs, regulation, and the devotees still involved in the space. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at a16z where he leads Crypto investing, overseeing the largest pool in the space at $7 billion across four dedicated venture funds and a team of eighty professionals. Chris is one of the leading voices in the crypto ecosystem and topped the Forbes ‘Midas List’ as the most successful venture capitalist in the world in 2021. He was a guest on the show last year, and that replay is available in the feed.   Our conversation covers Chris’ framework for web3, network effects, venture economics, and institutional adoption. We turn to some of the areas he is most excited about deploying capital, including the creator economy, infrastructure, DeFi, gaming, and decentralized content creation. We close with how a16z supports portfolio companies in crypto, and Chris’ thoughts on the current market downturn.   A full list of a16z investments can be found here - https://a16z.com/investments/.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.     Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.     Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.     Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.     Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Shiloh Bates is the Chief Investment Officer at Flat Rock Global, an alternative credit manager specializing in the junior tranches of CLOs. Last year, Shiloh published CLO Investing, a comprehensive review of the structure, payoff rules, and historical performance of CLOs. Our conversation covers Shiloh's twenty-five years spent in and around the space, an overview of the market, the characteristics of CLOs, the attractiveness of CLO equity relative to other credit opportunities, and Flat Rock’s approach to investing in CLO equity and BBs. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Nigel Dawn is the global head of Private Capital Advisory at Evercore, where he leads the secondaries business he started a decade ago. Under Nigel's leadership, Evercore had become the market leader in transaction volume and is involved in approximately 30-40% of all secondaries market activity . Our conversation covers Nigel's observations on the growing secondaries market, including its history, rationale for LPs and GPs, incentives, critiques, other liquidity options, and advice for both sellers and buyers of GP interests. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

I've been thinking about the investment office playbook and what managers don't see when they meet with allocators. Read Ted’s blog here.

Today’s show is the first in an ongoing mini-series discussing Breeding Grounds, organizations that have developed and spawned future industry leaders. We’ll cover both allocators and managers to see what we can learn about developing talent. In the first episode of the mini-series, we discuss Carnegie Corporation of New York. Ellen Shuman became Carnegie’s first CIO in 1999 after working for David Swensen at Yale. Over her dozen year tenure and that of Meredith Jenkins and Kim Lew for the next dozen, and incredible 8 of the 17 investment professionals that walked in the door have become CIOs, and the rest appear either on their way or found their passion as leaders in complimentary roles or outside the industry. Those who became sitting CIOs are Meredith at Carnegie and Trinity Wall Street, Kim at Carnegie and Columbia, Jon Michael Consalvo at Carnegie, Alisa Mall at Michael Dell’s Family Office, Niles Bryant at Bowdoin College, Brooke Jones at Bryn Mawr College, Ken Lee at Children’s Healthcare, and Li Tan at Radian X.  Carnegie is a lesser-known allocator training ground than Yale, but it’s produced half the number of future CIOs from fraction of the team size. My guests to discuss how this happened are Ellen Shuman, Meredith Jenkins, Kim Lew, and Alisa Mall. We cover the chronology of their paths, and the Carnegie organization and investment process, including recruiting, culture, research, decision-making, and succession. Alongside the many applicable lessons they share, their palpable love and respect for each other is evident from the get go. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Blythe Masters a Founding Partner of Motive Partners, a $6 billion specialist private equity platform that builds, backs, and buys technology companies that enable the financial services industry. Blythe spent 27 years at JP Morgan, starting as a teenager and rising to the firmwide Executive Committee. Her path included roles as the head of global commodities, head of corporate and investment bank regulatory affairs, CFO of the investment bank, head of the global credit portfolio and credit policy and strategy, and head of structured credit. Our conversation covers Blythe’s career trajectory at JP Morgan across asset classes, cycles, and crises. We then turn to the investment model at Motive and themes in asset and wealth management. We recorded this conversation on the iConnections Global Alts podcast stage, which explains the occasional wind gusts, airplanes overhead, sirens, and children playing in the background. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jonathan Tepper is the CIO of Prevatt Capital, a $450 million long only firm he founded in 2020 that takes a quality and value approach to own a concentrated portfolio of global monopolies. He is also the author of The Myth of Capitalism, a book we discussed alongside his career path on the show five years ago. That conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation this time around bookends our prior discussion, covering Jonathan’s unique upbringing and education on one end and his creation of Prevatt Capital to apply the lessons from The Myth of Capitalism on the other. As a disclaimer, I so took to Jonathan when we first met that I’ve been an advisor to him and Prevatt Capital since launch and am an investor in the strategy. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Jonathan Tepper is the founder of Variant Perception, an economic research group that works with institutional managers, hedge funds, and allocators to provide objective and comprehensive data to form actionable ideas from leading indicators and emerging trends. He is also the author of three books, the most recent of which, The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, received widespread acclaim earlier this year. Our conversation covers Jonathan's unusual upbringing, learning about currencies from Big Macs, building economic and liquidity forecasting models, and catering Variant Perception's research to investors. We then turn to The Myth of Capitalism, discussing the history, causes, and ramifications of the absence of competition in U.S. industries, natural and unnatural monopolies, examples in the tech giants, funeral home operators, airports, and hospitals, and what can be done to counter this negative trend.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Mike Freno is the Chairman & CEO of Barings, a $400 billion global manager that invests across public and private fixed income, real assets, and capital solutions on behalf of its insurance company parent MassMutual and other institutions. Barings emerged from a combination of four investment brands in 2016 and has expanded its capabilities by acquiring partners with complementary skills that fit into its culture. Our conversation covers Mike's path to the CEO seat, the creation of the modern Barings, the power of insurance ownership, and lessons from leading, acquiring, and integrating asset managers. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Michael Leffell is the Managing Member of Portage Partners, Chairman of Canoe Intelligence, and Founder and Chairman of 10 East, an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets by co-investing alongside Michael. Michael was former Deputy Executive Managing Member of Davidson Kempner, where he spent twenty-one years before retiring in 2010. He formed a family office shortly thereafter and developed Portage, Canoe, and 10 East out of his investing activities. Our conversation covers Michael’s professional investment career, personal investing following his retirement, and businesses created from those activities. And a little disclaimer is in order: I’ve known Michael for about a decade, and after becoming impressed by the quality of 10 East’s offerings, its research process, and high-quality investment team, I became an advisor to the organization and an investor in multiple offerings. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

A long time ago, 33 years to be exact, Mike Milken pled guilty to 6 counts of violations of securities laws, went to jail for 2 years, and received a lifetime ban from the securities industry. He was at the time the most successful and powerful man on Wall Street and remains one of the smartest and most successful backers of talent in finance, cancer research and education.   Most of us have formed beliefs about Mike based on accounts in the media or books written like Den of Thieves. We might think Mike was guilty of insider trading, for example. The way we form beliefs is problematic and rooted in survival from a time long past. We hear something and almost always immediately believe it is true. Danny Kahneman calls that System 1 thinking. Here’s one example. We think Mike was guilty of insider trading. In fact, he was not. His plea of guilty did not touch insider trading. And another, the Attorney who aggressively pursued Mike to bring him down and presumably catapult his own political ambitions was none other than Rudy Giuliani, himself indicted, arrested, and disbarred 30 years later. Last week, Mike discussed how he emphasizes research and facts in his work. It is System 2 thinking - that requires us to think on our own without being infected by the beliefs of others. So what really happened to cause us to have such negative views about a man who has done so much for the world? My guest on today’s show tells a very different story based on facts from being in the room where it all happened. Richard Sandler has been Mike Milken’s personal attorney since 1983, having joined Drexel three years before the U.S. Attorney first subpoenaed Mike. He wrote a book last year entitled Witness to a Prosecution – the Myth of Michael Milken that describes his account of what happened based on the facts. Our conversation covers Richard’s perspective on the history, motivations, and proceedings that led to both Mike’s imprisonment and the public perception of him that formed as a result. I encourage you to set aside any preconceived notions you have about Mike Milken in listening to this conversation.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Michael Milken is a legendary financier and philanthropist. Mike is best known for his role in creating the high yield bond market in the 1970s and 1980s at Drexel Burnham Lambert, his guilty plea, and his remarkable philanthropic efforts over fifty years supporting medical research, education, and public health. Under Mike’s leadership, upstart Drexel became the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, enabled capital to become available for the 99% of companies that could not previously access the public market, and turned into the greatest breeding ground for talent in the industry. Approximately seventy investment firms are headed by leaders who worked for Mike, including founders and leaders of Apollo, Ares, Blackstone, Canyon, Cerberus, Crescent, GoldenTree, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Leonard Green, and Moelis.   Our conversation begins with Mike’s childhood and his early interest in democratizing access to capital. We discuss his career goals, the importance of capital structure, and his perspectives on markets today. We then turn to Mike’s long history of philanthropic work to improve education and advance cancer research, as described in his book Faster Cures: Accelerating the Future of Health.   I should note that we do not discuss Mike’s difficult years post-Drexel or his pardon in 2020. However, next week Mike’s longtime personal attorney, Richard Sandler, will join me to discuss just that.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Michael Mauboussin is the Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, a $70 billion equity manager. Michael is renowned for his ability to articulate important investment concepts backed by academic research. His first of three prior conversations on the show is replayed in the feed. You can find the rest at capitalallocators.com. Our conversation explores Michael’s most recent piece on pattern recognition, including when it works and when it doesn’t. We then transition to discussing the changing nature of public markets, inspired by another of Michael’s recent research reports entitled Birth, Death, and Wealth Creation. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager. He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason. Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia Business School for 24 years. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, the paradox of skill, academic research more favorable to active management, decision-making, optimal size and composition of teams, unsettling features in the market, data analysis in sports, career risk, the Santa Fe Institute, and Michael’s new research on the horizon. Every time I speak to Michael I come away thinking better and feeling smarter, and this time was no exception.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Magnus Grimeland is the CEO and founder of Antler, the world’s largest day zero investor. Antler’s pre-seed strategy canvasses 27 countries, 1,000 portfolio companies, 8,000+ founders, and over 120,000 annual applications for 2,000 spots in its residency programs. Magnus founded Antler in 2017 after serving as the co-founder of Zalora, a tech-enable fashion brand in Asia. Our conversation covers Magnus’ journey from growing up in rural Norway to developing a global startup platform, characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, and the process for building the infrastructure for founders to solve important problems in the world. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Brad Jacobs is a career CEO and the founder of Jacobs Private Equity (his family office). Brad created and grew three platforms using a roll-up strategy that resulted in seven multibillion-dollar publicly traded companies. He and his teams have raised $30 billion of capital, completed 500 acquisitions, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generated annual returns to shareholders in excess of 50%. Brad shares his playbook in his aptly named book, How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. In December, he announced a billion-dollar PIPE into a new platform opportunity, of which $900 million is his personal capital. Our conversation is a master class in all aspects of leadership and management, including identifying an opportunity, acquiring businesses, assessing people, managing talent, running operations, leading electric meetings, motivating and compensating team members, and embarking on his next platform investment. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ron Biscardi, the CEO of iConnections, whose Global Alts conference in Miami is the largest capital introduction gathering in the industry. In addition to the annual event, iConnections hosts an annual charity cap intro event and provides its technology platform to connect the industry year-round. Last week, I joined 6,000 industry peers in Miami at Global Alts. The main event at the conference were an incredible 15,000 one-on-one meetings between allocators and managers. As a side show, I grabbed Ron on the podcast stage to get a closer look at how it all comes together. In an industry that typically competes at every turn, iConnections is the opposite – they are the ultimate collaborators. Ron has provided the iConnections software to power most major industry events, including our Summits, and is generous in finding ways to connect people and add value. I’ve been an advisor to Ron and iConnections since Ron created their first charity event, Funds 4 Food, in the midst of the pandemic. It’s been great fun to watch their growth and success in the years since. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Sanjay Ayer is a portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, the Laguna-based $80 billion equity manager profiled on three popular past episodes with CEO Paul Black, President Mike Trigg, and emerging market portfolio manager Mike Tian. Sanjay joined WCM in 2007, and alongside Mike Trigg, leads the firm’s research process that follows the mantra: think different and get better. Our conversation is a fascinating exploration of the differentiated mindset at WCM. We discuss topics, including self-discovery, cognitive dissonance, thinking differently, getting better, compounding knowledge, reflection time, and feedback loops – all in the context of Sanjay’s path and the application of the concepts to WCM’s research process, investment examples, and business. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Paul Black and Mike Trigg from WCM Investment Management are both past guests on the show who have taken an investment philosophy focused on culture and moat trajectory to turn a once struggling boutique into a $100 billion powerhouse. Paul came on the show a few years ago when WCM had quietly grown to $25 billion in assets, and Mike joined a year ago to dive into their research process. Their colleague Mike Tian shared another perspective earlier this year when he described applying WCM’s moat trajectory discipline to investing in China. In this continued exploration of WCM, we start with the truly unique facts about the firm’s rebirth a decade ago and turn to key features of its success, including embracing change, the importance of culture - alongside some characteristics of toxic cultures, hiring practices, telling the truth, integrating new team members, managing turnover, and transitioning leadership to the next generation. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

You may remember my popular first meeting from a few years ago with Paul Black of WCM, then a $25 billion asset manager in Laguna Beach, CA. Since then, WCM has gone up and to the right in every way, they sold a minority piece of the business to Natixis, continue to put big numbers on the board, and have grown to north of $66 billion, defying the fade of active management outflows. My guest on today’s show is Mike Trigg, a partner and portfolio manager of WCM’s Focused International Growth strategy that comprises the majority of the firm’s assets. We discuss Mike’s background, arrival at WCM in 2005, near implosion of the firm shortly thereafter, and the rising of the international strategy from those ashes. We then dive in deeper to the core tenants of WCM’s approach, discussing how the firm analyzes widening moats and cultures tied to competitive advantage. Lastly, we talk about how WCM’s growth has impacted the firm. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Raphael Arndt is the CEO of the Future Fund, Australia’s 200 billion AUZ ($135B) sovereign wealth fund that his team manages alongside 55 billion AUZ of other sovereign pools of capital. Raphael assumed the CEO seat in 2020 after serving as Chief Investment Officer for six years. Our conversation from five years ago about the Fund’s total portfolio approach is replayed in the feed. Our conversation focuses on the significant changes in the Future Fund over the last few years. Raphael and his team spent a year analyzing changes in the global economy, demographics, and markets and concluded the Future Fund needed substantial turnover to prepare for the coming period. We discuss these changes in the external environment and the governance and culture internally required to do something about it. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Raff Arndt is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s AUZ$145 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Future Fund.  He trained as an engineer and dove into infrastructure policy at the beginning of Australia’s privatizations in the late 1990s. After investing in the space for six year, he joined the Future Fund in 2008 to head the infrastructure team. Six years later, Raff became CIO. Our conversation spans all aspects of the management of a next generation institutional portfolio, including a one team, one portfolio philosophy, disaggregating beta and factors from skill in public markets, separating the impact of leverage and timing from skill in private markets, venture capital and co-investment opportunities in a large pool of capital, the option value of flexibility, the team required to make decisions in this format, compensation, fees, views on China, and the current market environment. Australia created the Future Fund only eleven years ago with a mandate to compound capital for 20 years before even contemplating withdrawals. It has been described to me as a pool of capital with the size and transparency of CalPERS and the sophistication of Yale. I’m sure you’ll soon understand why. Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today's Sponsored Insight features Chad Summe and Mike Veith, Partners at eGateway Capital, a Cincinnati based, thesis-driven firm that focuses on growth stage, enablement technologies that drive the future of digital supply chains, marketing, and commerce. Our conversation covers their path to creating eGateway, their investment strategy and process. Chad and Mike highlight the firm’s regional and relationship-based sourcing and value add opportunities that benefit from the importance of the Midwest in supply chains and commerce. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Tilly Franklin is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer at University of Cambridge Investment Management, where she oversees the £4.0B Cambridge University Endowment Fund. UCIM applies an endowment model approach primarily investing in managers and with an overall emphasis on sustainability. We discuss Tilly’s background that canvasses operating roles, direct private equity, at Apex, investing at Yale cub Alta Advisors, and the perspectives she brought to Cambridge four years ago. We cover her work at UCIM across developing the team, portfolio, manager selection, and sustainability. Lastly, we talk about Tilly’s experience with GAIN, or Girls Are Investors, a non-profit organization that introduces women to careers in finance. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

George Michelakis is the Chief Investment Officer of Gladstone Management, a $2 billion long/short equity hedge fund based in London. George founded Gladstone in 2006 with seed capital from, well me at Protégé Partners, and six years later bought back the stake when still managing less than $100 million. In the dozen years since Gladstone has won awards for European Hedge Fund of the Year and the top performing five-year fund for three years in a row. Long before that, George became an International Chess Master and took third in the 1992 World Under-20 Chess Championships. We discuss George’s path from chess to investing, alongside his college friend Roelof Botha of Sequoia, the challenges of the fundamental long-short equity model, the culture required to make it work, and how he does at Gladstone. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

How will we generate returns to meet important spending needs in an increasingly unforgiving world? One answer is “Internal Alpha’ – making fewer mistakes alongside making great investments. Generating internal alpha is rarely taught in the investment field, which is why we created Capital Allocators University. Read Ted’s blog here.

Brian Christiansen is Executive Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Sands Capital, a growth-focused public and private equity manager that oversees $50 billion in assets. Our conversation covers Brian’s journey to Sands Capital, the firm's investment philosophy and approach to growth investing, six key investment criteria, portfolio construction, competitive advantage, and investment examples. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership Capital Allocators was compensated in connection with participation in this interview, which creates a conflict of interest that should be considered.

Ana Marshall is the CIO for the $14 billion William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a two-time past guest on the show. This time around, we discuss Ana’s recently published book, The Climb to Investment Excellence. It is an outstanding, thorough guide for any leader overseeing a pool of institutional capital. But don’t take my word for it – the book jacket has praise from perhaps the best list of investment luminaries to ever adorn a cover: Seth Klarman from Baupost, Sir Christoper Hohn from TCI, Paul Singer from Elliott, Doug Leone from Sequoia, Lei Zhang from Hillhouse and Marc Andreessen from a16z. Our conversation offers a walkthrough of the mountain investors must climb to reach their summit, following the metaphors of identifying the goal, preparing to embark or establishing governance, getting started or setting the investment strategy, working up the mountain or manager selection, and reaching the summit. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ana Marshall is the CIO for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she oversees a $13 billion pool of capital. Ana joined Hewlett eighteen years ago after spending the same amount of time as a direct investor. She was a past guest in 2019 describing her approach, and that conversation is replayed in the feed.   We caught up to discuss what is on Ana's mind going into the new year. We cover inflation, private equity secondaries, liquidity management, China, emerging markets, and ESG. We close discussing where Ana is looking around corners, what's filling her basket of worries, and her plan for the next five years.   Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial     For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.    Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Ana Marshall is the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she oversees a $10.5 billion pool of capital. Ana joined Hewlett in 2004 after spending eighteen years as a direct investor in high yield credit, emerging market debt, and international equities. Our conversation covers Ana’s lifelong passion for investing, joining the “super buy side,” conducting company meetings to inform the manager selection and allocation process, portfolio structure, manager selection, monitoring and measuring risk, perspectives on peers, internal dynamics, and working through a big mistake. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund, blogger about behavior and money, and author of The Psychology of Money. The book has sold 4.5 million copies since its release three and a half years ago and already ranks in the top five best-selling books about finance. Morgan recently published his second book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes. Our conversation starts with what happened since his last appearance on the show just before the release of The Psychology of Money. We then turn to his latest magnum opus and discuss some of its themes and stories across storytelling, expectations, compounding, risk, incentives, and people. Morgan’s wisdom, humility, and passion for his work come out in spades. He also happens to be a wonderful person and dear friend. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund and one of my favorite writers about investing. Morgan recently released his first book, The Psychology of Money, and I’ll go on record and predict it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation starts with Morgan’s non-traditional education, his path to writing, and his process for writing each week. We then turn to the book and discuss some anecdotes about luck and risk, greed, compounding, patience, and tail events. We close with two of Morgan’s personal stories – one about his own investing and the other, which seems inconceivable as you listen, about his lifelong challenge with stuttering.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. The number one episode of the year, and the number one episode of all time, Seth Klarman – Timeless Value Investing. Seth’s uncommon wisdom and sole podcast appearance combined to make this year’s chart topper one for the ages. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Number three covered private credit and number two covers the other most topical strategy of the year – multi-manager platform hedge funds. Weighing in at number two is Dmitry Balyasny and his discussion of multi-strategy platforms at BAM. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. At number three, Kip DeVeer and the world of private credit at Ares. The subject of private credit was top of mind for investors, and Kipp shared his experience and wisdom in this tour of the space. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Coming in at number four is Stan Miranda, the modern endowment model at Partners Capital. Stan’s original insights shine in this story of the powerhouse OCIO he founded with Paul Dimitruk 20 years ago. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

It's that time of year when I share my annual letter and a rundown of the top episodes of 2023. Like last year, we’ll be counting down the top 5 episodes each day this week. Tune in throughout the week to find out which episodes were played more than any other from last Thanksgiving to this one. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Kicking us off at number five, is Greg Lemkau, the evolution of MSD, episode 291. I can’t say I’m surprised by this one. Greg is beloved far and wide in the industry and all kinds of people came out of the woodwork when this release. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Gary Sernovitz is Managing Director at Lime Rock Partners, an oil and gas-focused private equity firm that manages $10 billion, where he runs the firm’s investor relations and business development efforts. He is also the author of The Counting House, a fictional story about a CIO who oversees a $6 billion college endowment. After twenty years of observing CIOs, Gary brings his pointed, witty writing with a nuanced understanding of someone sitting in the CIO seat. Our conversation discusses the perspective Gary brings to his latest book, the challenges of serving as a CIO, and insights from two decades of manager meetings. Sitting outside the CIO seat, Gary shares a side of the CIO role that many experience, but few are comfortable discussing on the podcast. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today's Sponsored Insight features, Thomas Haugaard, a portfolio manager on the Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency team at Janus Henderson Investors where he helps manage $1.3 billion just one year into the team’s tenure at JHI. Thomas spent the last decade in the strategy with the same team, a prior decade in emerging markets research, and a decade before that in academia studying emerging markets. Our conversation covers Thomas’ path to investing, the opportunity set and misconceptions of hard currency debt, and his team’s approach to the sector. This is our third sponsored insight from Janus Henderson, following conversations with Daniel Grana on emerging market equities and Andy Acker on biotech. Those insights are replayed in the feed. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s show we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. Andy Acker is a Portfolio Manager at our anchor sponsor, Janus Henderson Investors, where he manages the firm’s healthcare strategies. Janus Henderson is a global asset manager with $300B in assets under management, and Andy oversees the firm’s Global Life Sciences strategy and its Biotechnology strategy. Biotech stocks have been crushed despite significant advances in drug development, making it a proverbial empty room with only specialists and contrarians left standing. Our conversation starts with Andy’s path to becoming a healthcare investor, scientific innovation over his time at Janus Henderson, translation of science into commercial success for businesses, and the 90/90 rule for how stocks behave. We then turn to his investment process across filtering ideas, research, assessment of management teams and commercial success, portfolio construction, trading around names, and private crossover investing. We close with Andy’s perspective on opportunities and risks to the space from here, and green shoots he sees that might fill seats in the empty room. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.    Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Today’s episode of Manager Meetings is our first sponsored show, with our friends at Janus Henderson Investors. I had the chance to speak with Daniel Graña, who is responsible for Janus Henderson’s emerging markets equity strategy. Janus Henderson is a leading global asset manager with $400 billion under management. Our conversation covers some stories of the wild west early days in emerging markets, Daniel’s strategy focusing on the intersection of good companies with good governance and good countries, portfolio construction, application of the process to China, benefits of aligning with a large organization when tackling emerging markets, and the case for emerging markets today. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Marcia Page is the Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Värde Partners and Founder and CEO of MPowered Capital. Värde is a thirty-year-old $13 billion leading global alternatives firm specializing in credit. MPowered came out of Marcia’s personal investing and focuses on accelerating equity for best-in-class female and underrepresented talent through capital, commitment, and connections. Marcia is one of the few women to have founded and scaled an alternatives firm over three decades. Our conversation spans Marcia’s extensive career. We discuss her Minnesota roots, early days at Cargill, founding and scaling of Värde, value investing, and transition of leadership at the firm. We then turn to the latest phase in Marcia’s career at Mpowered Capital and her efforts to address the industry’s diversity gap. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Nicolai Tangen is the CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, where he oversees the $1.3 trillion Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. The Fund owns 1.5% of all public equities worldwide and 2.7% of all listed companies in Europe. As part of his effort to communicate with constituents, Nicolai also hosts “In Good Company,” a podcast where he interviews CEOs of large, global, market-leading companies. Before taking the helm three years ago, Nicolai was the founder of AKO Capital, which today manages $20 billion and is one of Europe’s leading hedge funds. Our conversation covers Nicolai’s investment path, lessons learned along the way about interviewing and leadership, and transition to the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund. We discuss the history of the pool of assets, Nicolai’s approach to serving as a universal owner of assets, and his goals as leader of the organization. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Michael Levy is the CEO of Crow Holdings, the family real estate empire initiated by Trammel Crow seventy-five years ago that today includes longstanding family holdings, $30 billion in externally managed and development real estate, and a diversifying portfolio of non-real-estate assets. Before joining Crow, Michael had a long career in real estate finance and investment management at Morgan Stanley that culminated in his serving as COO of the Investment Management Division. Our conversation includes Michael’s path from New York to Dallas, managing through the financial crisis, lessons in asset management leadership, and the unique nature of the culture, relationships, and breadth of real estate investing at Crow. We also get his take on opportunities and risks in the current markets.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. For a little turkey treat, today’s show has me on the other side of the mike. Sarah Samuels, the head of manager research at powerhouse consultant NEPC and a past guest on the show, is also the Board Chair of the CFA Society in Boston. She’s created a podcast series for the Society called “Pull Up a Chair,” and I was honored to be her inaugural guest. We recorded live at Wellington Management’s headquarters earlier this month in front of a crowd that included Tim McCusker, the CIO at NEPC, and Jean Hynes, the CEO of Wellington. I’m a big fan of the collegial Boston investment community and was excited to participate. Sarah drew out some personal anecdotes about my investment career and a look at the business around Capital Allocators. At the end, I offer up a pitch for a children’s book Sarah wrote that will release in April called Braving Your Savings. Keep your eye out for it in the coming months. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Chad Hutchinson is a partner at Arctos Partners, a private equity firm best known as the leading minority owner of professional sports franchises. Chad was one of only seven athletes since 1970 to play in both Major League Baseball and the National Football League. After his sports career ended, he started from scratch in finance and spent fifteen years in private markets before joining Arctos and bringing his two careers together. We discuss Chad’s journey to two professional sports, mindset and framework for success, transition and career in finance, blend of his two paths at Arctos, and interdisciplinary learnings across fields. Set all your assumptions about athletes and private equity managers aside as you listen to this incredible story of Chad’s determination, humility, intelligence, and drive. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Rick Heitzmann is the founder and Managing Partner of FirstMark Capital, a network-driven seed and series A venture capital firm managing $3.5 billion that backs entrepreneurs in high-growth consumer and enterprise technology sectors focused in New York City. some of FirstMark’s past wins include Pinterest, DraftKings, Shopify, Upwork, StubHub, and Airbnb, and Rick has been named to the Forbes’ Midas List as one of the world’s top venture capitalists for the last four years in a row. Rick is a one-man treasure trove of venture insights. Our conversation includes his background across distressed investing, operations, and growth capital, the New York tech scene, creation of value-added guilds of hundreds of thousands of people, and investment theses across digital health, gaming, and the venture environment. And as any great New Yorker would be, Rick is a tried and true Yankees fan – what more can you ask for? Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s sponsored insight, we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. It’s real estate Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in New York City, a niche opportunity requiring a high degree of specialized expertise. Ted Martell is the Co-Founder of Maverick Real Estate Partners, the leading investor in commercial real estate NPLs and distressed loans in the New York City market. Maverick manages $500 million focusing on the specialty since its launch in 2010. Our conversation covers Ted and David Aviram’s path to bootstrapping the business, the nature of the opportunity, and the blend of data science and analysis that makes it work. We also discuss the wide-open landscape of opportunity on the horizon in the NYC commercial market. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Allison Thacker is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Rice Management Company, where she oversees Rice University's $8 billion dollar endowment. Allison spent eleven years picking growth stocks before joining Rice eleven years ago. Our conversation shares Allison’s keen insights from experience as both a direct investor and endowment manager, Rice’s quite different portfolio with a heavy allocation to real assets, and an organizational structure that blends internal and external management and generalists and deep specialization. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Bruce Ou is the Managing Partner of GroveStreet, a boutique firm that has invested $10 billion in the private markets on behalf of fourteen institutional clients. GroveStreet specializes in managers that transform companies in venture capital, growth equity, and middle market buyouts. Our conversation canvasses Bruce’s emigration from China, thoughts on middle market buyouts, venture capital, and grow equity investing, opportunities in China, and co-investments. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

This Sponsored Insight features Timothy Lyne, the CEO of Antares Capital, a alternative asset manager with $64+ billion in assets. Antares is a leading provider of financing for private equity-backed businesses and one of the longest-standing players in the industry. At its founding in 1996, Antares was backed by MassMutual, sold to GE in 2005, and then sold again to CPP Investments in 2015. Our conversation explores three decades of lending – from the early years dominated by bank activity to the modern era of private credit asset management. We discuss the changes in the business over time, the resources required to succeed, and the opportunities and risks going forward. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Raelan Lambert, John Jackson, and Erik Sebusch are three of the leaders at Mercer Alternatives, the alternative investment arm of the consulting juggernaut. Mercer advises on $16.5 trillion of assets and manages $400 billion, of which $160 billion under advisement and $25 billion under management is under the Mercer Alternatives umbrella. Raelan is Mercer’s Global Alternatives leader, John is the Head of Diversifying Alternatives, its hedge fund group, and Erik is the Global Strategy Leader in Venture Capital. Our conversation provides a glimpse inside Mercer. Raelan shares an overview of the alternatives business, John delves into the hedge fund research process that informs its approved list, and Erik does the same for venture capital. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Isaac Corre is the founder, CEO, and Portfolio Manager of Governors Lane, a hedge fund he launched in 2015 that manages $1.6 billion focused on event-driven strategies. Isaac describes himself as the least likely person to end up on Wall Street, coming to the business from an academic family and a legal background before finding a passion for the business. Our conversation covers where event-driven investing was twenty years ago and where opportunities and challenges lie today across the disciplines of merger arbitrage, event-driven equities, and event-driven credit. Isaac brings the kind of thoughtful and methodical insights to event-driven investing that are required to succeed in the discipline. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

NAV loans are the latest development in private equity. Private credit managers see NAV loans as gold mines. Private equity managers are testing the waters. LPs whose capital is at risk are on the lookout for trouble. I’ve been thinking about NAV loans and what they might mean for private equity participants.   Read Ted’s blog here.

This Sponsored Insight features Finny Kuruvilla, the Co-Chief Investment Officer, Founding Member, and healthcare Portfolio Manager at Eventide Asset Management. Eventide is a Boston-based firm that manages $6.8 billion (as of 6/30/2023) and brings a distinct values-based approach to investing across generalist and healthcare strategies. We discuss Finny’s path to founding Eventide with $100,000 in capital, the firm’s mission-driven, values-based philosophy, which they started long before ESG was a known acronym, integrating values with the investment process, and what success means in the years ahead. More on Eventide: Website | LinkedIn Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership   This information is for use with concurrent or prior delivery of a fund prospectus, which can be obtained at https://www.eventidefunds.com/prospectus or by calling 1-877-771-EVEN (3836). Investors should consider a fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing or sending money. Eventide Mutual Funds are distributed by Northern Lights Distributors, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, which is not affiliated with Eventide Asset Management, LLC. 

Sonya Sawtell-Rickson is the Chief Investment Officer of Australian Superannuation Fund HESTA, a AUD 75 billion ($50 billion) pool dedicated to health and community service workers. HESTA services 90,000 employers and a million members, 80% of whom are women. Sonya is one of Australia’s biggest stars in employing a total portfolio approach to the management of assets. We discussed this approach in past conversations with Raff Arndt from Australia Future Fund and Matt Whineray, then CEO of New Zealand Super. TPA generally uses more granular risk management and fine-tuning of incremental portfolio decisions than an asset allocation approach. Our conversation highlights the beliefs, benchmarks, culture, and implementation that drive HESTA’s total portfolio approach. We also dive into HESTA’s objectives related to climate solutions and diversity that go alongside its real return goals. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Dmitry Balyasny is the founder, Managing Partner, and Chief Investment Officer of Balyasny Asset Management, a $21 billion multi-strategy hedge fund considered one of the leading multi-manager platforms. The firm launched in the early 2000s and today has 2,000 employees across 15 global offices. Our conversation is a master class in all aspects of the multi-manager model. We cover everything - learning to trade, building new strategies, attracting talent, managing an individual pod, portfolio and risk management, the competitive landscape, and the future. Dmitry is a gifted money manager and business builder, and both sides come out in spades. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Alan Forman is the former Director of Real Estate at the Yale Investments Office, where he spent 31.5 years before retiring last year. For three decades, Alan was one of the core four at Yale alongside David Swensen, Dean Takahashi, and Tim Sullivan. In his next chapter, he hung a shingle named Blue Orchard Capital, where he works with real estate managers to help them understand best practices in the industry. In our conversation, Alan shares rare insight into Yale’s investment operation and, in particular, highlights the consistent and essential importance of people and alignment in Yale’s strategy. We walk through how he applied the process to the real estate asset class and how he’s looking to help the next generation of great real estate managers in his post-Yale endeavors. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Muthu Muthiah is the Chief Investment Officer of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (CHOA), one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the U.S. Muthu stewards CHOA’s $6 billion long term pool of capital, arriving a year ago after stints across a range of allocator seats the past twenty years.   Our conversation covers Muthu’s mobile upbringing, path to finance, and lessons learned working for a range of asset owners. We discuss his first CIO seat at Inatai, where he oversaw a $2 billion portfolio starting with a clean sheet of paper, and his new seat at CHOA, including the portfolio framework, team structure, and aspiration to achieve concentration, search for inefficiency, and invest in innovation.   For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today's sponsored insight is with Adam Karr, the President and Portfolio Manager at Orbis, a $35 billion global equity manager founded in 1989 by legendary Fidelity alum Allan Gray. Orbis blends unique business practices with a long-term intrinsic value investment model designed to invest differently. Our conversation dives into Orbis’ business practices intended to create alignment, including a fee structure with rebates and a permanent ownership model. We then go through the investment approach that features thirty-five analyst shadow portfolios to bring data and independent thinking to portfolio construction. Orbis’ model has rich lessons for managers and allocators alike. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Marlene Puffer is the CIO of Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), where she oversees $160 billion on behalf of 17 pensions, endowments, insurance and government funds in the province of Alberta, Canada. AIMCo is one of the “Maple 8” Canadian pension managers that together oversee $2 trillion in assets and are innovators in institutional portfolio management.   Our conversation covers Marlene’s path to pension management from roots in academia and fixed income, her first CIO role at the Canadian National corporate pension fund, and transition to AIMCo earlier this year. We discuss AIMCo’s asset-liability matching investment strategy, global team, internal and external management, compensation, external manager selection, opportunities and risks, and the unique qualities of Canadian pensions. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Investors have played the game of telephone with David Swensen’s Pioneering Portfolio Management. Re-reading his book offers insights that differ from interpretations of the Yale Model. Read Ted’s blog here.

Today’s show is the most popular episode from our new podcast, Investment Management Operations. Subscribe to Investment Management Operations on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Host Scott McDonald interviews Jenn Birmingham, Managing Director at the Princeton University Investment Company (or PRINCO) Jenn exudes the concept of organizational alpha - how operations can integrate, provide leverage, and add value to investment results. In particular, her descriptions of collaboration and decision-making at PRINCO offer an insider’s look at one of the top endowment performers for decades. Jenn often refers to the leadership of Andy Golden, PRINCO’s longtime CIO. His first appearance on Capital Allocators is replayed in the feed. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Andy Golden is the President of Princeton University’s Investment Management Company (PRINCO).  Having grown from $3B at the time of his arrival in 1995 to $22.5B today, PRINCO has been among the highest performing endowments in the world. Andy came to PRINCO from Duke Management Company, where he was an Investment Director, and received his formative training in the business working for David Swensen at the Yale University Investments Office. Andy currently serves on the fund Advisory Boards of several well-known private equity and venture capital managers, including Bain Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Greylock Partners. He was a founding member of the Investors’ Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and serves as a Trustee of the Princeton Area Community Foundation and Rutgers Preparatory School. Andy holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Duke University and an M.P.P.M. from the Yale School of Management. Our conversation discusses Princeton’s endowment two decades ago and today, including its strategic advantages as an institution, shifts in thinking about asset allocation, decision making, team development, and partnership with managers. Andy’s long tenure in his seat, insight, and wisdom provides a treasure trove of information about how a top endowment manager practices his craft, and his subtle wit always keeps things light.   For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Next week, we’ll release the first episode of Season 3 of Private Equity Deals, this time focusing on deals in the middle market. As an interlude between Season 2 and 3, this week’s show is a classic – it’s Bain Capital and KKR’s take private of Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) in 2006.  The $33 billion club deal was the largest private equity transaction in history at the time and was significantly larger than any deal since KKR’s famous run at RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s. The HCA deal showed the private equity industry the scale of what was possible and set the stage for both mega buyouts and public to private deals ever since. My guest is Chris Gordon, a Partner and Co-Head of Private Equity in North America for Bain Capital. Bain Capital today is one of the world’s largest private, multi-asset investing firms that oversees over $165 billion in assets. Seventeen years ago, Chris was a younger member of Bain Capital’s HCA deal team. HCA is one of the nation’s leading healthcare services providers, with over 182 hospitals and 2,300 sites of care in 20 states and the United Kingdom. Its origins date back to 1968 when it was one of the first hospital companies in the United States. Our conversation covers HCA’s history, the private equity environment in the mid-2000s, and the impetus for the HCA buyout. We discuss the complexity of navigating a large-scale transaction, conducting due diligence discretely, navigating the financial crisis, and what happened to the company. We turn to HCA’s return to the public markets through an IPO in 2011, Bain Capital’s eventual exit of the investment, and the implications of the deal on the firm and industry. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Stan Miranda is the Founder and Chairman of Partners Capital, a $50 billion OCIO that started in 2001 as a solution for private equity founders. Earlier in his career, Stan spent 17 years at Bain & Company, rising to Chairman of the Worldwide Executive Committee and leading its private equity practice. Our conversation covers the founding of Partners, learning the endowment model from first principles, and scaling Partners over the years since. We discuss the firm’s original interpretation of the endowment model, manager selection process, evolution of the endowment model since. Along the way, we touch on a range of portfolio and business management challenges, including team structure, internal and external management, succession planning, and insights across asset classes. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Kimberly Sargent is the Chief Investment Officer of the Packard Foundation where she oversees $10 billion. She is a well-respected member of the Yale diaspora, having started her career under David Swensen. Our conversation covers Kim's time at Yale, some lessons learned from David Swensen, and her application of them and a lot more at Packard over fifteen years. Kim shares thoughts on a range of asset classes and closes explaining why her role is the best job in the world. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s Sponsored Insight features Michael Carmen, the Co-Head of Private Investments at Wellington Management. Wellington’s Private Investment platform has $8 billion in committed capital investing across technology, consumer, health care, and financial services. Michael helped launch the firm’s first private equity fund in 2014, bringing Wellington’s broad scope to late-stage venture-backed companies. He previously invested in diversified small- and mid-cap public equities. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, path to Wellington, and pivot after a decade at Wellington from public markets to privates. We discuss his investment process across sourcing, diligence alongside Wellington’s public equity analysts, value proposition for portfolio companies, portfolio construction, and exits. We close with opportunities and risks for those with capital to put to work. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s show is a panel about the merits of private equity. On one side is Sachin Khajuria. a former partner at Apollo and twenty-five-year veteran of the industry, who recently authored “Two and Twenty.” Sachin was a past guest on the show discussing his book and that conversation is replayed in the feed. On the other is Brendan Ballou, a federal prosecutor who serves on the special counsel for private equity in the Justice Department’s antitrust division and recently authored “Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America,” highlighting controversy and potential flaws in private market investing. Our conversation begins with Sachin’s view on private markets as an essential value-additive element of the economy and Brendan’s thesis on the inadequacy of the legal structure surrounding the activity. We discuss incentives, investment duration, failed deals, fees, operational effectiveness, legal environment, risk, and broad education about the space. While the titles of their books might suggest a point-counterpoint discussion, the thoughtful nuance Sachin and Brendan bring to the table offer more commonality and food for thought than difference. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Sachin Khajuria is a former partner at Apollo and twenty-five-year veteran of private equity who recently authored “Two and Twenty,” a fantastic insider’s account of the private equity industry. Our conversation covers Sachin’s rationale for writing Two and Twenty, the strengths of private equity, areas for improvement, and needs for change. We discuss the defining traits of the industry across the sourcing process, depth of research, use of operating executives, ability to pivot, and democratization of alternatives. We close by discussing opportunities and risks going forward, and Sachin’s application of his insights to investing at his family office. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial   For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here.    Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership

This WTT: Active Management Today is a Single Decision comes from a few conversations I’ve had recently with CIOs about the underperformance of long only managers who are underweight the magnificent seven. I got me thinking about the ramifications of stock index concentration on active management. Read Ted’s blog here.

After our recent podcast conversation, Matt Breitfelder, Partner and Global Head of Human Capital at Apollo, asked me if he could turn the tables and, in his words, interview the interviewer about interviewing. We did that and added a two-way conversation about public speaking. Our conversation covers my path to the podcast, preparation for interviews, components of what makes it work, and tips for asking good questions. We then turn to public speaking, focusing on the challenges and techniques for moderating panels and presenting in public. And of course, at the end, Matt asks me my closing questions. Please enjoy my distillation of lessons learned from having your ear for six years in this conversation guided by Matt Breitfelder. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Kipp deVeer is a Director and Partner of Ares Management, the $30 billon market cap public company (ARES) that manages $360 billion in assets, including $250 billion in credit. Kipp joined Ares twenty years ago and serves as the Head of Ares Credit Group, CEO of the public BDC Ares Capital Corporation (ARCC), and a member of the Executive Management Committee. Our conversation covers Kipp’s path to Ares, the business and credit markets twenty years ago, and the exponential growth of Ares since. We turn to the firm’s research process across origination and sourcing, underwriting, investment targets, and portfolio construction. We then discuss Kipp’s perspective on the credit environment, opportunities, and risks and close with a look at the future of Ares. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Seth Klarman is a legendary value investor and CEO and Portfolio Manager of The Baupost Group, an investment firm founded in 1982 that manages $27 billion. Seth authored the very out-of-print Margin of Safety and edited the recently released 7th edition of Graham and Dodd’s value investing classic, Security Analysis. Our conversation covers Seth’s early experience in business and investing, path to Baupost, timeless value investing principles and those that have changed over time. We discuss Baupost’s application of value investing across sourcing, diligence, portfolio construction, and risk management. We then turn to Seth’s thoughts illiquidity, international investing, the weird current environment, positioning portfolios for it, alignment with clients, succession at Baupost, and his updated perspectives on Securities Analysis and Margin of Safety. We close discussing Seth’s personal investments in the Boston Red Sox, horse racing, and philanthropy. Seth generally stays away from the public eye, so I was particularly grateful to share this conversation some twenty-five years after we first met. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s sponsored insight features Ravi Viswanathan, Founder and Managing Partner of NewView Capital (NVC), a venture firm that created a disruptive model for strategic secondary investing that blends portfolio acquisitions with direct investing. Our conversation covers Ravi’s path to the venture industry, lessons from fifteen years at NEA, catalyst for creating NVC, and the rationale and opportunity set for venture secondaries. We discuss NewView’s investment process across the sweet spot for portfolio acquisitions, fallacy of discounts, work with portfolio companies, and exit strategy. We close with new opportunities on the horizon and the future of NewView Capital. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

James Aitken is the Founder of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. James has been a repeat guest on the show. Our very first conversation five years ago including his background and process, and the most recent one last year are replayed in the feed. If you search on the podcast page at capitalallocators.com, you can find the rest of his appearances. Our conversation this time around covers the precarious set-up from fiscal and monetary policy. We turn to attractive opportunities arising from it in the U.S. industrial complex, Japan, and the UK, and risks on the horizon from volatility targeting, unprofitable businesses, illiquid exposures, and the absence of governments willing to embrace pain. We close with James’ thoughts on his home country of Australia and, for the first time, how he is making his research more broadly available. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

James Aitken is the Founder of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. He has been a repeat guest on the show, sharing his deep understanding of the inner workings of the financial system. Our first conversation from back in 2018 including his background and process, is replayed in the feed, and the rest of the episodes are available on the website. This time around, our conversation covers James’ perspective on the unfolding situation in Ukraine and its implications on markets. We discuss the shift in risk tolerance, friction in the plumbing of the financial system, interaction of energy markets and ESG, inflation and interest rates, reserve currencies and crypto, and his most important takeaways. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Australian James Aitken is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. James started his career in 1992 as a foreign exchange trader, moved to London in May 1999, and in March 2002 joined the infamous AIG Financial Products team in London. In August 2006 he joined UBS, where he deployed his knowledge of the inner workings of the financial system to help his institutional investor clients successfully navigate their portfolios through 2007 and 2008. At the urging of his clients, James established his own firm in June 2009. Our conversation covers James' perspective on the Global Financial Crisis from his seat at its epicenter, the Eurozone crisis in 2011, subsequent process-driven opportunities in Greece, views on Central Banks in the US, China, & Europe, some brief observations on India, positioning for the current environment, and what makes a great macro manager.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Porter Collins and Vincent Daniel are the founders of Seawolf Capital, their family office managed as an old school hedge fund. Previously, they were two of the three members of Steve Eisman’s team at Frontpoint Capital and found themselves in print and on the silver screen as protagonists in Michael Lewis’ The Big Short. Regulations prevent us from disclosing investment returns almost all the time on the show, but Porter and Vinnie manage only their own money today and are an exception to that rule. In the three full years since they started managing their own capital, the pair is up an extraordinary 9x, coming off a 169% return in 2022. Our conversation covers Porter and Vinnie’s background, the Big Short trade, launch of Seawolf 1.0, short stint at Citadel, and lessons learned along the way and put to work at Seawolf 2.0, their family office. We discuss their contrarian value investment approach, transition from financial sector specialists to generalists, investment themes, and the banking system. We close with their perspective on the hedge fund industry and the future of Seawolf. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

We’re excited to announce a new podcast set to air next week under the Capital Allocators umbrella – Investment Management Operations. Subscribe to Investment Management Operations on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.  This show explores the inner workings of the most sophisticated institutions in the industry. We’ll share conversations with key operating partners who don’t typically get in front of the microphone. In each episode, we’ll profile executives across operations, compliance, legal, finance, and other non-investment roles to better understand how the world’s most sophisticated investment institutions run their businesses. Whether you’re a current operator, an investor looking to start your own fund, or new to the game, this show has nuggets of wisdom for you. You’ll likely notice a new voice as the host of this show. We’ve tapped career operator, Scott MacDonald, to host the new series. You can access Capital Allocators content and join our mailing list at https://capitalallocators.com/.

This Sponsored Insight features Don Mullen. Don is the Founder & CEO of Pretium Partners, a $51 billion specialized investment firm he started in 2012 to focus on the U.S. housing, residential, and corporate credit markets. In a little over a decade, Pretium has rapidly grown to become one of the largest owners of single-family rentals in the country. Prior to founding Pretium, Don spent thirty years on Wall Street, including long stints at First Boston, Bear Stearns, and Goldman Sachs and shorter ones at Salomon Brothers and Drexel Burnham Lambert. Our conversation covers Don’s history on Wall Street, identification of the opportunity in single family rentals, and path to founding of Pretium to capitalize. We discuss the single-family rental market, sourcing and servicing properties, scaling through technology, critiques of single-family rental investments, growing into adjacencies, and aspirations for Pretium in the decade to come. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Matt Breitfelder is a Partner and Global Head of Human Capital at Apollo Global Management, where he focuses on attracting and developing extraordinary talent and creating an innovative, high-performance culture. Matt previously served as Chief Talent Officer and member of the Operating Committee at BlackRock and is the co-author of numerous Harvard Business School case studies on leadership. Our conversation covers Matt’s upbring at the intersection of business and psychology, lessons from high stakes negotiations working for the US Department of Commerce, and path to a career focusing on the intersection of business performance and unlocking human potential. Along the way, we discuss techniques to optimize teams, individuals, and organizations that Matt has employed at Blackrock and Apollo and close discussing how to apply these tools to smaller organizations and to assess human capital in investment firms. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn more about Creditor Coalition's 2023 Allocators Conference. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

"Nothing lasts forever" as the aphorism goes, and such is the case with permanent capital. The quirk in the theoretically sound concept cause some challenges for both managers and allocators. Read Ted’s blog here.

Season 2 of Private Equity Deals concludes with one last name you know – luxury watchmaker Breitling. Ever wonder what happens when only the fourth owner of a 140-year old brand steps into the driver’s seat – or in this case the pilot’s seat?  Hop on over to Private Equity Deals on your podcast player to find out. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Chris Sacca is one of the most accomplished venture investors of the last half century. He founded Lowercase Capital in 2010 and made seed stage investments in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Stripe. Lowercase’s first fund famously became one of the highest returning venture funds in history and landed Chris at #2 on the Midas List in 2017. After retiring together with his wife Crystal that year, they came back to the business to found Lowercarbon Capital to fund “kickass companies that make money slashing carbon emissions.” Lowercarbon manages in excess of $2 billion of outside capital, excluding its largest investor – Chris and Crystal. Our conversation covers Chris’s humble upbringing, early entrepreneurial endeavors, and ups and downs in his early professional years. We cover his transition to Google, foundations of his investing philosophy at Lowercase, and work today at Lowercarbon. Along the way, Chris shares his sourcing of deals, evaluation of founders, and work with portfolio companies. He is a gifted storyteller and a walking case-study on grit. Show Notes 03:51    Early entrepreneurial endeavors 07:17    Ups and downs of early years 17:28    Early days at Google 21:38    Investing philosophy at Lowercase 28:33    Sourcing founders 30:06    Adding value to startups 35:16    Evaluating entrepreneurs 40:28    Retiring from Lowercase 41:58    Founding Lowercarbon 54:10    Investment process 57:23    Future opportunities 1:01:59 Closing questions Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Eric Resnick is the co-founder and CEO of KSL Capital Partners, a private equity firm launched in 2005 that specializes in the travel and leisure industry. KSL seeks to create remarkable destinations that inspire joy and awe. The firm manages $21 billion including investments in Alterra ski resorts, Margaritaville, St. Regis, and many others. Our conversation covers KSL’s beginning as a KKR portfolio company, formation of KSL Capital Partners after a successful exit, and the case for travel and leisure investments. We discuss sourcing targets, consumer experience, operations, competition, capital allocations, opportunities, and risks. We close discussing exit strategies and the future of KSL. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s Sponsored Insight features Jim Falbe. Jim is the founder of Saguaro Capital Management, a newly launched value-oriented investment firm spun out of Vulcan Value Partners that blends traditional value investing with modern AI and data science inputs. Our conversation covers Jim’s path to value investing, experience at Vulcan, introduction of AI automation into the investment process, and founding Saguaro. We discuss sourcing the best businesses in the world, researching investments, making decisions, constructing portfolios, and applying technology tools to value investing. We close discussing the foundation for long-term investing at Saguaro and an investment example. Show Notes 02:42    Path to value investing 14:13    Experience at Vulcan Value Partners 18:55    Integrating AI into the investment process 26:51    Founding Saguaro 32:15    Investment beliefs 33:50    Sourcing 36:17    Researching and evaluating investments 39:40    Portfolio construction 43:50    Risk 44:36    Options strategy 47:45    Applying tech tools to value investing 52:34    Investment example 57:05    Closing questions   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Adam Shapiro is the Managing Partner of East Rock Capital, where he oversees $3 billion on behalf of a handful of families investing primarily in hedge funds and private deals alongside early-stage sponsors. Adam has recently begun sharing his insights on a LinkedIn newsletter entitled “From Star to Founder.” Our conversation covers Adam’s background, his investment objectives for families, and his process for achieving them. We discuss East Rock’s assessment of managers, portfolio construction, and risk management from their carefully selected set of ideas. We close with Adam’s thoughts on family offices and the future of East Rock. Show Notes 04:33    Background 06:48    Goldman Sachs special situations group 12:46    Founding East Rock 17:28    Evaluating emerging managers 26:49    Sourcing managers 27:58    Portfolio construction & risk management 38:17    Managing liquidity 39:28    Family offices 44:02    Alignment 48:07    Future of East Rock 49:55    Closing Questions

Listen to Mavis Tire Express Services on Private Equity Deals. On Private Equity Deals this week, our 7th and penultimate episode of season 2 features the purchase of longstanding independent tire dealer Mavis Tire Express Services by recently launched private equity firm BayPine. Mavis is a great business with steady cash flow, economic resilience, and a great management team that was a widely sought after asset in an auction process. You might imagine that it commanded a full price and the attention of some of the biggest players in private equity. So how did upstart BayPine win the deal and what does it plan to do to make the deal work?  Tune in to Private Equity Deals to find out. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Today’s episode is a true hedge fund master class. We convened a panel of three longstanding investors in the space - Craig Bergstrom, CIO and a Managing Partner of Corbin Capital Partners, Adam Blitz, CEO and CIO of Evanston Capital Management and a past guest on the show, and Dan Fagan, portfolio manager at GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. All three have been in the space the better part of two decades and have both a wealth of experience and nuanced understanding to share. Our conversation covers their respective investment approaches, impact of the higher rate environment, managing liquidity, and the potential for contagion. From there, we canvass perspectives on platform hedge funds, long-short equity, credit, and macro strategies. We close discussing fees, the most interesting opportunities, and places to avoid going forward. Show Notes 04:36    Firm and investment approach overview 11:07    Impact of higher rate environment 14:41    Asset allocation vs. manager selection 17:32    Market liquidity and contagion risk 23:54    LP liquidity 31:35    Platform hedge funds 43:52    Long-short equity 50:44    Credit opportunities 52:54    Macro strategies 57:56    Fees 1:04:29 Best ideas 1:08:22 Risks   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Adam Blitz is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Evanston Capital Management, a $4.5 billion hedge fund of funds manager with a decade and a half of experience managing hedge fund portfolios. Adam joined Evanston at its inception in 2002 and leads investment research and portfolio management. Previously, he worked in the Prime Brokerage area and Asset Management Division of Goldman Sachs and served as head trader at AQR.  Adam earned a B.S. in Economics at the Wharton School. Our conversation dives in the hedge fund category of investing, covering how a leading allocator in the space thinks about strategic asset allocation, portfolio construction, risk management, manager research, decision making, and monitoring managers. Adam’s perspective on the evolution in how allocators perceive hedge funds and the resulting unattractiveness of the “average hedge fund” today resonate strongly with how I’ve viewed this widely discussed and recently scrutinized corner of the markets.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

I share a bunch of questions on my mind for which my best answer is “I Don’t Know.”  These include issues around sovereign debt, asset allocation, an economic slowdown, the stock market, private credit, and life itself.

Today’s sponsored insight is another empty room, an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. This time around, we’ll discuss investing where capital is truly scarce - the frontier of the frontier markets. Kiyan Zandiyeh is the CIO of Sturgeon Capital, a +$300 million private investment firm that backs bold founders building the leading technology companies in countries early into their digital transition, including Bangladesh, Central Asia, Egypt, and Pakistan. Our conversation covers Kiyan’s early entrepreneurial and investing experience, venture and operating experience building two businesses in Iran through 80% currency devaluations, and Sturgeon’s venture strategy from there. We discuss Sturgeon’s investment process across country selection, targets, founders, valuation, risks, and investment examples. We close touching on Kiyan’s ambition in the coming years. Show Notes 02:04    Kiyan’s Background 10:58    Joining Sturgeon 12:40    Operating businesses through 80% currency devaluations 15:19    Investment strategy 18:21    Investment team 19:45    Target companies 24:27    Sourcing deals 25:38    Valuation 26:17    Risks 31:55    Competition 32:49    Investment examples 44:07    Ambitions going forward Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Amy Falls is the CIO at Northwestern University, where she oversees the school’s $14.2 billion endowment that supports university operations and funds about a quarter of the University’s annual revenue. She also serves on the Board of Harvard Management Company, the Ford Foundation, Phillips Academy, and the Pete Peterson Foundation. Our conversation covers Amy’s background and path to Northwestern, frameworks she learned along the way, and different challenges she faced in three different CIO seats.  We then turn to her thoughts on manager selection, liquidity, and across asset classes, covering fixed income, private credit, private equity, public equity, and China. We close with Amy’s insights from her experience working with investment committees and parallels between her passion for farming and investing. Show Notes 03:41    Background 04:41    Early career in international bond markets 12:26    Becoming Andover's first CIO 13:43    Navigating the GFC 19:51    Transition to Rockefeller University 23:13    Asset Allocation 26:57    Transition to Northwestern 28:57    Structuring the investment team 32:45    Selecting and reviewing managers 37:44    Investment frameworks 42:10    Decision-making processes 44:44    Private Credit 45:08    Private Equity 49:34    Public Equity 51:10    China 52:56    Navigating investment committees 54:57    Farming Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Last Thursday, we lost Sam Zell, one of the true investment greats and one of the most popular past guests on the show. As a small tribute to the great man and investor, we are replaying my conversation with Sam from last year. Please enjoy the incredible and entertaining story of Sam Zell, the true contrarian whose common sense generated uncommonly exceptional returns – in dollars and in a life well lived.

It’s executive search…for love. On Episode 6 of Season 2 of Private Equity Deals, Brent Beshore from Permanent Equity describes their purchase of the highest end matchmaking firm in the world. When you think of dating, Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and Match.com come to mind. Or if you’re high profile enough or watch Billions, you might think of Raya. Well alongside the world of app dating, Selective Search has paired up the crème of the crop with an old school approach and 87% success rate for years. Learn about the business and deal by searching for Private Equity Deals on your podcast player.   Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Marc is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global investment firm focused on distressed debt that he founded in 1995 with his sister, Sonia Gardner. Almost thirty years later, Avenue manages $12 billion in assets. Our conversation covers Marc’s background and path to investing, the early days in distressed, inflection points in Avenue’s history, including the decision to return half the capital in 2011 and to sell a minority stake to Morgan Stanley, and owning a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise over the last decade. We then turn to the investment environment, attractiveness across geographic regions, creating a competitive advantage, and opportunities in distressed lending, sports, and Asia. We close discussing Marc’s involvement in politics and lessons from chess and poker. Show Notes 04:51    Mark’s background 08:21    Launching Avenue Capital 09:08    Inflection points 16:29    GFC 21:14    Selling a stake in Avenue 25:05    Important milestones 29:57    Buying and Exiting the Milwaukee Bucks 32:42    Avenue’s path forward 37:34    Deploying capital in different geographies 41:11    Strengths and weaknesses of private credit 42:06    Finding opportunities 48:15    Valuations in sports investing 50:49    Navigating investing in Asia 51:28    Involvement in US politics 52:09    Chess, poker, and investing 53:10    Closing questions   Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Today’s Sponsored Insight is from Richard Craib, the Founder and CEO of Numerai, a machine learning-based hedge fund launched in 2015 that crowdsources models from data scientists around the world to predict stock returns, incentivizes participation through cryptocurrency, and centralizes portfolio construction and risk management.  Our conversation covers Richard’s background, some basics of data science, and the Numerai thesis. We discuss the firm’s idea generation, incentive system, quantitative modeling, portfolio construction, and team. We close with investors’ reaction to the product and research and development on the horizon. Show Notes (1:43) Richard’s background (6:01) Building a machine learning model (8:17) Forming and testing a hypothesis (9:27) Founding Numerai (12:53) Crowd-sourced inputs for models (17:09) Compensation for participants (24:04) Features in models (26:13) Portfolio construction (32:21) Numerai’s team (34:43) Numerai’s competitive advantage (42:18) R&D (44:03) Closing questions Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Tony Yoseloff is the Managing Partner of Davidson Kempner Capital Management, a forty-year-old, $40 billion multi-strategy investment management firm that specializes in opportunistic credit and event-driven investing. Tony joined DK twenty-five years ago out of business school and became its third Managing Partner in 2019. He also sits on the investment committees of Princeton University, Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and New York Public Library. Our conversation covers the early days of Davidson Kempner, growth over the last quarter century, team, investment philosophy, investment strategy, risk management, and ownership. We discuss Tony’s experience on investment committees, the role of opportunistic credit in institutional portfolios, and the future of Davidson Kempner over the next forty years. Show Notes: 03:38    Tony's background 09:06    Davidson Kempner's investment DNA 11:43    Milestones and growth of the business 16:55    International expansion 21:01    Medium duration investing 25:53    Evaluating and adopting new strategies 28:38    Structure of team 32:48    Management philosophy 34:51    Idea generation 41:02    Risk management 45:42    Importance of private partnership 47:53    Successful leadership transition 49:59    Experience on investment committees 53:23    Opportunistic credit in institutional portfolios 55:56    Davidson Kempner's next 40 years 59:08    Closing questions     Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive & Research Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing. Ashby has studied and advised the largest asset owners in the world for more than twenty years with a particular interest in how to improve outcomes for their beneficiaries and the world. Ash also serves as the Head of Research at Addepar, a fintech company that helps investors make smarter decisions. He has twice appeared on the show – as the 29th guest back in 2017 and again two years ago – and those conversations are replayed in the feed.   Our conversation starts with a recent paper Ashby published called Investor Identity: The Ultimate Driver of Returns. We discuss the descriptors of identity and enabling factors that determine each investor’s fingerprint. From there, we dive into technology as an enabler and how technological innovation can improve returns. We then turn to ESG investing and another of Ashby’s recent papers, Submergence = Drawdown + Recovery, that discusses the importance of considering the combined drawdown and recovery period in making investment decisions.   Show Notes:   04:37 - Ashby's recent research 07:42 - Institutional investor identity 10:07 - Best practices 11:35 - People, process and information 14:44 - Future of governance 17:03 - Role of technology in the investment office 21:11 - GPS for portfolios and markets 26:25 - Impact of culture on technology 31:03 - Fueling innovation in investment offices 39:43 - Collaboration 43:26 - ESG 50:53 - Additional research insights 59:00 - Closing questions   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford University Global Projects Center. Ashby was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world. His current research focuses on the design and governance of institutional investors, with specialization on pension and sovereign wealth funds. Ashby’s most recent book, The Technologized Investor, is a practical guide showing how institutional Investors can gain the capabilities for deep innovation by reorienting their strategies and organizations around advanced technology. He also recently released a significant white paper on transparency and innovation for institutional investors for the Biden Administration.   Our conversation follows-up an early podcast, Episode 29, which is replayed in the feed.  This time around, we discuss the power of asset owners, issue of transparency, need for innovation and obstacles to achieving it, how and when to create change, examples of climate work at New Zealand Super, the Australian Super Funds, and Canadian Pension funds, and Ashby’s handful of technology start-ups focusing on these challenges.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford University Global Projects Center. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, a Senior Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California, and the co-founder of Long Game. Ashby advises sovereign wealth funds and large pension funds, and is involved with a bunch of fin tech companies, all of which attempt to create innovative solutions to fixing the financial future for individuals, pensions and countries in the years ahead. Our conversation starts with Ashby’s early work experience and path through academia, and flows into an exploration of next generation, lower cost approaches to active management for large asset owners.  We touch on investing in public equity, private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds using examples from the Canadian and Australian pensions, New Zealand Super Fund, and University of California endowment. Lastly, we discuss Long Game, an innovative company seeking to improve personal savings in the U.S.  Ashby is a passion-driven, creative thinker who rightfully has the ear of some of the most important pools of capital in the world.  His ideas will change the way you think about allocating capital.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

My guest on today’s sponsored insight is Aaron Sack, the head of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s middle market private equity business. Our conversation covers Aaron’s path to Morgan Stanly sixteen years ago, the strengths and weaknesses of investing under the umbrella of the bank, and his team’s investment principles and approach across sourcing, due diligence, deal making, and operational improvements. We close discussing the current market dynamics, competitive positioning, and Aaron’s favorite investment example. Show Notes: 02:41    Aaron's background 06:44    Path to private equity 08:29    Contrarian career advice 12:20    Middle market private equity 13:10    Working within a global institution 16:27    Core investment principles 18:52    Assessing quality of management teams 20:43    Due diligence for deals 22:48    Current market dynamics 24:13    Pricing and financing markets 36:55    Creating a game plan with operating partners 30:14    Favorite deal examples 33:16    Competitive positioning 35:26    Closing questions   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

On today’s show, we’ll discuss a continuing empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. We’ve shared conversations under the theme about investing in Venezuela, Africa, CLO equity, tax assets, and biotech. Among them, biotech is a room that just keeps getting emptier, so I thought it would be fun to pay it another visit.   Rod Wong is the founder and Managing Partner of RTW Investments, a life sciences-focused investment and innovation firm of 80 professionals that manages $6 billion in assets.   I had a chance to drop by Rod’s office in NYC and discuss his background, case for life sciences, investment and business approach, investment process across sourcing ideas, research, probability assessment of binary outcomes, portfolio construction, competition, and outlook.     Show Notes: 03:20 | Background in medicine |   05:16 | Path to biotech investing |   08:13 | Case for life sciences |   10:47 | Innovation in biotech |   12:24 | Founding RTW |   15:33 | Building and managing a multi-functional team 22:23 | Filtering investment opportunities |   27:27 | Assessing science, business and management |   34:51 | Portfoio construction |   39:50 | Market structure in biotech |   44:53 | Competitive environment |   47:59 | Opportunities |   50:24 | Risks |   51:37 | Positioning RTW for the future |   52:57 | Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Listen to Yahoo on Private Equity Deals.  The fifth episode of Season 2 of Private Equity Deals releases today. We discuss Apollo’s purchase of Yahoo a year and a half ago. You heard that right – Apollo bought Yahoo. Yahoo is comprised of legacy Yahoo and AOL businesses, which peaked at a combined market cap of $350 billion in the dot.com heyday. It still hosts 900 million monthly active users and is the 3rd largest internet property. So what did Apollo see as the potential in this longstanding, slowly declining business?  Search for Private Equity Deals on your podcast player to find out.   Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Mario Giannini and John Toomey lead two of the largest private equity fund investors in the world. Mario is the CEO of Hamilton Lane, which manages over $100 billion and supervises another $700 billion in non-discretionary assets, and John is half of the Executive Management Committee of HarbourVest, which also manages in excess of $100 billion in the space. Both are past guests on the show, and we’ve replayed those conversations on the feed. Mario and John joined me to canvass private equity markets. Our conversation covers the health and valuation of underlying portfolio companies, new deals, secondary markets, dry powder, fund raising, portfolio construction, winners and losers, new sources of capital, private credit, co-investments, ESG, China, and geopolitical risks. Show Notes: 03:24    Views on current environment 05:04    Bull case for private equity 06:21    Valuation trends 09:14    Financing markets 12:51    Exits for portfolio companies 15:53    Pace of new deals 18:55    Secondary market activity 22:24    Dry powder 25:49    Fundraising cycles 28:53    Capital allocation decisions 30:29    Portfolio construction 38:35    Winners and losers 43:22    New sources of capital 49:30    Private credit 52:53    Distressed investing and default cycles 55:58    Co-investment activity 57:47    ESG 1:01:40 China 1:08:53 Closing Questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Mario Giannini is the CEO of Hamilton Lane, where he oversees nearly $1 trillion of assets under management and advisement in private capital, making it perhaps the largest investor in private equity in the world. Mario joined Hamilton Lane thirty years ago and has spent the last 21 as its CEO. His breadth of knowledge and experience, alongside at times unconventional views, offers an unparalleled bird’s eye view into this powerful area of investing. Our conversation covers Mario’s background and a brief history of the private equity industry over the last thirty years. We discuss three characteristics of private equity firms that struggle: decision-making, concentration, and greed, and views on private equity firms across turnover, GP/LP relationships, LP Advisory Boards, and the pricing environment. We then turn to Mario’s perspective on constructing private equity portfolios, data analytics, the middle market, continuation funds, LP appetite, and opportunities across sub-categories and geographies. We close with aspects of Hamilton Lane’s evolution across co-investing, customization, going public, ESG, democratization, and the future of the industry.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

My guest on the first episode of Private Equity Masters is John Toomey, one of two members of the Executive Management Committee at HarbourVest Partners. For more than thirty years, HarbourVest has invested across all parts of the private equity spectrum - in funds, secondaries, and direct co-invests. Today, it oversees over $75 billion of assets and canvasses the world.    Our conversation discusses the early days of private equity investing, evolution of strategies across primaries, co-invests, and secondaries, international expansion, best practices of managers, the next wave of growth opportunities, and risks in the space.   John has a unique perch at the top of the industry and offers a wonderful perspective to kick off the mini-series. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Today’s sponsored insight is a special podcast drop from our friends at Thoma Bravo. If you liked the episode with Orlando Bravo on Capital Allocators or Scott Crabill’s discussion of RealPage on Private Equity Deals, Season 1, you’re going to love this. Thoma Bravo has launched a new podcast called Behind the Deal, which takes you behind the scenes of one of the largest software investors in the world. It’s an insider’s view of Private Equity Deals – offering a first-person account from the deal leads and CEOs about the firm’s deals, innovation, and growth of its portfolio companies. This episode discusses SailPoint, an identity management company that led to Thoma Bravo’s first IPO. The business thrived in the public markets, and then Thoma Bravo took it private for a second turn of ownership. If you invest with Thoma Bravo, are looking to invest, or have any inkling to learn about what’s inside their activity, Behind the Deal is a must listen. Head to www.thomabravo.com/behindthedeal for information on the podcast, show notes, and more. You can follow Thoma Bravo at: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thoma-bravo https://twitter.com/thomabravo Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Coach Paul Assaiante is the winningest coach in college sports history. For 30 years until announcing his retirement at the end of this season, Coach led the Trinity College squash program to 17 national championships and 20 finals appearances in the last 25 years, including at one point winning 252 straight matches and 13 straight national titles. In his final season, Trinity’s squash team entered the national championships with the #6 seed and rode an almost fairy tale bookend to Coach’s career to the finals and within a single point of an 18th national title. Paul also coached the USA National Team in squash for 17 years, Trinity’s men’s tennis squad for 24 years, and World Team Tennis with Billie Jean King in its heyday. In 2010, he authored Run to the Roar: Coaching to Overcome Fear, one of my favorite books on sports and leadership. Perhaps what is most fascinating about the soft-spoken Coach is he knew nothing about squash when he got his first coaching job. His true expertise is in managing, motivating, and inspiring a diverse group of players to be the best version of themselves. Our conversation covers Coach Paul’s path and a career’s worth of wisdom about preparation, emotional regulation, managing high performing individuals on a team, diversity, facing fear, learning to win and lose, and applying the lessons to the business world and next generation. Show Notes: (4:18) Early life and discovering sports (7:20) Perseverance and obsession (8:36) Lessons from Coach K and Jack Riley (17:36) Preparation and practice (21:00) Regulating emotions (22:00) The importance of a team in an individual sport (24:53) Diversity as an opportunity and a challenge (31:59) Facing fear in competition (36:10) Changing the face of college squash (39:15) Innovators, Imitators, and Idiots (40:20) Learning to lose (43:34) Adapting a coaching style (46:20) Application to business (51:00) Leading the next generation (56:06) Knowing your purpose   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

The mismanagement of SVB’s balance sheet got me thinking about other times in the past investing through periods when asset prices felt inflated across the board. Institutions strive to meet return hurdles pretty much year-in and year-out, but that’s not how markets work. Playing for Tomorrow discusses one of my favorite long-term investing disciplines – positioning portfolios to play for opportunities yet to come. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Listen to Yellowstone Club on Private Equity Deals The fourth episode of Season 2 of Private Equity Deals drops today on the Private Equity Deals podcast feed. This time around Sam Byrne from CrossHarbor Capital Partners joins me to discuss the Yellowstone Club. The Yellowstone Club is a private ski mountain located in Big Sky, Montana, whose exclusive members reportedly include Bill Gates, Eric Schmidt, Justin Timberlake, and Tom Brady. CrossHarbor bought the Club out of a messy bankruptcy in 2009 and has been developing its real estate and unique experience ever since. Get an inside look at the business behind this exclusive community, by searching for Private Equity Deals on your podcast feed. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Tom Joy is the Chief Investment Officer at the Church Commissioners of England, where he is responsible for the stewardship of the Church of England’s £10.1 billion endowment fund. Our conversation covers Tom’s background, the history and goals of Church Commissioners to achieve sound returns with modest volatility and invest responsibly. We discuss Tom’s four pillars to achieve these objectives across governance, people, genuine diversification, and operations, and dive into team structure, internal management, external manager selection, responsible investing in the environment, diversification in public and private markets, new initiatives, and risks on the horizon. Show Notes: (3;25) Tom’s background (6:55) History of Church Commissioners (7:42) Investment goals (15:03) Governance (19:48) Team Structure (23:39) Internal vs. External management (28:31) Tactical asset allocation (29:36) External manager selection (31:16) Responsible investing (36:08) Divestment vs. engagement (39:45) Socially beneficial investing (40:40) Genuine diversification (43:25) Private equity and venture capital (46:49) Real assets (49:23) Credit markets (50:02) Hedge funds (50:43) New initiatives (51:44) Risks (53:31) Closing questions  Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

My guest on today’s sponsored insight is Andy Lee, the Founder and CIO of Parallaxes Capital. Andy spun out of Lone Star in 2017 to focus on the niche opportunity to invest in Tax Receivable Agreements or TRAs. Our conversation covers Andy’s background and path to the hidden gem of TRAs. We cover the basics of a TRA, rationale for their use, drivers of return, and risks. We then discuss Parallaxes’ investment process, team, the future of the organization. Show Notes: (1:45) Andy’s background (3:25) Starting college at 15 (5:10) Intro to tax receivable agreements (7:29) Creation of TRAs (11:46) Size of the TRA market (13:08) Drivers of returns (17:40) Operational logistics of TRAs (18:37) Sourcing transactions (22:40) Due diligence process (27:03) Exit strategy (31:41) Parallaxes team (32:32) Future opportunity set (33:33) Closing questions   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Adam Rodman is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Segra Capital Management, the largest fund dedicated to investing in nuclear power across public and private markets. Adam founded Segra in 2013 to focus on a concentrated portfolio of contrarian, underfollowed investment ideas. In turn, this led to a dedicated focus on nuclear power. Both Tom Steyer and Bill Orum discussed nuclear power as an essential, although very long-term component of addressing climate needs. Adam’s insights provide an understanding of the thesis as well as nuances in capitalizing on it. Our conversation covers Adam’s early career, path to Segra, and shift in focus to nuclear.  We discuss the fundamental case and market inefficiencies in the industry, supply and demand, the nuclear fuel cycle, safety and waste, and risks to thesis. Show Notes: (3:57)   Background (5:25)   Appeal of contrarian thinking (7:25)   An edge in research (9:56)   Focus on nuclear power (11:45) The case for nuclear (14:21) Nuclear power and energy transition (16:03) Opportunities in the nuclear value chain (17:09) ESG concerns in mining (18:37) Nuclear conversion and enrichment (22:36) Investing in public and private markets (26:09) Safety and reliability of nuclear (27:39) Understanding nuclear waste (31:35) Bringing capital to nuclear (33:19) An investment strategy for nuclear (35:00) Assessing company management (36:38) Counterpoints to the nuclear thesis (39:28) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Since I wrote Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain three weeks ago, we certainly hit a big one. I had a chance to take a step back and draw from my experience working at Yale for some parallels. Suffice it to say David Swensen didn't play the game like SVB did, but I think I know how he would've been spending his time to prepare for what comes next. Read Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain, Part 2   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

This sponsored insight features David Abrams, Founding Partner of Velocity Capital Management. Velocity is a newly formed firm that focuses on investing with founders to build best-in-class sports, media, and entertainment companies. Our conversation covers David’s background, long experience in distressed investing on Wall Street and at Apollo, and personal investments in sports-related businesses that led to serving at CIO of Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment. We then turn to the formation of Velocity, the firm’s focus, deal sourcing, diligence process, value-added ownership, and example of its investment in the X-Games. Show Notes: (01:31) Wall Street in the late 1980s (02:57) David’s background (08:41) Investing in European distressed at Credit Suisse (14:41) Building a business inside Apollo (17:41) Operating experience and lessons learned (25:23) Joining HBSE (28:27) Formation of Velocity (30:13) Velocity’s focus (32:59) Opportunity set in sports ecosystem (34:22) Sourcing deals (37:22) Due diligence process (40:15) Value added ownership (41:38) X-Games investment example (46:24) Team and advisors (48:25) Capital raising environment (49:50) Closing questions   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Colin Campbell is a Partner at Bain Capital and co-head of the Partnership Strategies team that manages assets primarily for Bain Capital’s partners in strategies that diversify away from the equity-orientation of the firm’s core. In its search for attractive, uncorrelated assets, the Partnership Strategies team became an early mover in environmental markets. Both Tom Steyer and Bill Orum cited carbon credits and offsets as a necessary and important near-term component to effect climate transition. Colin’s deep engagement in the space provides a wonderful primer for those interested. Our conversation dives into Colin’s background and investment approach that led to the discovery of the opportunity in environmental markets. We then turn to his investment thesis, sourcing, description and nuance of compliance and voluntary markets, and implementation. Show Notes (6:05) Colin’s background (8:50) A blank slate at Bain Capital (11:34) Leveraging research in the allocator seat (13:30) Strategies to achieve diversification (16:27) Investment opportunities in environmental markets (19:47) Compliance and voluntary markets (23:38) Measuring emissions for carbon permits (28:09) Investment instruments in compliance markets (29:26) Size of compliance markets (30:41) Correlation with other asset classes (32:59) Withstanding short-term volatility (37:00) Inner workings of voluntary markets (40:36) Decentralization within voluntary markets (44:34) Risk and return characteristics (50:40) Portfolio construction (53:39) Operational requirements for participation (55:09) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Listen to TaylorMade on Private Equity Deals It’s almost golf season, and what better way to get mentally prepared for the game than listening to the turnaround story of TaylorMade.  Episode 3 of Season 2 of Private Equity Deals released this morning, in which David Shapiro from KPS discusses the firm’s investment from a colorful history, broken process, and laundry list of repairs. Subscribe to Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast player to hear the story of the third name you know in Season 2. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Bill Orum is a Partner at Capricorn Investment Group, one of the largest and longest standing mission-aligned investment organizations. Capricorn oversees $9 billion across three distinct but related investment strategies - an OCIO serving families and foundations, a seeding business that backs impact asset managers, and the Technology Impact Fund, a venture capital fund focused on clean technology and climate solutions. Bill joined Capricorn twenty years ago in the firm’s infancy with the mission to deliver extraordinary investment results by leveraging market forces to scale solutions to global problems with a focus on the climate. Our conversation covers the establishment of an investment program to match the Capricorn’s mission, universe of available investment opportunities to address climate solutions, and Capricorn’s strategy to implement.  We discuss seeding new funds, venture capital, emerging markets, public markets, current opportunities, and the potential for a long-term solution for the world. Show Notes: (6:16) Bill’s background (8:25) Climate focus at Capricorn (14:50) Broad landscape of climate solutions (18:44) High impact levers (21:59) Capricorn’s hybrid approach (26:20) Diligence for new managers (28:26) Backing managers with scale (31:23) Climate solutions in emerging markets (33:19) Social challenges in climate change (37:16) Measuring climate risk (40:59) Economic returns and reducing emissions (43:55) Lessons from investing in climate solutions (45:35) Complications with ESG assets (48:25) Factors affecting fund flows (51:11) Optimism for the future (53:21) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Tom Steyer is the founder and former head of Farallon Capital Management, climate activist, candidate for President of the United States in 2020, and most recently, co-founder of Galvanize Climate Solutions, a mission driven investment platform addressing urgent climate solutions. Our conversation covers Tom’s early career and founding of Farallon in 1986. We discuss his original strategy, history, and succession to new leaders at the firm. We then turn to Tom’s retirement from Farallon, work on the environment, and Presidential run. From there, we dive into Tom’s return to the investment business at Galvanize, covering his investment thesis, strategies to deploy, and creation of another investment organization today. All the way through, Tom shares a lifetime’s worth of investing and business wisdom. Show Notes: (6:19) Tom’s background (11:56) Stories from Goldman Sachs (13:47) Founding Farallon Capital (19:50) Lessons from building teams (23:04) Succession planning (27:31) Climate activism post-Farallon (32:44) Running for POTUS (37:38) Investing in climate solutions (49:02) Investment strategy at Galvanize (1:00:02) Building a new company (1:04:11) Competition (1:05:56) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Listen to Blue Triton Brands on Private Equity Deals.  On the second episode of season 2 of Private Equity Deals, Scott Spielvogel from One Rock Capital discusses their carveout of Blue Triton Brands, a business that formerly comprised Nestle Water North America. Its brands collectively have the top market share in North American bottled water and include Poland Spring, Deer Park, Arrowhead, Pure Life, Origin, and a host of others. Are you ever curious about the ownership and industry around the bottled water you drink all the time? Search for Private Equity Deals on your podcast feed and subscribe to learn more about bottled water and other names you know in season two. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Beezer Clarkson, Chris Douvos, and Joelle Kayden are three of the most respected investors in venture capital funds, manning their forts at Sapphire Ventures, Ahoy Capital, and Accolade Partners, respectively. Each is a past guest on the show and we’re replayed those conversations in the feed. In a far more challenging environment after last year’s public market growth selloff and tightening of purse strings in private markets, we convened to discuss the state of the venture capital industry. Our conversation covers what got us here, re-up and new fund decisions facing allocators, challenges for venture capitalists and their portfolio companies, funding discipline across stages, dry powder, tourists exiting the game, and valuations. We discuss the potential winners and losers coming out of this trough and close with exciting opportunities and a current perspective on the blockchain. Show Notes: (4:47) Perspectives on last few years (7:02) Deploying capital in a frothy market (16:03) Handling re-ups and new fund investments (18:04) Making allocation decisions (23:43) Advice for managers (27:20) Dry powder on the sidelines (29:29) Valuations (34:03) Down rounds (36:22) Tourists (40:04) Scale players (43:33) Winners and losers (46:28) Industries garnering excitement (49:58) Crypto and blockchain (54:22) Venture expressions and cliches  Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

My guest on the 7th episode of Venture is Eating the Investment World is Joelle Kayden, the Founder and Managing Partner of Accolade Partners, a $3.6 billion venture fund of funds that invests across early stage, growth, blockchain, and empowerment strategies and one of the most respected firms in the business. Our conversation covers Joelle’s nearly two decades in technology investment banking, the launch of Accolade into the dot.com bubble, and its evolution over twenty years. We then discuss her perspectives on the four ways to win in venture capital, assessing culture, adding value as an LP, portfolio construction, re-upping decisions, and investing in the current environment. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures where she is responsible for the management of Sapphire’s fund investments in early stage venture funds globally.  Her career through direct and fund investing has left her with unusually deep knowledge and insights in the space. Our conversation starts with Beezer’s meandering career and turns to her work at Sapphire, including its structure and unique relationship with SAP, Series A investing, winnowing through a massive funnel of fund opportunities, the due diligence process and re-underwriting process, implications of companies staying private longer, and #OpenLP, a public forum to hear the voice of VC LPs that Beezer created with past podcast guest Chris Douvos.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Chris Douvos is Managing Director at Venture Investment Associates, a fund that invests $1B in commitments to venture capital funds. Chris is responsible for the management of relationships with the funds’ managers and the identification and development of new manager relationships. He is the author of an entertaining blog about venture capital entitled SuperLP – Adventures in Investing, available at SuperLP.com. Prior to joining VIA, Chris spent seven years co-heading the private equity program at The Investment Fund For Foundations, or TIFF. In this role, he was responsible for another $1 billion in new capital commitments. Before joining TIFF, Chris worked on Princeton University’s endowment team. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Management. Our conversation starts with Chris’ path to venture capital, through strategy consulting, investment banking and an endowment investment office. We talk about perception and reality in venture investing, exciting areas of future innovation, and the nuts and bolts of research, portfolio construction and decision making when running a portfolio of venture funds. When Chris pulls off his suit, the red undershirt of the Super LP remains. He’s a charismatic guy with great insight into how the venture capital game is played and draws many parallels from venture to investing in general. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Dan Ivascyn is the Group-CIO of PIMCO, the legendary bond shop with nearly $2 trillion in assets under management. Dan arrived at PIMCO 25 years ago and assumed the Group-CIO seat in 2014, where he leads portfolio management for the firm’s income strategies, credit hedge fund, and mortgage opportunistic strategies. Today’s guest host is Ana Marshall the CIO of the $13 billion Hewlett Foundation and a repeat guest on the show. Ana has a longstanding relationship with Dan and PIMCO and leads us on a tour of the state of the fixed income markets and the role of the asset class in institutional portfolios. Show notes: (4:36) Dan’s background (7:31) Lessons from early days (10:50) Taking the helm at PIMCO (14:01) The hallmarks of PIMCO culture (16:54) Trust within partnerships (18:58) Risk taking and probability positioning (21:24) Opportunity set and rate markets (24:32) Trading amidst fixed income volatility (29:39) Illiquidity premium for private credit (31:35) Staying flexible in fixed income (36:02) Looking for signs of safety (40:05) Challenges for CIOs (43:04) Closing questions Investment products contain risk and may lose value. There is no guarantee that an investment product will be successful in achieving its objectives. Investors should consult their investment professional prior to making an investment decision. This podcast is brought to you by Capital Allocators. This commentary contains the opinions of the speakers and not necessarily those of PIMCO and such opinions are subject to change without notice. This recording may include discussions of investment strategies. These discussions are for illustrative purposes only and may not be appropriate for all investors. The discussions are not based on any particularized financial situation, or need, and are not intended to be, and should not be construed as, a forecast, research, investment advice or a recommendation for any specific PIMCO or other strategy, product or service. Individuals should consult with their own financial advisors to determine the most appropriate allocations for their financial situation, including their investment objectives, time frame, risk tolerance, savings and other investments.

Season 2 of PE Deals starts this week with Fenway Sports Group. On Season 1, we shared stories of eight recent deals conducted by some of the premier private equity firms. The show already has received accolades as the #1 must-listen podcast for private equity dealmakers. In season 2, we’re shifting from sponsors you know to companies you know. Our first episode releases today. It’s a discussion of Fenway Sports Group with Arctos founder Ian Charles and FSG’s President & CEO, Sam Kennedy. FSG is a holding company that includes ownership stakes in the Boston Red Sox, Liverpool Football Club, Pittsburgh Penguins, and a host of related real estate and media assets. Subscribe to Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast player to listen in. Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

José E. Feliciano is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Clearlake Capital Group. Clearlake manages $75 billion in assets in a flexible strategy across private equity, credit, and special situations in the technology, industrial, and consumer sectors. Our conversation covers José's background, operational experience, and launch of Clearlake in 2006 to pursue a flexible strategy. We turn to the challenges and drawbacks of Clearlake's flexible investment approach, its investment process, ownership model, and trajectory growing from $3 billion in assets after ten years in business to $75 billion six years later. We close by discussing capital transactions for GPs, continuation funds, current opportunity set, Clearlake's investment in Chelsea Football Club, and permanent capital structures.   Show Notes: (4:41) Jose’s Background (7:25) Investment banking to the startup world (9:03) Surviving the dotcom bubble (10:52) Lessons from failure (18:32) Specializing as a generalist (21:15) Broad strategies and raising capital (26:38) Sourcing ideas (28:47) Investment committee dialogue (34:26) Inflection point in growth story (40:55) Working with seed investors (47:17) Continuation funds (51:01) Current market environment (53:31) Investing in Chelsea FC (59:00) Innovations in fund and business structure (1:00:15) Closing Questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Today’s show is a sponsored insight from AgAmerica, the largest independent agricultural loan lender and servicer in the US. I sat down with President and CEO, Brian Philpot. Brian invested for twenty-four years in timberland, agricultural, and real estate before turning to a sole focus on farmers. AgAmerica helps farmers thrive in good times and sleep well in tough times, having originated $2 billion of loans in the past two years. Our conversation covers Brian's background and path to focusing on the farmer. We discuss the opportunity set in farm lending and investing, inefficiencies in the market, and AgAmerica's investment process across sourcing, diligence, structuring, operations, and risk. We close discussing the future of farming and AgAmerica's business to support the farmers making it happen Show Notes: (1:40) Brian’s background (4:25) Timber as a financial asset (7:36) Financing farmers (11:05) AgAmerica today (12:04) Sourcing opportunities in agriculture (14:39) Unit economics of a farm (18:51) Essential deal terms (22:27) Farm expansion and achieving efficiency (26:14) Operational risks and performance (28:18) Liquidity in agricultural lending markets (31:55) Demographic challenges in the farmer community (35:21) AgAmerica’s future (36:27) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Marshall Boyd is the Co-President and CIO at Interstate Equities Corporation, a real estate investment firm that manages $1 billion focusing exclusively on multi-family apartments on the California coast. IEC is one of those little-known gems for those in the know. It's an endowment darling with just a dozen or so of the most elite LPs in the business exploiting an attractive, little corner of the investment world. Our conversation covers Marshall's path to IEC and steps to turn a family boutique into an institutional business. We discuss firm's investment thesis, sourcing, due diligence, deal dynamics, value-added operations, and exit strategy. We close covering risks to the strategies and lessons learned along the way. Show Notes: (4:22) Marshall’s background (8:55) Joining the family business (9:53) Playbook for first properties (12:07) Raising capital post-GFC (14:31) IEC’s big break (16:02) Top of funnel investment process (17:59) Buying properties in select cities (21:37) Underwriting as a small team (24:49) Negotiation and winning a deal (25:42) Making improvement post-close (29:02) On-time and on-budget renovations (31:33) Selling sooner rather than later (36:42) Finding scale in a single market (39:29) Managing contractors, tenants, and teams (41:07) Leadership lessons (41:57) Working alongside a sibling (43:27) Rates, recessions, and risk environment (45:03) Inflation’s impact on tenants (46:02) Next cycle for IEC (47:10) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

John-Austin Saviano is the founder of High Country Advisors, where he serves as a strategic advisor to both investment firms and the institutional pools of capital that back them. Before starting High Country in 2017, John-Austin served as an allocator for nearly two decades at the Moore Foundation, Cambridge Associates, and as the first CIO of UC-Berkeley's Endowment. Our conversation covers John-Austin's career path from direct investing to allocation and insights gleaned across his roles. We then turn to his work at High Country, including lessons he shares with emerging managers to help tell their story and navigate a difficult fund-raising environment and those he shares with allocators about governance and investment committees. Show Notes: (5:13) Background  (5:59) Direct investing in credit and venture (7:00) Moving to the Moore Foundation (13:56) A unique opportunity at Berkeley (15:32) Implementing best practices (24:16) Emerging managers (28:35) Finding alignment and success (31:53) Approaching a difficult environment (34:22) Common misunderstanding between GPs and LPs (35:28) Insights from the CIO seat (38:02) Governance challenges (41:14) Importance of investment committee chairs (44:48) Changing approach for the future (47:11) Exciting possibilities at High Country (47:44) Closing questions  Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Shundrawn Thomas is the Founder and Managing Partner of Copia Group, a new private investment firm that provides capital solutions to lower middle market companies and drives social impact. Shundrawn was a past guest on the show while in his prior seat as President of Northern Trust Asset Management, a leading global investment manager with over $1.3 trillion in assets. That conversation is replayed in the feed. This time around we pick up with Shundrawn's decision to leave Northern Trust, his mission at Copia, and transition from public company executive to budding entrepreneur. We discuss his plans for Copia across investment strategy, team building, capital raising, investment process, and social impact. We close with Shundrawn's vision for the next five years in his new venture.   Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial   (5:00) Leaving Northern Trust (8:50) Open letters to corporate America (11:53) Calling as an entrepreneur (13:45) Beyond buzzwords in impact investing (16:44) Shared values as an organization (20:04) Copia’s focus within asset management (22:18) Specializing in middle market private equity (23:49) A strategic offering to investors (26:17) Building a team from scratch (28:29) Launching and raising capital (30:37) Best practices in the investment process (32:54) Narrowing the opportunity set (35:58) Measuring social impact (37:21) Assessing management teams (39:57) Investment decisions and meetings (41:16) Principles to protect the partnership (45:20) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Shundrawn Thomas, President of Northern Trust Asset Management, where he oversees the $900 billion organization. Shundrawn joined Northern Trust Corporation in 2004 and rose to the leadership team in 2008. Over the last 8 years, he has hired and promoted much of Northern Trust Asset Management’s executive team, whose fifteen members include nine women and minorities. Shundrawn is deeply involved in diversity efforts across the industry and was named one of this year’s Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and previously one of the Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street. Our conversation covers Shundrawn’s early career and issues of race, the culture that drew him into to Northern Trust, and examples of unconscious bias. We turns to his values-based methodology to foster change across recruiting, mentorship, promotion, leadership and performance at Northern Trust, and we close with his perception of how the renewed interest in diversity provides an opportunity for businesses to take action. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Anthony Scaramucci is the Founder and Managing Partner of Skybridge Capital and the SALT conference, and for a brief period in 2017, the White House Communications Director. Anthony and I were scheduled to record a conversation the Friday morning he was named to the White House. That clearly didn’t happen, but we circled back a few months after his return to Skybridge, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Since then, he invested some of Skybridge’s assets in crypto and last August sold a piece of Skybridge to the now infamous Sam Bankman-Fried. Our conversation this time around covers Anthony’s deals in the asset management space, his thematic investment in crypto, and unfortunate relationship with SBF. Along the way, we discuss entrepreneurship, risk taking, maintaining conviction in a downturn, changing your mind, and resilience – an attribute he demonstrates time and time again. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Show Notes: (5:02)   Deal making (7:58)   Price and fairness (10:59) Cryptocurrency and thematic conviction (19:39) Position sizing and opportunity cost (22:12) Getting to know SBF and FTX (36:40) A changing risk/reward environment (40:07) Steel-manning crypto’s future (47:52) Surviving downturns as a crypto investor (50:57) Life beyond Skybridge and crypto (54:02) Closing questions   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

The name Anthony Scaramucci currently has 55% name recognition in the U.S. according to Politico. Anthony has been an entrepreneur in the hedge fund industry for 23 years, growing to prominence within the industry through his oversight of fund of funds Skybridge Capital, creation of the popular SALT conference, regular television appearances, and rejuvenation of the iconic television show Wall Street Week.  He grew to prominence worldwide when his longtime political interests led to a brief tenure as White House Communications Director in 2017. Our conversation starts off with a bang and turns to the ups and downs in Anthony’s career, including getting fired and rehired at Goldman Sachs, starting and selling his first hedge fund, creating Skybridge and watching it almost fail, and thriving after the financial crisis. We discuss Anthony's thoughts on hedge funds, lessons from his stint in Washington, and books he has written about his experiences. Along the way, he shares life lessons about managing people, building relationships, resiliency, laughing at yourself, greed, ego, and fame. Anyone who has only known Anthony from his recent public profile might be surprised to hear the depth of his insight, self-effacing honesty and caring of others, alongside his irrepressible salesmanship. Those who have known him longer will recognize the same Mooch as always in all his splendor.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership    Show Notes 2:48 – Anthony’s professional history 8:03 – Time at Oscar Capital/Neuberger Berman 9:25 – Neuberger sells to Lehman 10:13 – Leaving Lehman to start Skybridge 13:13 – Getting through the financial crisis 14:04 – Launching SALT conference 15:35 – Buying Citigroup's fund of funds business 17:34 – Anthony’s approach to the hedge fund business 20:28 – How he handles the relationships with managers 22:15 – Environment for the hedge fund space             24:12 – After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead 26:02 – Hedge fund space moving forward 28:03 – What he learned from being fired 31:22 – Handling public adversity 32:40 – Selling the business to serve the country 35:35 – Life lessons learned throughout his career and shared in his books             35:40 – Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul             38:40 – The Little Book of Hedge Funds             38:44 – Hopping over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure into Success 39:20 – The key principles that Anthony tries to impart on his team 41:47 – Lessons in launching a hedge fund business 45:00 – What changed upon his return to Skybridge 46:33 – How does it feel to be famous 48:10 – Closing questions             56:06– The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947

In a new feature on the podcast, we will share an audio version of Ted’s blog, called What Ted’s Thinking (or WTT). His latest discusses frauds and why you're not likely to detect the next one.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Gregg Lemkau is the CEO of MSD Partners, the investment firm with roots as Michael Dell's family office. MSD was formed in 1998 to manage $400 million of Michael's capital. In the ensuing twenty-five years, that initial $400 million has grown to north of $20 billion. Gregg joined MSD two years ago after a twenty-eight-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he rose to Co-Head of Investment Banking, served on the Firm's Management Committee, and was widely considered one of a few candidates to succeed David Solomon as Goldman's CEO. Our conversation covers Gregg's career path at Goldman and lessons learned, including entertaining stories about his work with such fascinating entrepreneurs as Elon Musk and Travis Kalanick. We discuss his decision to join MSD, the firm's history, objectives, competitive advantages, and investment capabilities. We then turn to MSD's recently announced merger with BDT Partners, including the rationale, process, and integration of the businesses. We close with a look into the future of the transformed organization. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Show Notes: (4:29)   Career path at Goldman Sachs (11:41) Investment banking in London (13:09) Working with Elon Musk (16:41) Role in “The Battle for Uber” (18:57) Navigating politics in the workplace (20:52) Learning from David Solomon (22:08) Leaving Goldman Sachs (25:08) 10 reasons to join MSD (25:49) History of MSD (26:53) An investment DNA at MSD (28:48) A world-class investment organization (30:06) Compensation at a family office (31:24) Competitive advantage (34:19) Tech expertise and strategy (36:16) Investing in public markets (38:30) Merger with BDT (41:58) Investing to support withdrawal of capital (43:07) Being a co-CEO again (47:49) Merging in a remote environment (50:45) A 5-year business plan (52:08) Closing questions Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Neal Foard is a twenty-five-year advertising and marketing executive who specializes in the art of storytelling. Neal has ranked among the top ten most awarded creative directors in the world. He has served as the Worldwide Director of Creative Learning at Saatchi & Saatchi and developed award-winning campaigns for Budweiser, Lexus, and Sony. Most recently, Neal coaches C-Suite executives, is CMO for Within Inc., and has built a following on social media (and his website passionatelogic.com for his brief inspirational videos about the kindness of everyday people. Neal launches into our conversation with one of his stories about kindness and then breaks down its components. We turn to the process of telling a story, including preparation, the arc of a story, and audience engagement. Neal shares tips he gives executives for presenting to small and large groups, improving on video, practicing, and working with nervous anxiety. We close with another of Neal's fun stories, this time leaving out the breakdown to apply what you learn. I hope Neal's gems help you improve the stories we deliver and listen to every day in our personal and professional lives. Show Notes: (4:01)   The best bartender in Chicago (7:07)   Components of an engaging story (9:53)   Background in advertising (11:51) Storytelling in the C-suite and life (15:00) Preparation and research (18:19) Arc of a compelling story (25:34) Favorite tips to improve storytelling (27:52) Authenticity and sincerity (30:07) Presenting to small groups (31:57) Managing nervous energy  (37:39) Nature v. nurture in presenting (39:05) Recommendations for practice (40:35) New findings from coaching (42:05) Finishing a story or presentation (43:20) Incorporating a pitch (45:28) Armstrong on the moon (50:21) Closing questions  Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

This week, we’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2022. Without further ado, the number 1 show of 2022 is Sam Zell – Common Sense and Uncommon Profits. Sam is the chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm he founded more than 50 years ago. Sam has a storied track record of turning around troubled companies and assets, leading industry consolidations, and bringing companies to the public markets. His current investments canvass logistics, health care, manufacturing, energy, and real estate. Sam was recognized five years ago by Forbes as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds, and he’s still going strong. Our conversation covers Sam’s childhood background, early entrepreneurial efforts, formation of his investment strategy, and comfort being a contrarian. We then turn to Sam’s thoughts on team development, evaluating people, real estate, generational businesses, emerging markets, and opportunities for the future. Thanks so much for tuning in this year.  Here’s to a very happy and healthy New Year.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

This week, we’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2022. Coming in at number 2 is Todd Boehly – The Next Berkshire Hathaway. Todd is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Eldridge, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital holding company with investments in eighty businesses, including high profile brands like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dick Clark Productions, and The Hollywood Reporter, and an array of companies across other industries, including media, insurance, real estate, asset management, and technology. Combining its structure and Todd’s acumen, CNBC recently postured that Eldridge may be the next Berkshire Hathaway. Our conversation covers Todd’s early beginnings in structured credit, growing an asset management business at Guggenheim, and the formation of Eldridge. We then turn to his investment strategy and investments in asset management, media, gaming, and technology. Along the way, we discuss Todd’s thoughts on sourcing, negotiation, structure, management, capital allocation, and the future of Eldridge.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

This week, we’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2022. Weighing in at number 3 is Paul Enright - Inside Long Short investing. Paul is a private investor managing his own capital under single-family office, Krainos Capital. Paul opened Krainos after a dozen years at Viking Global Investors, the multi-billion dollar long-short equity hedge fund that also has been one of the most successful breeding grounds for talent in the industry. He has a deep understanding of intricacies of long-short equity investing and a knack for explaining it well. Our conversation covers Paul’s career path to Viking, training while there, and advice to early-career investors. We dive into the distinction between business analysis and stock picking, and the importance of portfolio management to investment success. In the process, we discuss liquidity, shorting, portfolio rebalancing, incentive compensation, and market structure. We close with Paul’s approach to managing his own money and his answers to a terrific set of questions sourced from his Twitter feed before the show.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

This week, we’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2022. Coming in at number 4 is Rob Citrone - Emerging Markets, hedge funds, and staying in the game. Rob is the Founder of Discovery Capital Management, a $2 billion global hedge fund investing across equities, fixed income, currencies, and rates with a focus on emerging markets. Rob is one of the longest-standing managers in the space and the largest investor in his fund. He trained under Julian Robertson in the heyday of Tiger Management in the mid-90s before launching Discovery in 1999. Since then, the firm grew to a peak of $15 billion in assets and despite the subsequent reduction in AUM, he and his team of 42 are still going strong. Our conversation dives into Rob’s background, lessons he learned from Fidelity, Julian Robertson, and George Soros, and the launch of Discovery. We discuss his investment strategy, research process, perspective on markets around the world, ups and downs in the business, and managing an organization through change. Rob doesn’t often share his insights in the public forum, so it was a real treat to get inside the mind of one of the best in the business. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

It's that time of year where I share my annual letter and a rundown of the top episodes of 2022. We’re adding a little drama to the results this year by counting down the top 5 each day this week. Coming in at number 5 is Annie Duke - The Power of Quitting, episode 273. You likely noticed that we’ve replayed the episode in the feed. Tune in tomorrow to find out which next episode you heard more than any other from last Thanksgiving to this one. With that, please enjoy my annual letter to you, describing our business, performance this year, and the year ahead. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Annie Duke is a former professional poker player, decision making expert, best-selling author, and fortunately, a repeat guest on the show. Our first conversation about Annie’s background and best-seller Thinking in Bets is replayed on the feed. Her latest masterpiece releases tomorrow. It’s called Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, and I’m going on record predicting it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation covers Annie’s compulsion to write another book, our instinct for grit, the case for quitting, the emotional and cognitive biases that stand in our way, and some techniques to improve our ability to quit effectively. Along the way, Annie shares some terrific stories from the book about Everest, Sears, the NBA draft, and the California bullet train.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

The final episode of Season One of Private Equity Deals released this morning. I’m joined by Ravi Sachdev and Ron Williams from CD&R. Ravi is a specialist dealmaker in the healthcare space and Ron is an Operating Partner who is the former CEO of Aetna. We discuss agilon health, a company they created out of a concept to build a win-win for health care providers, payers, and Medicare patients. It contains aspects of a venture concept, buyout, and growth equity investing all wrapped into one. We’ve heard from some listeners that you can’t hear more than this minute of the Private Equity Deals episodes on this feed, and that’s correct.  We’ve experimented with releasing PE Deals on a completely separate podcast feed, so you’ll have to search and subscribe separately to listen to all of Season One.  Our apologies for any confusion and stay turned as we decide where we’ll release Season Two next year. Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Ana Marshall is the CIO for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she oversees a $13 billion pool of capital. Ana joined Hewlett eighteen years ago after spending the same amount of time as a direct investor. She was a past guest in 2019 describing her approach, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. We caught up to discuss what is on Ana's mind going into the new year. We cover inflation, private equity secondaries, liquidity management, China, emerging markets, and ESG. We close discussing where Ana is looking around corners, what's filling her basket of worries, and her plan for the next five years. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Ana Marshall is the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she oversees a $10.5 billion pool of capital. Ana joined Hewlett in 2004 after spending eighteen years as a direct investor in high yield credit, emerging market debt, and international equities. Our conversation covers Ana’s lifelong passion for investing, joining the “super buy side,” conducting company meetings to inform the manager selection and allocation process, portfolio structure, manager selection, monitoring and measuring risk, perspectives on peers, internal dynamics, and working through a big mistake. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Today's sponsor insight is from MFS, the $528 billion asset managers founded in 1924 and credited with creating the first ever mutual fund. Carol Geremia is the President and Head of Global Distribution, where she oversees the firm's worldwide client facing efforts and helps drive MFS' long-term corporate strategy. In her 37 years at MFS, Carol has served as the Co-Head of Global Distribution, President of the firm's Institutional Business, and President of MFS Retirement Services. Our conversation covers Carol's early years at MFS, path to her current role, the firm's 100-year history, and its culture. We dive into the firm's research process, team structure, and strategic evolution, and then then turn to what Carol is hearing from investors, opportunities and risks, ESG, and driving change in the industry. Learn more about MFS Investment Management Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Charley Ellis is an investment luminary, founder of Greenwich Associates, author of seventeen investment books, longtime member of Yale's Investment Committee, and regular guest on the show. At the tender age of 85, Charley has published two books this year: Figuring It Out, an annotated compilation of some of his best investment writing over fifty years, and Inside Vanguard, a history of the index juggernaut. We sat down to discuss both of his latest works. Our conversation covers common characteristics of the best professional services firms and selections from Figuring It Out and Inside Vanguard. From Figuring It Out, we discuss the challenges of professional investment management, investment committees, and analogies to investing from tennis, baseball, golf, and running. From Inside Vanguard, we cover the rocky early days of Bogle's folly, the firm's on again/off again relationship with Wellington, its growth under Jack Brennan, compensation model, recent initiatives, and future prospects. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of sixteen investment books, and now a three-time guest on the show. The bookends of his published library - his seminal book, Investment Policy, and most recent work, The Index Revolution, discuss the case for indexing for most investors. Yet one of Charley’s most longstanding and passionate engagements proved the exception to the rule – his decade and a half of service on Yale University’s Investment Committee, including nine years as Chair. Charley and I first met about twenty-five years ago in that capacity, and he’s occupied a front row seat to Yale’s success ever since.   With the recent passing of David Swensen, we decided to sit down and reminisce about David in a conversational tribute to the investor, man, and leader we both so greatly admired. We discuss Yale’s Investment Committee, roster of managers, investment team, and the unique aspects that made David great. We also touch on Charley’s latest book, the 8th edition of his seminal classic.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Charley Ellis is one of the most highly regarded experts in the investment business.  After spending nearly a decade as an equity research analyst in the 1960s, Charley founded financial services consulting firm Greenwich Associates in 1972 to help institutions understand what their clients think of them.  Over 50 years, Charley has worked hand in hand with nearly every major financial institution in the world and has published sixteen books on investing, including his most recent “The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now.” Charley is not just another preacher for index fund investing. He extols the virtues of indexing after having looked both broadly and deeply under the covers of some of the most successful active managers in the world. Our conversation begins with a glimpse at what equity research and the structure of the markets looked like in the 1960s and the monumentally different way research is conducted and markets function today. Charley describes elegantly why indexing is a winner’s game for many, and then walks through very special and rare qualities of three of the most successful active managers over the last few decades – Vanguard, Capital Group, and Yale University. Charley is a brilliant communicator and masterful storyteller. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoyed the conversation.  Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

The seventh episode of Season One of Private Equity Deals released this morning. I'm joined by Tricia Glynn, Managing Director at Advent International. We discuss their purchase of Orveon, a carve out of Shiseido comprised of three beauty brands. The transaction highlights the many moving parts of carveouts, a transaction Advent has completed 80 times over the years. Tune in to Private Equity Deals to hear the story. Listen to Advent on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Sachin Khajuria is a former partner at Apollo and twenty-five-year veteran of private equity who recently authored “Two and Twenty,” a fantastic insider’s account of the private equity industry. Our conversation covers Sachin’s rationale for writing Two and Twenty, the strengths of private equity, areas for improvement, and needs for change. We discuss the defining traits of the industry across the sourcing process, depth of research, use of operating executives, ability to pivot, and democratization of alternatives. We close by discussing opportunities and risks going forward, and Sachin’s application of his insights to investing at his family office. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Today’s show is both a sponsor insight and another empty room, an exciting investment opportunity where few are paying attention. This time, it’s CLO equity, an asset that has consistently generated strong returns with modest risk for decades. That fact may come as a surprise to many. Thomas Majewski is the Managing Partner and Founder of Eagle Point Credit Management, a $14 billion specialist credit manager that’s believed to be one of the largest investors in CLO equity in the world. Tom has spent his entire career in the structured finance and credit markets, including the early days when he likely was the first person to refinance a CLO. Our conversation offers a master class on CLOs across Tom’s career history, the mechanics of CLOs, and nuances of the business. We discuss his early years in the business, characteristics and performance history of the asset, and the launch of Eagle Point in the aftermath of the financial crisis. We discuss Eagle Point’s strategy, investment process, team, desired traits of successful CLO collateral managers, opportunities in CLO debt, and Tom’s vision for the business going forward. Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Charles Van Vleet is the CIO of Textron, where he manages $10 billion in defined benefit assets and $5 billion of defined contribution assets. Charles joined Textron a decade ago after eight years at the pension fund of United Technologies and is widely respected as one of the most thoughtful and outspoken CIOs in the space. Our conversation covers Charles’ background and turns to the objectives of corporate pension funds, Textron’s strategic asset allocation, and Charles’ creative implementation of value-added opportunities across asset classes. Along the way, he shares a host of opinions about what works and doesn’t for institutional investors. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

The sixth episode of Season One of Private Equity Deals released this morning. I’m joined by David Humphrey and Devin O’Reilly from Bain Capital, who worked together on the purchase of Zelis, a healthcare and fin tech company that serves the most abrasive aspect of the healthcare system – dealing with all aspects of medical claims. The deal shines a light on how Bain Capital operates in addressing an important business need. Tune in to Private Equity Deals to hear all about it. Listen to Bain Capital on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Frank Brosens is a co-founder of Taconic Capital, an $8 billion event-driven, multi-strategy hedge fund founded in 1999. Frank started his career at Goldman Sachs, where he joined and later ran Bob Rubin’s legendary risk arbitrage desk. That group became one of the top breeding grounds for hedge fund founders, including among its ranks Tom Steyer at Farallon, Richard Perry at Perry Partners, Danny Och at Och-Ziff Capital, Eddie Lampert at ESL, Eric Mindich at Eton Park, and Dinakar Singh at TPG-Axon. Our conversation covers Frank’s path to the Goldman risk arb desk, the culture that made it a success, and his eventual decision to leave the firm. We then discuss the founding of Taconic, its partnership and investment philosophy, and its approach to risk management, capital allocation, and the pursuit of opportunities. Along the way, Frank highlights examples that demonstrate the benefits of a carefully aligned culture for teammates and clients across organizational structure, portfolio management, and compensation. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today’s sponsor insight features Melanie Pickett, Executive Vice President at Northern Trust, who is responsible for leading the Asset Owner segment in the Americas. Melanie joined Northern Trust five years ago to create its Front Office Solutions business, which today works with $450 billion on the platform across more than forty asset owner clients. Prior to Northern Trust, she spent six years as Chief Operating Officer at Emory University’s investment office and over a decade rising to Executive Director in investment operations at Morgan Stanley. Our conversation dives into Melanie’s background, technology challenges in the investment office, and her passion for addressing those challenges at Northern Trust. We cover the evolution of Northern Trust’s business for asset owners and Melanie’s perspective on trends in asset allocation, technology, performance and risk management, data science, and the future of the business. We are incredibly grateful to Melanie and Northern Trust for being a longtime sponsor of the show and are eager to highlight their value to the institutional community. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Geoffrey Rubin is the Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Strategist of Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, or CPPIB, which oversees $520 billion Canadian ($400 billion USD) on behalf of tens of millions of its citizens. CPPIB is a prime example of the Canadian model, which features significant internal active management of assets and a thoughtful total fund management approach. Our conversation covers Geoffrey’s background and path to CPPIB, the Canadian model, effective governance, and competitive advantage. We then turn to the implementation of the model across internal capabilities, resource and capital allocation in the portfolio, compensation, talent retention, collaboration, organic innovation, and putting the model to the test during this year’s challenging market conditions. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

The fifth episode of Season One of Private Equity Deals released this morning. I'm joined by Arvindh Kumar, the Global Co-Head of Technology at EQT. We discuss Innovyze, a mid-market vertical software company that provides smart water infrastructure to utilities and engineers. It's a complex transaction created by merging two carve-outs from public companies and integrating the businesses alongside a management team change. Tune in to Private Equity Deals to hear the story. Before we get going, about a third of all CA listeners have already subscribed to Private Equity Deals. If you're an allocator, a private equity manager, a banker, or just someone interested in learning what all the private equity fuss is all about, this show is for you. Search of PE Deals on your favorite podcast player and subscribe. As soon as you do, you'll get a chance to listen to episode five featuring EQT in the most complex transaction we've discussed thus far. Listen to EQT on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Colin Smith and Farouk Miah are the founders of All Africa Partners, a concentrated, public equity fund they launched last year with backing by three of the most successful investors in the region. Our conversation covers their backgrounds and the opportunity set on the continent, including Africa’s market size, investable countries, liquidity, market performance, businesses, valuations, and currencies. We then turn to All Africa’s investment process across sourcing, due diligence, decision making, trading, and portfolio construction. We close discussing risks in the region and lessons learned from Colin’s winning a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Michael Rees is the Founder and Head of Dyal Capital Partners and Co-President of public company Blue Owl (OWL) after Dyal’s merger with Owl Rock last year. Dyal is the market leader in buying General Partner stakes from established private equity and alternative asset managers and oversees $45 billion in its strategy. Our conversation covers Michael’s background, the early years of minority stakes, motivations of sellers, changing perceptions of the business, and return profile of investments. We then turn to Dyal’s process across relationship-driven sourcing, best practices in fundraising and operations, conducting deals, and behavior of GPs after a sale. We close by touching on common critiques of Dyal’s strategy and the outlook from here. Hopefully this is an example of this new process working effectively! Let us know if anything else is needed. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Our fourth episode of Private Equity Deals released this morning.  I’m joined by Kevin Callaghan and Larry Hamelsky, long-time team members at Berkshire Partners. We discuss their investment in Parts Town, one of those seemingly boring businesses that keeps on compounding.  Tune in to the Private Equity Deals feed to learn why. Listen to Berkshire Partners on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Jon Ballis is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Kirkland & Ellis, one of the world’s leading law firms and the market leader in private equity. Kirkland generated $6 billion in revenue last year, including work with 700 investment fund clients and $443 billion in M&A deals across 1,000 transactions. Jon has been recognized in every edition of the Best Lawyers in America since 2006 and one of the top private equity lawyers by Private Equity Magazine. Our conversation offers a different angle on what it takes to grow and manage a high-performance professional services firm. We cover Jon’s background and path to Kirkland, growth alongside private equity, oversight of Kirkland’s business model for attracting, compensating, and motivating talent, and management of a large professional services firm. We discuss his perspectives on changes in fund and deal terms in the private markets, private credit, retail interest, and the role of private capital on social issues and regulation. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

On today’s Manager Meeting, Tim McCusker interviews Jack Sommers. Tim is the CIO at NEPC and a past guest on Capital Allocators. He oversees investment research and strategy for the $1.5 trillion consultant. Jack is the co-founder and Executive Chair at Income Research and Management, a $90B core fixed income investment firm. He was instrumental in developing IR+M’s disciplined bottom-up investment approach and served as a Portfolio Manager for 20 years. Their conversation covers the early days of IR+M, when Jack and his father faced the challenges of establishing an investment management business, growth of the business over time, evolving landscape for active fixed income investing, and importance of culture. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Reade Griffith is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Tetragon and Polygon. Tetragon is a European-listed public holding company with $38 billion in assets, comprised of $3 billion in direct investments on its balance sheet and $35B at TFG Asset Management, a subsidiary that backs external funds in an array of alternative strategies. Polygon is a $1 billion European event-driven hedge fund within Tetragon that Reade co-founded in 2002 and still serves as its portfolio manager. Our conversation covers Reade’s path to investing and experience at hedge funds dating back to the early 1990s. We discuss the founding of Polygon and Tetragon, managing volatility and macro risk, event-driven investing, and TFG Asset Management’s partnerships with managers across sourcing, value add, and alignment. We close by discussing the benefits and drawbacks of being a public company. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Our third episode of Private Equity Deals released this morning.  I’m joined by Jarryd Levine, who helps lead Stone Point Capital’s investments in Business Services and Human Capital Management. We discuss their purchase of Bullhorn, a leading global software provider for the staffing industry. Stone Point is the fifth private equity owner of the business, and I invite you to tune in to learn why. Search for Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast player and subscribe. Listen to Stone Point on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Louis-Vincent Gave is the Founding Partner and CEO of GaveKal, a leading independent provider of macro research, and GaveKal Capital, manager of $2 billion in assets. Louis is one of my go-to sources for strategic research. He came on the show earlier this year to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, and that conversation is replayed on the feed. This time around, we cover Louis’ perspective on the bear market and its transition of leadership from developed to emerging markets. We discuss emerging markets, the U.S. dollar, age of weaponization, deglobalization, China, and where to invest to weather the storm. Access Stream by AlphaSense Free Trial Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Louis-Vincent Gave is the Founding Partner and CEO of GaveKal, one of the world's leading independent providers of macro research, and GaveKal Capital, a manager of $2.7 billion in assets. Louis launched GaveKal alongside his father in 2000 and has become a go-to source for creative research on global economics and asset allocation, particularly in China. He recently penned CYA as a Guiding Principle, dissecting the consequences of Western government responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He joined me to discuss the key takeaways. Our conversation starts with Louis’ background and founding of GaveKal, and turns to the potential second order impacts of freezing reserves, seizing oligarch assets, end of Swiss neutrality, energy prices, and military spending. We close discussing how the situation may affect China. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

On today’s show we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. Andy Acker is a Portfolio Manager at our anchor sponsor, Janus Henderson Investors, where he manages the firm’s healthcare strategies. Janus Henderson is a global asset manager with $300B in assets under management, and Andy oversees the firm’s Global Life Sciences strategy and its Biotechnology strategy. Biotech stocks have been crushed despite significant advances in drug development, making it a proverbial empty room with only specialists and contrarians left standing. Our conversation starts with Andy’s path to becoming a healthcare investor, scientific innovation over his time at Janus Henderson, translation of science into commercial success for businesses, and the 90/90 rule for how stocks behave. We then turn to his investment process across filtering ideas, research, assessment of management teams and commercial success, portfolio construction, trading around names, and private crossover investing. We close with Andy’s perspective on opportunities and risks to the space from here, and green shoots he sees that might fill seats in the empty room. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Annie Duke is a former professional poker player, decision making expert, best-selling author, and fortunately, a repeat guest on the show. Our first conversation about Annie’s background and best-seller Thinking in Bets is replayed on the feed. Her latest masterpiece releases tomorrow. It’s called Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away, and I’m going on record predicting it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation covers Annie’s compulsion to write another book, our instinct for grit, the case for quitting, the emotional and cognitive biases that stand in our way, and some techniques to improve our ability to quit effectively. Along the way, Annie shares some terrific stories from the book about Everest, Sears, the NBA draft, and the California bullet train.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Annie Duke is a renown public speaker and decision strategist. For two decades, she was one of the top poker players in the world, including winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2 million winner-take-all WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her study of the science of smart decision-making began with a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which she used study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.  Among her charity work and television appearances, Annie was a runner-up to Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice, during which she raised $700,000 for Refugees International. She is a natural teacher and storyteller with an active mind that constantly searches for accurate truth. I highly recommend Annie’s new book, Thinking in Bets, which comes out this week. In her life after poker, she is a featured speaker, writes a newsletter and a blog, and advises companies on improving their decision-making process. Have a look at her website, annieduke.com, for more information. Our conversation discusses Annie’s path from an Ivy League education to professional poker, the nature of a bet, how we form beliefs, why we make bad decisions, and what we can do to improve our decision-making process. Towards the end, we also talk about bankroll management, poker faces, and advice she would give the President on how to make better decisions. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Our second episode of Private Equity Deals released this morning.  I’m joined by Scott Crabill, a long-time partner at Thoma Bravo, to discuss their take private purchase of RealPage. Search for Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe. Listen to Thoma Bravo on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Matt Brown is the CEO of CAIS, the leading investment platform that connects independent financial advisors with managers in alternative strategies.  Matt was a guest on the show last year discussing his path and the business, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Since that time, CAIS and the broader movement of private wealth into alternatives have accelerated rapidly. I caught up with Matt to get his perspective on the tidal wave of capital coming into the space ahead of CAIS’ inaugural Alternative Investment Summit, a three-day event bringing together senior leaders from the alternative asset management and independent financial advisor communities on October 17-19 in Los Angeles.  Our conversation covers the size of the private wealth market, key drivers of the adoption of alternatives, the characteristics of managers and products that receive flows, advice for those who would like to participate, and where capital is flowing today. We then turn to CAIS’ company strategy, including deploying a substantial capital raise, upgrading its technology, expanding the team, and building custom solutions for advisors. We close with Matt’s views on the future of CAIS.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Matt Brown is the Founder CEO of CAIS, a leading alternative investment platform on which thousands of financial advisors have invested over $12 billion in alternatives across private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real estate.  Our conversation covers Matt’s background as both a financial advisor and distributor of alternatives that collectively led to the idea behind CAIS. We discuss the development of a two-sided platform, structural features for both financial advisors and managers, and challenges along the way. We then turn to the wave of capital coming from this community and what it means for investors. Lastly, we discuss Matt’s perspective on leadership and the future of CAIS.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s Manager Meeting, Savneet Signh interviews Adam Wyden. Savneet is the President and CEO of PAR Technology Corp, a $1.5 billion market cap public technology company, the Chairman of CoVenture, and a past guest on Capital Allocators earlier this year, sharing his unique perspectives as a successful operator and investor. Adam is the founder and Managing Partner of ADW Capital, a $350 million concentrated, small cap, long-biased fund he launched with $0.5 million in 2011. ADW’s largest position is PAR Technology. Their conversation covers the launch of ADW, the evolution of the fund’s strategy from activism to quality, research process, lessons learned, and opportunities going forward. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Last year, four of my oldest friends in the business and I got together to banter about a range of investment topics. Now admittedly, I pretty much had to pull their teeth to make it happen that first time, but after having so much fun with it, our old gang didn’t hesitate to do it again. Our dinner crew - Meredith Jenkins from Trinity Wall Street, Casey Whalen from Truvvo Partners, Brett Barth from BBR Partners, Jon Harris from Alternative Investment Management and I - gathered and riffed on long/short hedge funds, private markets, Africa and other empty rooms, potential canaries in the coal mine, continuation funds, co-investments, our favorite investment types, and blind spots. At the end, we had a chance to pay a tribute to Jon’s father, the legendary Ira Harris, who graduated from his amazing life here on Earth earlier in the year.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

I’m excited to share the first episode of a new podcast called Private Equity Deals. Much like Capital Allocators, we’ll share investment conversations that previously occurred only behind closed doors. In each episode, we discuss an individual private market deal with a manager to learn about the companies, deal dynamics, and ownership that make private equity a force in institutional portfolios and the global economy. The conversations also shed light on how each firm goes about their craft. The first season of Private Equity Deals consists of eight episodes with some of the top private equity managers, released every other week on Wednesdays. We’ve shared the first on this feed, a conversation with Pete Stavros, Co-Head of KKR’s U.S. private equity business, about a recently exited portfolio company, C.H.I. Overhead Doors. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast platform, and as always you can keep up to date and join our mailing list at capitalallocators.com. Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube

Greg Lippmann is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of LibreMax, an $8 billion asset management firm specializing in structured products. Greg co-founded LibreMax in 2010 after a long tenure at Deutsche Bank focused on the space. He was one of the originators and the literal epicenter of the subprime mortgage short position during the financial crisis. Michael Lewis featured Greg in The Big Short and Ryan Gosling played him in the movie based on the book. Our conversation covers Greg’s background, story of the subprime short, structured product market, and launching LibreMax. We discuss his investment strategy, research process, portfolio construction, trading, competitive landscape, and market outlook. We close with Greg’s experience being portrayed by a Hollywood star on the big screen.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Every so often, I share my thoughts on investing on the other side of the mic. And occasionally, those ideas are different from what I’ve shared in the past. Recently, I appeared on the Opto Sessions Interviews with Extraordinary Investors podcast hosted by Haydn Brain. Opto identifies key themes and ideas to help investors get exposure to structural growth trends through a daily newsletter, magazine, and podcast. Hadyn asked me some great questions that cover the difference in retail and institutional investing, aspects of my professional experience, insights from my conversations with Sam Zell, Joel Greenblatt, Chamath Palihapitiya, Mike Novogratz, and Dan Rasmussen, investing for the long-term, and reflections on the Buffett Bet. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

On today’s Manager Meeting, Andy Golden interviews Allan Jean-Baptiste and Marco DeMeireles of Ansa Capital. Andy is President of PRINCO where he has overseen the management of Princeton University’s endowment since 1995. Alongside his long successful tenure, he is a master with wordplay and the use of the pun. Allan and Marco are the Co-Founders and General Partners of Ansa Capital, a thesis-driven growth equity fund launched earlier this year with backing from an impressive list of LPs. Their conversation covers Ansa’s long-term perspective, approach to partnerships, risk management, team dynamics, and operating model. Allan and Marco also share their perspective on current market conditions, the opportunity set, and raising their first fund.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

On today’s show we’ll discuss a classic empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors. In this case, we dive into the investment case for Venezuela, a non-starter for pretty much every institution because of the country’s autocratic political regime, sanctions, and headline risk. But alongside those known risks are the potential for significant rewards. Rodrigo Bitar is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 3B1 Partners, the leading private equity fund making growth investments in Venezuela. 3B1 invests in high-quality companies with leading positions in basic industries, while looking to capture a change in macroeconomic conditions in the country. Our conversation covers Rodrigo’s upbringing in Chile, professional background, and investment opportunity in Venezuela. We discuss Venezuela’s sanctions, economic contraction, and dollarization of the economy. We then turn to investing in the country, including sourcing, due diligence, and an example of a recent transaction. We close with a discussion of the upside and risks to investing in Venezuela. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Carla Harris is a Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley, the most recent of many posts in her 35-year career at the firm that included serving as Vice Chairman of Wealth Management, heading the Emerging Manager platform, and running deals for decades as an investment banker and capital markets professional. She is the author of three books about navigating careers and leadership, Expect to Win, Strategize to Win, and the upcoming Lead to Win, each of which contains lessons she dubs “Carla’s Pearls.” In the last few years, Carla added Board seats to her professional portfolio and currently serves on a host of Boards including SEO, Harvard University, Walmart, and MetLife. She’s also an accomplished gospel singer who has sold out shows in Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theatre. Our conversation offers Carla’s pearls of wisdom in navigating a career from her earliest days on the Street. We cover her background, path to Wall Street, framing a personal narrative, learning what’s important to an organization, being authentic, taking career risks, and evolving multicultural opportunities in asset management. We then turn to lessons from Carla’s new book, from sitting in the Boardroom, and from a letter to her 25-year-old self. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

On today’s Manager Meeting, David Huang interviews Howard Smith. David is an Associate Director at UTIMCO, the $66 billion investment company that manages the largest public endowment fund in the country. Howard is a Partner and Portfolio Manager of the Japan strategies at Indus Capital, an Asia-focused investment firm that manages $3.5 billion, including $1 billion focused on Japan. Indus was founded in 2000 by its Non-Executive Chairs, Sheldon Kasowitz and David Kowitz, upon spinning out of Soros Fund Management. David and Howard’s conversation covers Howard’s upbringing in the rural United Kingdom, experience in Japan, and investment philosophy. They discuss Indus’s investment approach, global team structure, corporate governance in Japan, and opportunities on the horizon. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Paul Enright is a private investor managing his own capital under single family office, Krainos Capital. Paul opened Krainos after a dozen years at Viking Global Investors, the multi-billion dollar long-short equity hedge fund that also has been one of the most successful breeding grounds for talent in the industry. He has a deep understanding of intricacies of long-short equity investing and a knack for explaining it well. Our conversation covers Paul’s career path to Viking, training while there, and advice to early-career investors. We dive into the distinction between business analysis and stock picking, and the importance of portfolio management to investment success. In the process, we discuss liquidity, shorting, portfolio rebalancing, incentive compensation, and market structure. We close with Paul’s approach to managing his own money and his answers to a terrific set of questions sourced from his Twitter feed before the show.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Brent Montgomery is the CEO of Wheelhouse Group, a family office where he creates entertainment content and a venture capital fund that invests in businesses to amplify brands around talent. Brent is a media producer and operator whose first hit was Pawn Stars at his first production company, Leftfield Pictures. He later oversaw a host of reality television hits, including HGTV’s Fixer Upper, Netflix’s Queer Eye, A&E’s Duck Dynasty, and Bravo’s The Real Housewives of New Jersey, while running ITV America after he sold Leftfield to ITV. Our conversation covers Brent’s childhood entrepreneurial efforts, creation of Pawn Stars, vertically integrating and expanding Leftfield’s business, and the sale to ITV. We turn to the flywheel behind Wheelhouse, monetizing talent and intellectual property across production, marketing, merchandising, and events, its partnering with leading investors, and a few investment examples along the way.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

On today’s Manager Meeting, Maneesh Gandhi sits down with Avichal Garg. Maneesh is a Partner at Evanston Capital, a $4.5 billion hedge fund of funds, whose CIO Adam Blitz was a past guest on Capital Allocators. Avichal is the Co-Founder of Electric Capital, an early-stage venture firm focused on cryptocurrencies, blockchain technologies, fintech, and marketplaces. He has been a successful serial entrepreneur with executive experience at Google and Facebook, which acquired his previous company in 2012. Their conversation covers Avichal’s career as an operator, influence on his investment approach, conviction in crypto, and opportunities in today’s markets. They cover Electric’s investment strategy, differentiated team structure, investment examples, and the future of crypto. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Sarah Samuels is the Head of Investment Manager Research at NEPC where she oversees teams across public equities, credit, hedge funds, and private markets for the $1.5 trillion investment advisory juggernaut. Prior to joining NEPC three years ago, Sarah worked at the senior level of both a top notch endowment and a public pension fund. She sought to bring the best of both worlds to her role at NEPC. Our conversation covers Sarah’s early career investing, time in the allocator seat at Mass PRIM and Wellesley College, and decision to join NEPC. We discuss her key investment themes, investment framework blending qualitative and quantitative analysis, second-level thinking, CIO mindset, alignment of interest, private equity allocations, and investment committees. We close discussing Sarah’s work on DE&I and her involvement in Girls Who Invest.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Josh Friedman is the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Canyon Partners, a $25 billion multi-strategy firm that specializes in credit-related analysis across distressed securities, securitizations, risk arbitrage, and real estate. Josh founded Canyon in 1990 with Mitch Julis, his roommate from their time at Harvard Law School and Business School. Our conversation covers Josh’s background at Goldman Sachs and Drexel Burnham with Michael Milken, the founding of Canyon, its investment philosophy, key stages on its path, and structure of the organization. We then turn to Josh’s thoughts on the evolution of credit markets, liquidity, competitive dynamics among creditors, opportunities, and risks. We close with Josh’s advice for investment committees based on his experience as a Trustee at Harvard Management, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and CalTech, among others.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Mario Giannini is the CEO of Hamilton Lane, where he oversees nearly $1 trillion of assets under management and advisement in private capital, making it perhaps the largest investor in private equity in the world. Mario joined Hamilton Lane thirty years ago and has spent the last 21 as its CEO. His breadth of knowledge and experience, alongside at times unconventional views, offers an unparalleled bird’s eye view into this powerful area of investing. Our conversation covers Mario’s background and a brief history of the private equity industry over the last thirty years. We discuss three characteristics of private equity firms that struggle: decision-making, concentration, and greed, and views on private equity firms across turnover, GP/LP relationships, LP Advisory Boards, and the pricing environment. We then turn to Mario’s perspective on constructing private equity portfolios, data analytics, the middle market, continuation funds, LP appetite, and opportunities across sub-categories and geographies. We close with aspects of Hamilton Lane’s evolution across co-investing, customization, going public, ESG, democratization, and the future of the industry.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Rob Citrone is the Founder of Discovery Capital Management, a $2 billion global hedge fund investing across equities, fixed income, currencies, and rates with a focus on emerging markets. Rob is one of the longest standing managers in the space and the largest investor in his fund. He trained under Julian Robertson in the heyday of Tiger Management in the mid-90s before launching Discovery in 1999. Since then, the firm grew to a peak of $15 billion in assets and despite the subsequent reduction in AUM, he and his team of 42 are still going strong. Our conversation dives into Rob’s background, lessons he learned from Fidelity, Julian Robertson, and George Soros, and the launch of Discovery. We discuss his investment strategy, research process, perspective on markets around the world, ups and downs in the business, and managing an organization through change. Rob doesn’t often share his insights in the public forum, so it was a real treat to get inside the mind of one of the best in the business. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Regan Bozman is a General Partner at Lattice Capital, an early-stage crypto fund that helps founders build defensible moats and new growth playbooks. Regan previously was the first employee at CoinList, a token marketplace that spun out of AngelList, where he was involved in 30 token launches. Our conversation covers Regan’s early years as an entrepreneur, lessons learned from CoinList, and the launching of Lattice. We discuss Lattice’s investment philosophy, sourcing, research process, and subsectors of focus. We dive into specific examples in DeFi and NFTs and discuss a few winners in the portfolio to date. We close with Lattice’s competitive advantage, measures of success, and definitions of defensible moats as the crypto industry continues to evolve. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Ashvin Chhabra is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Euclidean Capital, the family office for Jim Simons of Renaissance Technologies. Ashvin joined Euclidean in 2015 after spending time as CIO of the Institute for Advanced Study and CIO of Merrill Lynch Wealth Management. He is the author of The Aspirational Investor and is recognized as one of the founders of goals-based wealth management. Our conversation covers into Ashvin’s upbringing and his path from physics to investing. We discuss his “Beyond Markowitz” portfolio management framework, application of it to high net worth individuals, foundations, the Yale endowment, Warren Buffett, and a single family office. Along the way, Ashvin shares the story of interviewing with Jim Simons, his critique of endowment management, manager selection, and perspectives on interest rates and bitcoin. Ashvin is one of most creative and independent thinkers in the community and you’ll soon hear why.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Today’s final episode of Crypto for Institutions 2 is a special Sponsor Insight from Anchorage Digital. Diogo Monica is the Co-Founder and President of Anchorage, the first federally chartered digital bank. Our conversation covers Diogo’s uniquely qualified background for his role, the importance and implementation of digital asset custody, and Anchorage’s client-driven extensions from custody into brokerage, lending, staking, and governance. We close covering the creation of the bank, partnerships with Visa, and what’s next for the company and its clients. Be sure to stick around for the closing questions to hear Diogo’s perspective on exceptional hiring practices for startups. We are incredibly grateful to Anchorage Digital for sponsoring Crypto for Institutions 2, and are eager to highlight their value to the investment community. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

I’d like to invite you to attend a special bootcamp on Decision Making I’ll be teaching on July 20th at 11am EST. I’ll share actionable frameworks with special clips from Annie Duke, the legendary decision-making expert, bestselling author, and former professional poker player. The one-hour webinar is one of the most popular classes of Capital Allocators University and is chock full of insights to take back to your team in the investment office. The cost to attend is $250 and Capital Allocators premium members will receive a 50% discount. If you’re interested in attending and are not yet a premium member, you may want to consider subscribing first and receiving our library of transcripts, weekly email, and a whole bunch more, for effectively half off the first year of membership. Log on to capitalallocators.com and click University to register for the bootcamp. And before you do that, click on Premium and sign up. Hope to see you on July 20th.

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at a16z where he leads Crypto investing, overseeing the largest pool in the space at $7 billion across four dedicated venture funds and a team of eighty professionals. Chris is one of the leading voices in the crypto ecosystem and topped the Forbes ‘Midas List’ as the most successful venture capitalist in the world in 2021. He was a guest on the show last year, and that replay is available in the feed. Our conversation covers Chris’ framework for web3, network effects, venture economics, and institutional adoption. We turn to some of the areas he is most excited about deploying capital, including the creator economy, infrastructure, DeFi, gaming, and decentralized content creation. We close with how a16z supports portfolio companies in crypto, and Chris’ thoughts on the current market downturn. A full list of a16z investments can be found here - https://a16z.com/investments/. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.   Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.   Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.   Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Olaf Carlson-Wee is the Founder and CEO of Polychain Capital, a $5 billion investment firm that was one of the first institutional crypto funds upon its launch in 2016. Olaf is among the crypto OGs, he was the first hire at Coinbase and led risk management before founding Polychain with initial investments from Sequoia, a16z, Union Square Ventures, and Founders Fund. He was named to both the Forbes 30 Under 30 and Fortune 40 Under 40. Our conversation explores Olaf’s vision for what is to come in the crypto ecosystem.  We cover his early discovery of cryptocurrency, his experience at Coinbase, and his founding and strategy at Polychain. We then turn to Olaf’s perspective on the present and future of incentive systems, social media, bear markets, layer 1 protocols, bridges across protocols, NFTs, DeFi, DAOs, and stablecoins.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Ben Forman is the Founder and Managing Partner of ParaFi Capital, a $1 billion investment and technology firm that focuses on decentralized finance across digital assets, venture equity, and quantitative strategies. Ben launched ParaFi in 2018 after a decade in traditional finance roles across investment banking, credit investing, and private equity at venerable institutions such as Rothschild, TPG, and KKR. Our conversation covers Ben’s background, pivot to crypto, and launch of ParaFi into a bear market. We then discuss opportunities in the world of DeFi, including borrowing and lending, stablecoins, scaling, insurance, governance, and capital allocation. We close with ParaFi’s research and valuation approach, engagement with DeFi protocols, and seeding crypto managers.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Stephen McKeon is a Partner at Collab+Currency and Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Oregon, where is teaches a course on crypto assets. As an investor, Stephen focuses on consumer facing applications of crypto. He was a past guest on the show back in 2018 discussing security tokens. That replay is available in the feed and sheds light on how far the crypto ecosystem has come over the last four years. Our conversation begins with a reflection on Steve’s security token thesis, his shift to investing, and his strategy at Collab+Currency. We dive into NFTs, DAOs, the metaverse and gaming, including the latest state of play and his investment thesis around each. We then turn to important transitions to watch across interoperability, digital wallets, price volatility, and use cases for consumers. We close by discussing how interested folks can learn more by covering the syllabus of Steve’s crypto course and the websites he encourages others to play around. (fewb3.xyz and rabbithole.gg) Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Professor Stephen McKeon spent six years out of college working in finance for venture-backed startups before returning to graduate school and earning his PhD in finance in 2011. Blending his interest and experience, Steve focuses his research on corporate finance, M&A, security issuance, and most recently, crypto assets, where he has become a leading academic authority in the nascent area. Our conversation starts with Steve’s first job smack into the teeth of the tech meltdown in 2000 and his subsequent roles at a winery and a drone company.  We then turn to his work as an academic in the world of crypto assets, walking through the thesis for security tokens.  Steve presents a case for the future of security tokens that is tangible and achievable.  Now that the noise from soaring crypto currency prices has died down, we can learn a lot from Steve about what blockchain technology may bring to investing in the years ahead. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

We kick off Crypto for Institutions 2 with Marcos Veremis. Marcos is a Partner at Accolade Partners, a $4.4 billion venture fund of funds whose founder Joelle Kayden appeared on the show earlier this year. Marcos manages $1 billion in blockchain fund of fund assets across liquid and venture strategies. He is one of the most well-regarded allocators in the space, having created and led the practice at Cambridge Associates before leaving to become a principal, first at Evanston Capital Management and then at Accolade. Our conversation covers Marcos’ discovery of crypto while at Cambridge, building a formal research practice, and following institutional interest in the space. We then turn to his transition from consultant to the buy side (of the buy side) and his approach to manager selection, due diligence, portfolio construction, and oversight. We close with Marcos’ perspective on the recent drawdown, valuation, and long-term outlook. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Legendary investor Sam Zell is the chairman of Equity Group Investments, a private investment firm he founded more than 50 years ago. Sam has a storied track record of turning around troubled companies and assets, leading industry consolidations, and bringing companies to the public markets. His current investments canvass logistics, health care, manufacturing, energy, and real estate. Sam was recognized five years ago by Forbes as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds, and he’s still going strong. Our conversation covers Sam’s childhood background, early entrepreneurial efforts, formation of his investment strategy, and comfort being a contrarian. We then turn to Sam’s thoughts on team development, evaluating people, real estate, generational businesses, emerging markets, and opportunities for the future. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Leigh Drogen is the General Partner and CIO of Starkiller Capital, a quantitative asset manager in the digital asset space. Leigh came to the crypto world after experience at a quantitative hedge fund, as an early employee at StockTwits, and as the founder of Estimize, a buyside-driven earning estimate platform that today is one of the largest in the world. Our conversation covers Leigh’s background and lessons on markets from both a retail and institutional lens. We discuss Estimize, insights into hedge funds, and his shift to crypto. We then dig into the investment process at Starkiller, the nuances of fundamental modeling in crypto, and managing risk. We close with Leigh’s perspective on what’s to come for crypto and hedge funds. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Chris Voss is the founder of the Black Swan Group, where he works with individuals, teams, and companies in the art of negotiation. Chris is the author of best seller “Never Split the Difference” and learned his trade in his 24 years in the FBI, during which he served as the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator, the lead Crisis Negotiator for the NYC Division, and as a member of the NYC Joint Terrorist Task Force. Our conversation covers techniques in listening and conversation that evolve from Chris’ deep understanding of human nature, including setting the stage, mirroring, labeling, decision fatigue, “no” oriented questions, and overcoming fear. We then turn to preparing for a negotiation, reconciling negatives, and positive demeanor.   Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

I’m excited to share that Matt Spielman, my friend of 25 years, a member of my personal Board of Directors, and my executive coach, released his first book earlier this week. It’s entitled: Inflection Points, How to Work and Live with Purpose, and Matt gave me the honor of writing the foreward to the book. In an effort to help him spread the word, we’ve replayed my conversation with Matt from last year in the feed. Have a listen, and hop on Amazon to grab a copy.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Billy Libby is the co-founder of Upper90, a firm that invests in a hybrid of debt and equity in early stage technology companies to help founders scale efficiently. Billy partnered with Jason Finger, the founder of Seamless, to address a capital structure inefficiency in the venture world. Upper90 has deployed a $1 billion of capital for an LP base of more than 300 entrepreneurs. Our conversation covers Billy’s background in electronic trading, formation of an investment club that brought together quantitative investors and tech founders, and the evolution of that club into Upper90.  We discuss Upper90s approach to investing in tech start-ups, use of data to find lendable opportunities, sourcing and diligence of deals, and lots of examples along the way. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

John Barber is the Managing Partner of Cohesive Capital, a $1 billion private equity firm founded in 2010 to focus exclusively on private and growth equity co-investments. Cohesive executes its strategy without investing in funds and without paying a carry to sponsors. Our conversation covers John’s early career in investment banking, the evolution of the industry, and the launch of Cohesive Capital. We dive into Cohesive’s investment philosophy, deal structure, sourcing, and team. We then discuss his advice for other co-investors, and opportunities and risks in today’s market. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Larry Kochard is the CIO at Makena Capital Management, a $20 billion OCIO formed by senior executives from the Stanford Management Company in 2005. Larry joined Makena in 2018, following a storied career serving as CEO and CIO of University of Virginia Investment Management Company, as the first CIO at Georgetown University, and as Managing Director of Equity and Hedge Fund Investments for the Virginia Retirement System. He was an early guest on Capital Allocators discussing his path, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. This time around we discuss Larry’s transition to Makena, the differences between leading endowments and an OCIO, and his perspective on specialist versus generalist teams. We then dive into different investment opportunities across crossover funds, hedge funds, co-investments, REITs, venture capital, emerging markets, real assets, and crypto. We close with Larry’s take on market risks, opportunities, and managing his team. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Larry Kochard is the CEO and CIO of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO), where he provides leadership, connectivity to the University, and responsibility for the University's $8.5 billion long-term investment pool.  Before joining UVIMCO in 2011, he served as Georgetown University's first in-house CIO. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Equity and Hedge Fund investments for the Virginia Retirement System.  From 1997-2004, Larry was an adjunct, and later full-time, professor at Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce.  He spent his formative professional years in debt capital markets at Goldman Sachs, and corporate finance at Fannie Mae and DuPont. Larry received his B.A. in Economics from William & Mary, an MBA from the University of Rochester, and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Virginia. Our conversation covers tricky issues involving the internal management of portfolios alongside external manager allocations, UVIMCO’s five core principals, and the consideration of absolute and relative metrics in asset allocation and performance. Our deep dive on UVIMCO's core principals and asset allocation provides an inside look at the subtleties required to maintain seemingly simple tenants. I’m quite sure everyone that touches the University of Virginia will come away thrilled that Larry is the steward of their capital. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Sahil Bloom is one of most dynamic up and coming creators in the financial community. He spent a decade in investment banking and private equity before turning to writing prolific threads about finance and frameworks to have a more fulfilling life and career. He’s amassed over a half a million followers on Twitter in just the last two years, writes a blog called The Curiosity Chronicle, started a podcast, and recently launched a seed stage venture fund called SRB Ventures. Our conversation covers Sahil’s upbringing, his career in private equity, developing his own edge, and transitioning from the corporate world to life as a creator. We then discuss his favorite frameworks and how they apply to investing, including mentorship, goal setting, luck, and paradoxes of life. We close with the details of his recent fund launch, audience engagement, and how he manages his time. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

On today’s Manager Meeting, Paula Volent interviews Steve Drobny. Paula is a legend in the endowment world and recent guest on Capital Allocators who is now serving as the CIO for Rockefeller University’s $2.5 billion endowment after spending twenty years at the helm of Bowdoin College’s endowment. Steve is the Founder and Managing Partner of Clocktower Group, an alternative asset management platform whose activities include seeding and investing in global macro hedge funds, fintech venture capital, China-focused seeding, climate change venture capital, and macro research. Their conversation covers the changing global landscape, geopolitics, China, fintech, Latin America, and ESG. Steve also shares his candid, contrarian opinion of the endowment model. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Greg Dowling is the CIO and Head of Research at Fund Evaluation Group (FEG) – a mid-market investment consultant with $80 billion in discretionary and non-discretionary assets under advisement. Greg oversees the day-to-day management of the research team and chairs the firm's investment policy committee that oversees all manager hire and fire decisions. Our conversation covers Greg’s background and introduction to FEG, the evolution of institutional consultants, FEG’s business today, and its unique advantages. We dive into how FEG supports its clients with portfolio management, manager selection and inventory management, due diligence including qualitative scoring and culture assessment, and working with Investment Committees. We then get Greg’s opinion on different market dynamics including private equity, venture capital, crossover funds, hedge funds, and what he refers to as “weird ideas.” We close with the evolution of the investment process post-COVID, Greg’s involvement with his alma mater the University of Cincinnati, and the coveted FEG Hockey Classic. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Louis-Vincent Gave is the Founding Partner and CEO of GaveKal, one of the world's leading independent providers of macro research, and GaveKal Capital, a manager of $2.7 billion in assets. Louis launched GaveKal alongside his father in 2000 and has become a go-to source for creative research on global economics and asset allocation, particularly in China. He recently penned CYA as a Guiding Principle, dissecting the consequences of Western government responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He joined me to discuss the key takeaways. Our conversation starts with Louis’ background and founding of GaveKal, and turns to the potential second order impacts of freezing reserves, seizing oligarch assets, end of Swiss neutrality, energy prices, and military spending. We close discussing how the situation may affect China. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

On today’s manager meeting, I interview Andrew Milgram, a Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Marblegate Asset Management.  Marblegate is a $2.3 billion alternative investment manager founded in 2008 that focuses on middle-market distressed credit opportunities and special situations. The firm takes a direct sourcing approach, and works closely with portfolio companies to create value and drive positive business transformations for sustainable results. Our conversation covers Andrew’s very early beginnings in investing, his experience on the sell-side, transition to the buyside, and launching of Marblegate. We discuss the nuances of investing in the middle-market, valuation, sourcing, due diligence, liquidity, and portfolio construction. We then dive into two headline examples of Marblegate successes, Education Management Corporation and New York Taxi medallions. We close with Andrew’s views on the state of distressed investing today and his involvement with the Boy Scouts of America. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Tom Lenehan is the CIO at the Wallace Foundation, where he oversees $2 billion for the New York City-based Foundation whose mission is to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people. Tom is only the second CIO in Wallace’s history, having taken over the helm in January 2021. Before joining Wallace, he served as deputy CIO of Rockefeller University under longtime CIO Amy Falls and appeared as the 4th guest on Capital Allocators back in 2017. That replay is available in the feed and offers a fantastic comparison in Tom’s perspectives on as a deputy compared to a CIO. Our conversation this time dives into his transition, managing a team and a portfolio during COVID, and how Tom has approached asset allocation of a new pool of capital. We discuss his key priorities for the portfolio, and his perspectives on China, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, inflation, cash, and crypto. We close with Tom’s approach to building and working with his team, governance, and future risks.   Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍

Tom Lenehan is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer of The Rockefeller University, where he helps lead the management of the University’s $2B endowment.  Rockefeller University is a unique duck – with a focused mission of improving the understanding of life for the benefit of humanity.  Founded in 1901, it was the first institution in the country devoted exclusively to biomedical research. Learn More‍ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn‍ Subscribe to the mailing list‍ Access Transcript with Premium Membership‍  

Sebastian Mallaby is the Paul A. Volcker senior fellow for international economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, two-time Pulitzer Prize Finalist, and New York Times best selling author. His most recent book, The Power Law: Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future, chronicles the history of the industry, and his key takeaways serve as the perfect conclusion to our mini-series. Our conversation starts with his career as a writer and how he approaches writing books. We then dive into the origins of the venture industry, foundations of early-stage investing, and critical success factors. We dissect different ownership structures, the importance of mentorship, competition, the current pace of capital deployment, and venture capital abroad. We close discussion the industry’s gender gap, challenges to future success, and thoughts on Sebastian’s next project.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership 

Steve Papa has been part of reimagining the technology landscape for twenty years. He was the Founder and CEO of Endeca, an enterprise software company that Oracle acquired for $1.1 billion in 2011. After that, he invested in and became a founding Partner of six technology companies, including the lead investor in Toast. Our conversation covers Steve’s path into technology and entrepreneurship, the story of Endeca, and his subsequent venture investments. Along the way, we touch on both lessons from his businesses and the intersection of those businesses with venture capital. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Kathy Xu is the Founding Partner of Capital Today, a $2.5 billion firm that is one of the top venture capitalists in China. Capital Today strives to help small and mid-sized companies become the leading brands in China. Over the years, some of their winners include JD.com, Mei Tuan, VIP Shop, and Ctrip. Our conversation covers Kathy’s upbringing in China, early professional career in venture, and start as an entrepreneur. We discuss her vision for Capital Today, the three ways they help entrepreneurs, sourcing ideas, working with companies, attractive investments, benefits of the firm’s evergreen fund structure, impact of government action on companies, and desirable characteristics in founders and industries. Lastly, we touch on competition in the venture landscape in China. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

On today’s Manager Meeting, Greg Dowling interviews Chris Heller. Greg is the Co-CIO and Head of Research for Fund Evaluation Group, an institutional OCIO and investment consultant with $83 billion in assets under advisement. Chris is Co-Founder and Co-Managing Partner at Cordillera Investment Partners, a $1.2 billion alternative investment fund that invests in niche, non-correlated assets, or what Chris calls weird stuff, like whiskey aging, boat marinas, spectrum, and water rights. Their conversation covers Chris’s background and the founding of Cordillera, the evolution of alternative assets and alternative alternatives, sourcing new opportunities, conducting due diligence, measuring risk, portfolio construction, and exit strategy. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek are the Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Renegade Partners, a venture capital firm they launched in 2019 after each experienced life inside top-notch venture firms – Renata at Felicis and Lux and Rosanne at Canaan Partners and IVP.  They raised a first fund of $100 million to focus on the “Supercritical Stage” of a company’s development. Our conversation discusses the dynamics of a venture capital spinout and the nuances of a stage-focused strategy. First, we dive into their backgrounds, lessons learned from their experience, forming a partnership and strategy together, and going to market. Then, we discuss Renegade’s investment process across sourcing, filtering, winning deals, and working with companies. We close with perspectives on the competitive landscape, battle for talent, and areas of growth internally, including the application of our mutual friend Annie Duke’s decision  theories to the practice of venture investing. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Today’s show is a special Sponsor Insight from Aumni, highlighting their growing business for venture capitalists, operators, and LPs. Aumni helps private capital investors track and analyze individual deal terms, while providing comprehensive financial and legal insights across portfolios and the broader venture market. I sat down with Kelsey Chase, the Founder and President at Aumni, to discuss his background as a lawyer and the creation of Aumni, how Aumni analyzes transaction data, and use-cases of this data for investors and operators. We also discuss Aumni’s recent series B round, trends in venture arising from Aumni’s database, and where Kelsey plans to take the company from here. We are incredibly grateful to Aumni for sponsoring our Venture is Eating the Investment World mini-series, and we are eager to highlight their value to the venture and investment community. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Arjun Sethi is Co-founder and CEO of Tribe Capital, a $1.3B venture capital fund built by engineers and scientists to focus on using product and data science to engineer N-of-1 companies and investments. Arjun was an entrepreneur who founded and sold two businesses and became an active angel investor before turning to venture capital. Our conversation covers Arjun’s upbringings in an immigrant family, his early endeavors as an entrepreneur, success as an angel investor, and different way of looking at venture investing. We then turn to his experience implementing this hypothesis at Social Capital and at Tribe, including using data science to identify product growth, qualitative factors, decision making, and working with portfolio companies. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

James Aitken is the Founder of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. He has been a repeat guest on the show, sharing his deep understanding of the inner workings of the financial system. Our first conversation from back in 2018 including his background and process, is replayed in the feed, and the rest of the episodes are available on the website. This time around, our conversation covers James’ perspective on the unfolding situation in Ukraine and its implications on markets. We discuss the shift in risk tolerance, friction in the plumbing of the financial system, interaction of energy markets and ESG, inflation and interest rates, reserve currencies and crypto, and his most important takeaways. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

Australian James Aitken is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. James started his career in 1992 as a foreign exchange trader, moved to London in May 1999, and in March 2002 joined the infamous AIG Financial Products team in London. In August 2006 he joined UBS, where he deployed his knowledge of the inner workings of the financial system to help his institutional investor clients successfully navigate their portfolios through 2007 and 2008. At the urging of his clients, James established his own firm in June 2009. Our conversation covers James' perspective on the Global Financial Crisis from his seat at its epicenter, the Eurozone crisis in 2011, subsequent process-driven opportunities in Greece, views on Central Banks in the US, China, & Europe, some brief observations on India, positioning for the current environment, and what makes a great macro manager.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership      Show Notes 3:03 – The start of his career at AIG Financial Products 7:19 – Move to UBS             9:03 – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion 10:42 – Sell off of 2006 13:12 – Leaving UBS to go off on his own 24:22 – What makes a great manager 27:55 – What is he seeing in the markets today, especially the US Fed 33:09 – MIDROLL 34:08 – What happens when bond rates normalize 46:36 – China 56:50 - Japan 59:10 – Europe 1:05:28 – Risk in the asset markets 1:08:49 – Advice to allocators 1:11;05 – Why people should be focused on India 1:16:39 – How he spends his time 1:20:56 – Closing Questions

Annie Lamont is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Oak HC/FT, a $3.3 billion venture capital firm investing across stages in tech-enable companies in healthcare and financial services.  Annie is a legend in the industry.  Across her 40 years in venture capital, she has been featured on the Forbes Midas List, the Top 100 Venture Capitalist rankings, and received the Healthcare Private Equity Association’s lifetime achievement award. Our conversation covers Annie’s beginnings in venture capital, inflection points in the industry, lessons learned, and spinning out to start her own firm. We then turn to her investment process, evaluating CEOs, competitive environment, and opportunities in healthcare and fintech. We close with her perspective on women in the industry and her unique experience as the First Lady of the State of Connecticut.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Occasionally, an event takes place that causes investors to reassess risk. Russian’s actions in Ukraine last week could be a tipping point for one of those events. In a divergence from our normal show, I reached out to Marko Papic to see what we could learn. Marko is the Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, where he provides research on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets. He is a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation tackles the implication of the events in the Ukraine on geopolitics and markets over time. We cover Russia, the U.S., oil, China, and answers to the most pressing questions his clients are asking in response to last week’s event. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Marko Papic is the Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, where he provides research on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets. Marko recently published Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future, an imminently readable book with colorful examples of political analysis. Marko’s approach is akin to Moneyball for politics, challenging the orthodoxy of how others traditionally make investment decisions. Our conversation covers Marko’s upbringing, the flaws of most political analysis, and his constraints-based framework. We then turn to the obvious political topic at hand – next week’s U.S. Presidential election. We discuss his views of different possible outcomes on the U.S. equity market, rates, tech stocks, China, private equity, ESG, Europe, and emerging markets.   Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Josh Wolfe is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Lux Capital, a $4 billion venture capital firm that invests in solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time. Josh described his background and Lux’s approach back in 2018 on the show and that conversation is replayed in the feed. This time around, we dive into Josh’s cautious perspective on the venture landscape and how it impacts Lux’s investment process. We then turn to updates on companies we last discussed and a handful of “directional arrows of progress,” including smell, deception and detection, the tech of science, infrastructure for the metaverse, crypto, elemental power, space, and Africa. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership   

Josh Wolfe is the co-founder of Lux Capital, a $1.5 billion venture capital firm formed to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time. Josh’s innovative thought process across his activities offers frameworks and insights applicable across the spectrum of investing. Our conversation covers Josh’s early passion for science and finance, building a competitive advantage in venture capital from scratch, sourcing ideas, conducting due diligence, making investment decisions, constructing portfolios, making exits, learning from mistakes, navigating a challenging private equity environment, posting on Twitter, active vs. passive management, dinner table conversation, and life lessons. Learn More  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn  Subscribe to the mailing list  Access Transcript with Premium Membership  

My guest on the 7th episode of Venture is Eating the Investment World is Joelle Kayden, the Founder and Managing Partner of Accolade Partners, a $3.6 billion venture fund of funds that invests across early stage, growth, blockchain, and empowerment strategies and one of the most respected firms in the business. Our conversation covers Joelle’s nearly two decades in technology investment banking, the launch of Accolade into the dot.com bubble, and its evolution over twenty years. We then discuss her perspectives on the four ways to win in venture capital, assessing culture, adding value as an LP, portfolio construction, re-upping decisions, and investing in the current environment. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Aydin Senkut is the Founder and Managing Partner of Felicis Ventures, a $2 billion early stage venture firm that invests in founders building iconic companies that transcend geographic and industry boundaries. Its success has placed Aydin on the Forbes Midas List for the past 8 years. Our conversation covers Aydin’s early exposure to entrepreneurship and international business, experience as the first international product manager at Google, and transition into angel investing and founding Felicis. We discuss his investment philosophy, proactive sourcing, and doing whatever it takes to join the cap table and support founders. We close with Aydin’s perspective on competition in the venture capital industry.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ali Hamed is the Founder of CoVenture a $2 billion investor across the capital stack of technology start-ups reinventing the economy of the future. Ali first appeared on the show three years ago when CoVenture’s assets were around $100 million. That conversation is replayed in the feed. Our second conversation starts with an update on CoVenture’s growth and dives into Crossbeam Venture Partners, CoVenture’s venture business. We discuss Crossbeam’s sweet spot, sourcing, due diligence, deal dynamics, ownership, and decision-making for follow-on rounds. We then turn to examples in fintech and platforms, and close with how CoVenture’s taste for novel assets fits into the venture ecosystem. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ali Hamed is the co-founder of CoVenture and Managing Partner of the CoVenture VC Fund.  CoVenture is an innovative company that identifies and invests in novel assets formed by the intersection of technology and finance. The firm manages an early stage venture capital fund, direct lending fund, and crypto asset index fund, with each taking a creative twist on its market. Our conversation starts with Ali’s entrepreneurial path to the creation of CoVenture, and covers examples of previously unpriced investment opportunities, including produce receivables, employee payroll loans, AirBnB accounts, and loans against employee stock options. We walk through the world of crypto assets and the state of the venture capital industry. Ali’s fresh lens on the world offers a fascinating perspective on every aspect of early stage investing. If I didn’t say it in advance, you’ll be astounded to hear that Ali is only 26 years old.  He’s one to watch for the long-term.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Fabrice Grinda is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of FJ Labs, a venture capital firm that backs a diversified portfolio of startups in marketplace businesses. The firm takes a founder-friendly, non-institutional approach, employing heuristics to formulate quick decisions. Our conversation covers Fabrice’s path as a serial entrepreneur and lessons learned building and investing in marketplaces. We discuss FJ Lab’s unique investment process focused on four investment heuristics and expeditious decision making. We then turn to its position in the venture ecosystem and investable themes in the coming years. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s Manager Meeting, Greg Dowling interviews Florian Bartunek. Greg is the Co-CIO and Head of Research for Fund Evaluation Group, an institutional OCIO and investment consultant with $83 billion in assets under advisement. Florian is the founding partner and CIO of Constellation Asset Management, a long-only asset manager focused on Brazil with approximately $3 billion in AUM. Florian founded Constellation in 1999 alongside Jorge Paulo Lemann and 3G and brought in Steve Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital as a partner in 2007. Their conversation starts with Florian’s career in investment management, his passion for reading, and an overview of Brazil’s business environment and equity market. They then turn to Constellation’s investment philosophy, team, portfolio construction, and investment examples. Lastly, Florian discussed opportunities and risks in Brazil, and his prediction for Brazil in the next World Cup. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Sean O’Sullivan is the founder of SOSV, a $1 billion global venture capital firm that seeds 150 companies a year through start-up development programs that support entrepreneurs across hardware, bioengineering, China, mobile apps, and the blockchain. Sean has pretty much done it all. He grew up on welfare, found his way to technology in the 1970s, and started his first company in his early 20s. That company, called MapInfo, was the original street map technology well before the days of the internet. Sean formed more companies and began angel investing with the proceeds. Along the way, he created twenty patents for ride sharing, coined the term cloud computing, appeared in Ireland’s version of Shark Tank, and formed a series of start-up development programs to support early-stage entrepreneurs. Our conversation covers Sean’s path to entrepreneurship and investing, accelerator strategy, sourcing ideas, working with entrepreneurs, preparing businesses to exit SOSV’s programs, investing in follow-on rounds, drivers of success, and positioning in the venture ecosystem. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Chris Douvos is the Founder and Managing Director of Ahoy Capital, where he invests in early-stage venture funds and co-invests alongside his managers. Chris has been a fixture in venture capital for nearly two decades and was an early guest on the show back in 2017. That replay is posted in the feed. Our conversation offers an LP perspective on the venture landscape, covering the current environment, range of players in the early stage, and how Chris is navigating the landscape. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Chris Douvos is Managing Director at Venture Investment Associates, a fund that invests $1B in commitments to venture capital funds. Chris is responsible for the management of relationships with the funds’ managers and the identification and development of new manager relationships. He is the author of an entertaining blog about venture capital entitled SuperLP – Adventures in Investing, available at SuperLP.com. Prior to joining VIA, Chris spent seven years co-heading the private equity program at The Investment Fund For Foundations, or TIFF. In this role, he was responsible for another $1 billion in new capital commitments. Before joining TIFF, Chris worked on Princeton University’s endowment team. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Management. Our conversation starts with Chris’ path to venture capital, through strategy consulting, investment banking and an endowment investment office. We talk about perception and reality in venture investing, exciting areas of future innovation, and the nuts and bolts of research, portfolio construction and decision making when running a portfolio of venture funds. When Chris pulls off his suit, the red undershirt of the Super LP remains. He’s a charismatic guy with great insight into how the venture capital game is played and draws many parallels from venture to investing in general.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert are venture capitalists and hosts of the Acquired podcast. Acquired is one of my favorite shows. In it, David and Ben tell stories of great companies in technology with thorough research and a fun, engaging style.   Our conversation kicks off the mini-series with their respective backgrounds in venture, the creation of Acquired, and their research process for show. We then dive into the origins of the cottage venture capital industry, inflection point after the tech bubble, rise of an abundance of capital, firms investing across stages, the competitive response of others, the mass introduction of angel investors, businesses staying private for longer, and the potential for crypto to change the game once more.   Whenever we’re set with this (or when you tell me to), I’ll send the next 5 episodes along. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s Manager Meeting, Eric Upin interviews Jamie Montgomery. Eric is the Co-founder of Point Olema Capital, a private investments office serving multigenerational families. He previously served as the CIO of Makena Capital Management, CIO at Stanford Management Company, and the interim CIO at Washington University in St. Louis, where he remains Executive Board Chair. Jamie is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of March Capital, a $1 billion Santa Monica-based venture and growth equity firm that invests in AI, cyber, fintech, data infrastructure and gaming. Before they get going, Eric and I discuss his history with Jamie and his frameworks for thinking about investing in March and its positioning in a venture portfolio. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Our second annual review is an audio version of my annual letter to you. After the annual review, stay tuned for a rundown of the top shows of 2021. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Chamath Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital, where he invests in private businesses, public markets, and experiments with that objective of compounding capital at high rates so that he can advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. Chamath previously was an early employee at Facebook, a prolific angel investor, and co-founder of the venture capital business that was the first version of Social Capital. He’s been in the press of late for raising and deploying a series of large SPACs and for his outspoken views. Our conversation covers Chamath’s path to Facebook and Social Capital, his period of self-discovery, and the resulting Social Capital 2.0 to express his views of the world. From there, we dive into SC Emerging Managers, Social Capital’s newest program to back managers from diverse backgrounds. Lastly, we circle back to the purpose of Social Capital and how Chamath gets it all done.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman, CEO, and Founder of Starwood Capital Group, a $95 billion real estate investment firm with 4,000 employees and 16 offices worldwide. Barry has invested nearly $200 billion across every major real estate asset class around the world. The list of related real estate companies he’s created, results, and associated accolades are extensive and truly impressive. Our conversation covers Barry’s beginnings as an entrepreneur and real estate investor with some great stories along the way. We then turn to the current opportunity set across real estate asset classes and geographies and close with his approach to managing his own capital through his family office, SPACS, and experience during the pandemic.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Choiceology, Charles Schwab’s popular podcast on behavioral economics, the co-founder and co-director alongside Angela Duckworth of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and most recently, the author of How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You are to Where You Want to Be.   Our conversation covers Katy’s path to studying change and her new book, which is framed around identifying obstacles to change and using scientific principles to get past those obstacles. We outline the eight obstacles in the book and dive in on the challenges of getting started, confidence, conformity, procrastination, laziness, and making changes last. Along the way, we touch on some applications of her research to investing and to her own life.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Yen Liow is the founder and Managing Partner of Aravt Global, a fundamental global equity firm based in New York that manages long-short and long only products. Yen founded Aravt after a long stint at famed family office Ziff Brothers Investments, where he was part of the team that managed a market, neutral long-short hedge fund in a culture of framework thinking and continuous improvement.   Our conversation covers Yen’s background, experience at ZBI, and lessons about process, competitive edge, and training. We then turn to his application of those lessons to Aravt Global. We discuss three right tail strategies for long positions, the challenges in owning compounders, the art of short selling, portfolio construction, game selection, drivers of success, and challenges going forward.   For those lovers of learning about the nuance of public equity investment strategies, you’re in for a real treat.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

My guest on the first episode of Private Equity Masters is John Toomey, one of two members of the Executive Management Committee at HarbourVest Partners. For more than thirty years, HarbourVest has invested across all parts of the private equity spectrum - in funds, secondaries, and direct co-invests. Today, it oversees over $75 billion of assets and canvasses the world.    Our conversation discusses the early days of private equity investing, evolution of strategies across primaries, co-invests, and secondaries, international expansion, best practices of managers, the next wave of growth opportunities, and risks in the space.   John has a unique perch at the top of the industry and offers a wonderful perspective to kick off the mini-series.   Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today's manager meeting, Nat Fraser interviews Justin Fishner-Wolfson. Nat is an Executive Director at Agility, a $15 billion outsourced CIO firm serving 42 endowments, foundations, family offices and corporations. Justin is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of 137 Ventures, a $2 billion growth-stage venture firm with a differentiated approach to sourcing deals. 137 provides customized liquidity solutions directly to founders, investors, and early employees of private technology companies. Before they get started, Nat and I discuss his diligence process, success of 137's structure, and the evolution of the market. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Paul Black and Mike Trigg from WCM Investment Management are both past guests on the show who have taken an investment philosophy focused on culture and moat trajectory to turn a once struggling boutique into a $100 billion powerhouse. Paul came on the show a few years ago when WCM had quietly grown to $25 billion in assets, and Mike joined a year ago to dive into their research process. Their colleague Mike Tian shared another perspective earlier this year when he described applying WCM’s moat trajectory discipline to investing in China. In this continued exploration of WCM, we start with the truly unique facts about the firm’s rebirth a decade ago and turn to key features of its success, including embracing change, the importance of culture - alongside some characteristics of toxic cultures, hiring practices, telling the truth, integrating new team members, managing turnover, and transitioning leadership to the next generation. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

You may remember my popular first meeting from a few years ago with Paul Black of WCM, then a $25 billion asset manager in Laguna Beach, CA. Since then, WCM has gone up and to the right in every way, they sold a minority piece of the business to Natixis, continue to put big numbers on the board, and have grown to north of $66 billion, defying the fade of active management outflows. My guest on today’s show is Mike Trigg, a partner and portfolio manager of WCM’s Focused International Growth strategy that comprises the majority of the firm’s assets. We discuss Mike’s background, arrival at WCM in 2005, near implosion of the firm shortly thereafter, and the rising of the international strategy from those ashes. We then dive in deeper to the core tenants of WCM’s approach, discussing how the firm analyzes widening moats and cultures tied to competitive advantage. Lastly, we talk about how WCM’s growth has impacted the firm. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today’s Manager Meetings, Jason Klein sits down with Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques. Jason is is the CIO at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and a past guest on Capital Allocators. Jarrid and Henri are co-founders and Managing Partners of Harlem Capital, a venture capital firm seeking to change the face of entrepreneurship by investing in 1,000 diverse founders over the next 20 years and creating a community to support diversity across the industry. Before they get going, Jason and I discuss the attributes that attracted him to Harlem, monitoring and evaluating a first time fund manager, and sizing the position in his portfolio. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Christopher Zook is the Chairman and CIO of CAZ Investments, a twenty-year old, non-traditional multi-family office that has $3 billion invested in a series of thematic strategies, including $500 million from the CAZ team and its shareholders. Our conversation covers Christopher’s self-determined path to creating CAZ, a thematic model that creates raving fans, and some of CAZ’s investment themes, including GP stakes, midstream energy, disruptive technology, and changing consumer behavior. Along the way, we touch on CAZ’s investment philosophy, sourcing, research, and implementation of themes. We close with Christopher’s relationship with Tony Robbins, and the future of CAZ with Tony as a partner. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today's Manger Meeting, Chris Douvos interviews Bill Trenchard. Chris was an early guest on Capital Allocators and is the Founder of Ahoy Capital, a boutique fund of funds focused on early-stage venture. Bill is a Partner at First Round Capital, which focuses on seed-stage investing in technology companies. Bill joined First Round after starting five companies and led First Round's investments in Uber, Flexport and LendingHome. Before they get going, Chris and I discuss his initial discovery of First Round, the evolution of the firm, and his ability to get capacity in what has become a first-tier, oversubscribed venture capital firm. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Ian Charles and Doc O’Connor are the Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Arctos Sports Partners, a private equity firm dedicated to buying minority stakes in professional sports franchises. From its founding just two years ago, Arctos quickly has become the market leader in the space, raising a $2.1 billion first-time fund and a SPAC alongside Executive-in-Residence Theo Epstein, and buying stakes in MLB teams including the Boston Red Sox, the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings in the NBA, and a compliment of other sports assets. Our conversation covers their backgrounds and the formation of Arctos, the investment opportunity in sports franchises, and the underlying business and ownership structure. We then turn to the unique characteristics look of the asset, investment process, and growth strategy.   Full disclosure, I am a personal investor in Arctos’ fund and am a fan of their strategy and team, pun intended. I hope you’ll enjoy this conversation with Doc O’Connor and Ian Charles as much as I did. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today's Manager Meeting, Ben Cooper interviews Will Cook. Ben is the Head of Manager Research at Cardano Group, a market leading investment adviser for pension schemes in the UK and Netherlands that oversees GBP 15 billion of discretionary assets and advises on GBP 50 billion of assets. Will is the portfolio manager at Sunriver Management, a fundamental long-short equity investment firm he founded in 2014 after a long tenure at Ziff Brothers Investments. Sunriver focuses on underfollowed mid and small cap stocks. Before they get going, Ben and I discuss long-short equity investing, selecting Sunriver, Cardano's exhaustive research process, and the fit of Sunriver in their client portfolios. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Chas Cocke is the founder of LB Partners and a former co-founder of Investure, one of the original scaled OCIO businesses. Chas has followed an atypical path from a decade as an allocator to a focus on stock picking, first building an internal direct team at Investure and then launching LB in 2019. Chas opened and closed LB to new capital on day one, and recently created a digital infrastructure index that trades as an ETF under the ticker BYTE. You can learn more about it at iodigitalindex.com Our conversation covers Chas' path to allocation, lessons learned at UVIMCO, key aspects of successful manager selection at Investure, and his passion for and transition to direct investing. We close with the application of lessons to his investment process. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today's Manager Meeting, Tarik Serri interviews Brian Higgins. Tarik is a Senior Director at Trans-Canada Capital, a $23 billion investment management firm that oversees the pension assets of Air Canada and outside organizations. Brian is co-founder and co-portfolio manager of King Street Capital, a 25-year-old, credit-focused hedge fund that manages $20 billion in assets. Before they get going, Tarik and I discuss King Street's distinctive features, TCC's ongoing due diligence, and the fit of King Street in TCC's portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Todd Boehly is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Eldridge, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital holding company with investments in eighty businesses, including high profile brands like the Los Angeles Dodgers, Dick Clark Productions, and The Hollywood Reporter, and an array of companies across other industries, including media, insurance, real estate, asset management, and technology. Combining its structure and Todd's acumen, CNBC recently postured that Eldridge may be the next Berkshire Hathaway. Our conversation covers Todd's early beginnings in structured credit, growing an asset management business at Guggenheim, and the formation of Eldridge. We then turn to his investment strategy and investments in asset management, media, gaming, and technology. Along the way, we discuss Todd's thoughts on sourcing, negotiation, structure, management, capital allocation, and the future of Eldridge. Learn More Three treats from Capital Allocators for the holiday season Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today's Manager Meeting, Michael Liddy speaks with Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain. Mike is a Partner at Evanston Capital Management, a $4.5 billion hedge fund of funds, whose CIO Adam Blitz was a past guest on Capital Allocators. Kyle and Tushar are Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Multicoin Capital, a $4.5 billion thesis-driven manager of cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain companies. Kyle and Tushar founded Multicoin in 2017 and have grown its hedge fund and venture businesses to one of the largest in the space. Before they get going, Mike and I discuss Evanston's process to invest in the space, diligence specific to crypto strategies, selection of Multicoin, and fit in their portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Richard Tedlow is the Class of 1949 Professor of Business Administration Emeritus at the Harvard Business School, where he spent three decades teaching business history. Richard left HBS in 2010 to join the faculty of the new Apple University and retired in 2018. Earlier this year, he published The Emergence of Charismatic Business Leadership, which is the subject of the show. Our conversation covers Richard's background and lessons learned teaching for four decades. We then turn to his latest tome, discussing the American history of business leaders without charisma, transitional period introducing charisma, and the modern era of superstar CEOs. Along the way, we discuss the definition, traits, downside, and future of charismatic business leadership. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s Manager Meeting, Craig Bergstrom interviews Himanshu Gulati. Craig is the Chief Investment Officer at Corbin Capital Partners, a $9 billion investor in hedge funds and opportunistic credit strategies. Himanshu is the Founder and CIO of Antara Capital, an event driven hedge fund that invests across the capital structure in loans, bonds, distressed credit, and special situation equities. Antara combines a fundamental approach with active trading, dynamic asset allocation, and risk management. Before they dive in, Craig and I discuss getting to know Himanshu, investing alongside him as part of due diligence, and the fit of Antara in Corbin’s portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Jordi Visser is the President & CIO of Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, a $4 billion hedge fund focused on an innovative investment process, insightful data analytics, and cutting-edge thought leadership. Jordi came on the show and discussed his background and Weiss’ strategy back in 2019. That conversation is replayed on the feed. This time around we get a glimpse of Jordi’s thoughtfulness and rigor across work and life, including baseball cards for portfolio managers, the adaptability quotient or AQ, analytics for business development, and the great resignation in asset management. We then turn to Jordi’s market views on inflation and interest rates, blockchain and decentralization, health and longevity, and mental health and anxiety. We close with his passion for horseracing and its application to money management. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Jordi Visser is the President & CIO of $1.7 billion Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, an asset management firm with a 40-year history of focusing on innovative investment processes and cutting edge thought leadership.  Our conversation covers Jordi’s decade of learning at Morgan Stanley, and then turns to a deep dive on all aspects of Weiss’ equity market neutral, multi-manager process, including the importance of data visualization to risk management, behavioral alpha, improving portfolio manager performance, blending macro insights with a multi-manager team, factor-based replication, hiring managers, ranking managers, and knowing when to move on.  We then discuss issues with the use of analytics outside of public equities, pending problem caused by high corporate leverage, opportunities in biotech and healthcare, the future of the hedge fund industry, and positioning an asset manager for the future. Jordi leads a rigorous approach to identifying, assessing, and improving an internal multi-manager team using data analytics.  The transparency and tools he employs are a few steps ahead of where most allocators find themselves today, and as such, his insights can shine a light on the path where all allocators can develop going forward. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast    

On today’s manager meeting, Tim Recker interviews Satya Patel. Tim is the Chief Investment Officer of the $4 billion James Irvine Foundation. Satya is a Partner and Co-Founder of Homebrew, a $190 million seed stage venture capital firm that takes a concentrated, hands-on, and thesis driven approach. Satya also is a Venture Advisor to Screendoor Partners, an investment vehicle designed to back underrepresented first-time venture capitalists. Before they get going, Tim and I discuss his interest in Homebrew, distinction from other operator-led VCs, and his perspective on Screendoor. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Savneet Singh is the President and CEO of PAR Technology Corp and a Partner at CoVenture. PAR is a $1.6 billion market cap public company whose technology services over 10,000 restaurant locations in over 110 countries. And CoVenture is a $2 billion investment firm focusing on novel asset classes whose founder, Ali Hamed, was a past guest on the show. Savneet previously co-founded GBI, an electronic platform for the trading of real assets, and Tera Holdings, a holding company of niche software businesses. He is an unusual talent whose achievements have been recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30 and Crain's 40 under 40. Our conversation covers Sav’s early love of investing, time on Wall Street, transition to operator, and lessons learned along the way. We then turn to PAR, discussing its history, corporate culture, and trends in software. We close Savneet’s thoughts on crypto, advice for managers and allocators, and his growth as an investor from serving as an operator. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s manager meetings, Ellen Ellison speaks with Rashmi Kwatra. Ellen is a past guest on Capital Allocators when she was Chief Investment Officer of the University of Illinois Foundation. Rashmi is the founder and CIO of Sixteenth Street Capital, a Singapore based manager focused on emerging and frontier markets in South and Southeast Asia with $240 million under management. Sixteenth Street manages a concentrated fundamental equity portfolio with a long-term focus on Asia’s fastest growing capital markets. Before they kick it off, Ellen and I discuss her due diligence process and the fit of Sixteenth Street in her portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Paula Volent is the recently named Chief Investment Officer for Rockefeller University’s $2.5 billion endowment. Paula previously oversaw Bowdoin College’s endowment for twenty years as it grew from $450 million to $2 billion during her tenure and generated returns at the very top of the industry. Bowdoin’s Investment Committee Chair, Stan Druckenmiller, describes Paula as an innovative, outside-of-the-box thinker, an aggressive risk taker, and a workaholic whose passion is unlike anyone he has ever seen. Paula is also one of my oldest friends in the business from our time crossing paths at Yale in the mid ‘90s. Our conversation covers Paula’s unique career path from art conservation to endowment management and the transferable lessons she learned along the way. In the process, we discuss her approach at Bowdoin and plans for Rockefeller University. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s Manager Meetings, Kim Lew speaks with Stefan Kaluzny. Kim is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Columbia Investment Management Company, where she is responsible for managing the University’s $11 billion endowment. She also recently received Institutional Investor’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Stefan is a Founder and Managing Director of Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm specializing in consumer, distribution, and retail with approximately $10 billion in assets under management. Sycamore’s sector-oriented strategy focuses on partnering with management teams to improve operating profitability and strategic value in their business. To kick it off Kim and I discuss her due diligence process at Carnegie and her upcoming re-underwriting of Sycamore at Columbia, both with an eye on her longstanding friendship with Stefan. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Erik Serrano Berntsen is the Founder and CEO of Stable Asset Management, whose mission is to back the Founders of tomorrow’s leading investment firms. Our conversation starts with Erik’s own experience from launch to around $3 billion in assets under management today. We turn to the lessons he’s learned providing strategic capital, advice, and support to investment Founders early in their lifecycle. We discuss the qualities that make for successful Founders and the factors to maximize the probability of success across building teams, attracting capital, and staying resilient. We close with Erik’s perspective on the seeding business. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s episode of Manager Meetings, Ethan Berman interviews Hamish Corlett. Ethan was the founder and CEO of NYSE-listed RiskMetrics Group until it was bought by MSCI in 2010. Upon the sale of the business, Ethan invested in just one money manager, TDM, a shareholder of RiskMetrics at the time. Hamish is a co-founder of TDM Growth Partners, an Australia-based investment firm that manages $1.5 billion in growth companies ranging from early-stage privates to publicly-listed companies on behalf of just 20 individuals. Before they get going, Ethan and I discuss how he met TDM, their research process from his perspective as a CEO of a public company, and his decision to invest personally. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Matt Brown is the Founder CEO of CAIS, a leading alternative investment platform on which thousands of financial advisors have invested over $12 billion in alternatives across private equity, private credit, hedge funds, and real estate.  Our conversation covers Matt’s background as both a financial advisor and distributor of alternatives that collectively led to the idea behind CAIS. We discuss the development of a two-sided platform, structural features for both financial advisors and managers, and challenges along the way. We then turn to the wave of capital coming from this community and what it means for investors. Lastly, we discuss Matt’s perspective on leadership and the future of CAIS.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s manager meeting, Ellen Ellison speaks with Jon Brolin. Ellen is the former Chief Investment Officer of the University of Illinois Foundation, which she joined in 2013 as the first leader of the now $2.4 billion Foundation. Jon is the Founder and Managing Partner of Edenbrook Capital, a $400 million manager of a concentrated portfolio of micro and small cap U.S. equities.  Edenbrook applies a private markets approach to public markets, intending to own and add value to its portfolio companies over a multi-year time horizon.  First, Ellen and I discuss how she came to find an off-the-run manager and some of her process in getting over the hurdle to allocate to what became a very successful partnership. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Barry Sternlicht is Chairman, CEO, and Founder of Starwood Capital Group, a $95 billion real estate investment firm with 4,000 employees and 16 offices worldwide. Barry has invested nearly $200 billion across every major real estate asset class around the world. The list of related real estate companies he’s created, results, and associated accolades are extensive and truly impressive. Our conversation covers Barry’s beginnings as an entrepreneur and real estate investor with some great stories along the way. We then turn to the current opportunity set across real estate asset classes and geographies and close with his approach to managing his own capital through his family office, SPACS, and experience during the pandemic. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Today’s episode of Manager Meetings is our first sponsored show, with our friends at Janus Henderson Investors. I had the chance to speak with Daniel Graña, who is responsible for Janus Henderson’s emerging markets equity strategy. Janus Henderson is a leading global asset manager with $400 billion under management. Our conversation covers some stories of the wild west early days in emerging markets, Daniel’s strategy focusing on the intersection of good companies with good governance and good countries, portfolio construction, application of the process to China, benefits of aligning with a large organization when tackling emerging markets, and the case for emerging markets today. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Today’s show is a little different from previous ones. Our Chief of Staff, Hank Strmac, had an idea to blend investing with some fun. It turned out I had just the crew. For the last twenty years, four friends and I have met for dinner regularly to talk investing. Three of them - Brett Barth from BBR Partners, Jon Harris from Alternative Investment Management, and Meredith Jenkins from Trinity Wall Street, are past guests on the show. The fourth, Casey Whalen from Truvvo Partners, was a colleague of mine at Yale back in the mid-90s. We recently got together in Brett’s offices and riffed on a range of topics, including Covid, crypto, nuances in private equity and hedge funds, non-institutional investing, China, diversity, and ESG.  We closed with a round on the two people who most influenced our careers. If you enjoy this as much as I do this crew, reach out to Hank or me and let us know. I suspect I can cajole them into doing it again. Until then, please enjoy my most recent gathering with Brett, Jon, Meredith, and Casey. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Jon Harris is the CEO of Alternative Investment Management, a twenty-year-old investment firm that started as a family office and has evolved into managing $1 billion in hedge fund and private equity strategies on behalf of a range of fascinating business and investment executives.  Our conversation starts with the formation of AIM and its people-based investment approach.  We discuss building a network to source and diligence managers, filtering the universe of prospects, understanding the motivations of managers, conducting reference checks, and using the information they gather. We then turn to AIM’s private equity strategy, including selecting managers, the misalignment of interests in co-investments, and the death by a thousand cuts of hidden fees.  We close talking about the continued purpose of hedgeD funds, due diligence tricks, preparing for unexpected risk, managing time, and philanthropy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Meredith Jenkins is the Chief Investment Officer of Trinity Wall Street, where she oversees $5.5 billion of the church’s endowment and real estate assets.  Before taking the helm as Trinity’s first CIO, she was the co-CIO of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Andrew Carnegie’s foundation, from 2011 to 2016. She joined Carnegie in 1999 as its first investment associate and was an integral part of the build-out of the Corporation’s investment capability under its first CIO.  During the period, Meredith spent four years in Asia as the Corporation’s special representative focusing on opportunities in China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Meredith started her career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, Sanford Bernstein in research, and Cambridge Associates in consulting before attending Harvard Business School. She currently sits on the Investment Committee of the Wenner Gren Foundation and the Board of Directors of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. Our conversation starts with Meredith’s early career lessons and discusses alignment of interest, standing by managers in difficult times, markers of success, manager research in Asia, the co-CIO structure at Carnegie, and governance in her new challenge of starting an investment office from scratch. Fun loving and smart as a tack, Meredith offers pearls of wisdom through our conversation. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Brett Barth is a founder and the CIO of BBR Partners. BBR manages north of $12.5B on behalf of 125 families in its multi-family office. In this episode, we start talking about raising twins, a family issue close to both of our hearts. From there we learn about how Brett came to form BBR. We spend a lot of time going into depth on his firm’s asset allocation process and on the decision-making process of manager selection.  Along the way we touch on inefficiencies in Asia in the early days and in music royalties today.  Brett offers nuggets of practical substance for allocators of all types – from financial advisors to large institutional managers. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

On today’s Manager Meetings, Beezer Clarkson speaks with Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi. Beezer is a past guest on Capital Allocators and is a Partner at Sapphire Ventures, where she is responsible for the management of Sapphire’s fund investments in early stage venture funds globally. Mike and Nikhil are co-founders of Footwork Ventures, an early-stage venture firm that closed on its first fund earlier this year, which was significantly oversubscribed. Footwork plans to invest in Seed stage and Series A companies with early signs of product market fit and the potential for decades of customer love. The partners discuss their blend of investing and operating skills, and their fundraising process. Before they kick it off, Beezer and I discuss how she discovered Footwork, her due diligence process, decision to invest, and gaining capacity. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Luke Ellis is the CEO of Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund company at $135 billion in assets across five distinct investment engines. Luke is also the Deputy Chairman of the Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), and previously joined the show to discuss the organization alongside Mario Therrien from CDPQ. That episode is replayed in the feed. This time around, our conversation is focused on Luke and his wide-ranging wisdom about markets and asset management businesses. We talk about his start in the business, his decade in the heyday of hedge fund of funds, and his last decade at the helm of Man Group. In the process, we touch on the role of CEO, Luke’s perspectives on recruiting, growth, incentives, technology, private equity, and risks going forward. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien are long-time veterans of the hedge fund industry who hold the Chairman and Deputy Chairman seats of the SBAI, or Standards Board of Alternative Investments. The SBAI is an industry consortium that brings together managers and investors to set best practices for the alternative investment industry. In their day jobs, Luke is the CEO of Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund company with $120 billion in assets, and Mario is the Head of Investment Funds and External Management at Canadian pension and insurance fund manager CDPQ, where he oversees $45 billion of funds managed externally. Our conversation focuses on the activities of the SBAI, including its purpose, origin, members, and evolution. We cover how members of an industry driven by different interests came to agree on anything and what has transpired since its founding after the financial crisis. We then turn to the state of the hedge fund industry and discuss its structure, fees, and future. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

On today’s Manager Meeting, Paul Black speaks to Ryan Batchelor.  Paul is a popular past guest on the show and the Co-CEO of WCM Investment Management.  Ryan is the Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager at Clifford Capital Partners, a $320 million value manager based in Alpine, Utah. Clifford employs a blend of core and deep value holdings selected through bottom-up research into sustainable wide moat businesses for core holdings and out of favor stocks for deep value holdings. The overlap of interest in moats led WCM to take an equity stake in Clifford three years ago. We’ll start with my chat with Paul about what led him to Ryan. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Katie Hall is the Founder and Co-Chair of Hall Capital Partners, a $40 billion OCIO for high-net-worth families, endowments and foundations. She launched Hall Capital with the backing of Don Fisher, Warren Hellman and recent Presidential candidate Tom Steyer back in 1994 and has grown that base to serve 130+ clients today.  Our conversation covers Katie’s background, her path to starting Hall Capital, and her approach to the business. We then turn to her investment philosophy, customized asset allocation, and thoughts on alternatives, crypto, and ESG. We close with Katie’s perspectives on governance and the future of Hall Capital. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s manager meeting, Mario Therrien speaks with Leda Braga. Mario is a two-time past guest on the show and is the Head of Investment Funds and External Management at Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). CDPQ oversees $300 billion for pension funds in the province of Quebec. Leda Braga is the founder and CEO of Systematica Investments, a $10 billion hedge fund with a quantitative and systematic approach. Leda founded Systematica in 2015 after a decade of experience managing assets with her team in the same strategy at BlueCrest Capital. Before they get going, Mario and I discuss the key factors in selecting a systematic manager and the role of Systematica in CDPQ’s portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Three years ago, Paul Black from WCM Investment Management joined me on the show for a very popular conversation. At the time, WCM managed $25 billion in global growth equities out of the limelight in Laguna Beach, CA.  Last year, I had a second conversation with WCM with Mike Trigg, the Portfolio Manager of its Focused Growth International strategy. Mike discussed the colorful history of the firm and its research to identify businesses with widening moats and cultures aligned with their competitive advantage. Both shows are available on the feed. Well, in the last three years, WCM has continued to excel and defy the headwinds of active management. Their $25 billion in assets under management three years ago has grown to around $100 billion today. Today’s show is, in effect, the third meeting with WCM.  My guest is Mike Tian, Portfolio Manager and Analyst at WCM, where he oversees the firm’s emerging markets strategy and thinks deeply about moat trajectories. Our conversation begins with Mike’s definition of moats and assessment of moat trajectories, using Visa as an example.  We then turn to his application of moat trajectory analysis in China, including the value of heavy industries, analysis of culture, consumer preferences, risk, and some investment examples along the way. We close with Mike’s thoughts on the moat trajectory of WCM itself. Please enjoy my conversation with Mike Tian from WCM. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

You may remember my popular first meeting from a few years ago with Paul Black of WCM, then a $25 billion asset manager in Laguna Beach, CA. Since then, WCM has gone up and to the right in every way, they sold a minority piece of the business to Natixis, continue to put big numbers on the board, and have grown to north of $66 billion, defying the fade of active management outflows. My guest on today’s show is Mike Trigg, a partner and portfolio manager of WCM’s Focused International Growth strategy that comprises the majority of the firm’s assets. We discuss Mike’s background, arrival at WCM in 2005, near implosion of the firm shortly thereafter, and the rising of the international strategy from those ashes. We then dive in deeper to the core tenants of WCM’s approach, discussing how the firm analyzes widening moats and cultures tied to competitive advantage. Lastly, we talk about how WCM’s growth has impacted the firm. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:54 – How Paul got started in the business 4:52 – Lessons learned in the early years of his career             5:56 – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings             6:01 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor             6:05 – The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel 7:49 – What works about growth stock investing 9:01 – What constitutes a great growth company 13:47 – Defining and measuring a company’s competitive advantage 17:50 – How does he assess a company’s culture             19:41 – The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance 20:26 – Questions that help assess company culture 21:57 – Any data to back up claims that companies with good cultures perform better over time 22:46 – Culture aligning with competitive advantage 24:30 – Looking at WCM’s moat and culture 31:23 – The landscape for active management 33:53 – Weathering tough periods for the firm 37:02 – How do they think about culture in other countries 39:01 – Why does growth stock investing work when the data shows otherwise 40:47 – What is he excited about in growth stocks 43:45 – Tailwinds at the sector level 45:10 – Downside protection in the portfolio 46:38 – Patterns of positive and negative allocator behavior 48:35 – How do they manage the change in the portfolio going from 200 million to 26 billion 49:53 – Closing questions

On today’s show, Roz Hewsenian interviews Jan Garfinkle. Roz serves as the Chief Investment Officer of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, an $8 billion foundation dedicated to increasing access to health care. Jan is the founder of Arboretum Ventures, a $700 million health care-focused venture capital firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Arboretum focuses on investments “off the coast” targeting companies that seek to reduce healthcare costs in devices, diagnostics, services and IT. Before they begin, Roz and I discuss her discovery of Arboretum, attractive qualities of the firm, and positioning in Helmsley’s portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Jennifer Heller is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Brandywine Group Advisors, Inc., a subsidiary of Brandywine Trust Group. Jenny manages $12 billion of ‘family endowments’ that are effectively permanent capital if well invested and managed. She is nothing short of a superstar CIO. Jenny was the 7th guest on the show back in 2017, and that recording is replayed in the feed. Our second conversation gets a bit more in the weeds on Jenny’s superb thought processes.  We discuss a beginner’s mind, the deep dive aspect of Brandywine’s research process using examples from affordable housing, crypto, and insurance, KPIs for managers, position sizing, lessons learned in the manager evaluation process, and how her thinking about teams and culture has evolved.  Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

Jenny Heller is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Brandywine Trust Group.  Brandywine formed 25 years ago to manage the capital for a small group of families that all share a long-term, multi-generational time horizon. Today, it oversees almost $9B for those same families, much of it from compounding over a quarter century. The Group invests flexibly across asset classes, with a focus on partnering with people who they believe have sustainable competitive advantages, share their long-term vision, and have highly aligned interests.  These elite managers often start with great ideas, but limited capital.  Before taking the helm at Brandywine five years ago, Jenny worked at the Sloan Foundation, Stanford University Management Company, and Merrill Lynch in its investment banking program. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she serves on its Investment Advisory Committee, and Stanford Business School. Our conversation starts with Jenny’s frustrating experiences with a non-profit micro finance in India and South Africa and turns to her career allocating money on behalf of non-profits and families. We touch on subtleties in picking managers for taxable investors, challenges in executing a long-term strategy, learning from mistakes, and mentorship. Jenny’s clear and deep thought process provides pearls of wisdom throughout our conversation. Learn MoreSubscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Read the transcripts

On today’s manager meeting, Tim McCusker speaks with Rick Rieder. Tim is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, one of the industry’s largest independent investment consultants with over $1.3 trillion assets under advisement. Rick is BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer of Global Fixed Income, a group that manages approximately $2 trillion in assets. BlackRock’s fixed income platform covers both active and index mandates across a breadth of vehicles and strategies around the globe.  Before we dive in, Tim and I discuss how NEPC works with BlackRock in client portfolios and positions the Strategic Opportunities Fund in fixed income allocations. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Matt Spielman is the Founder and CEO of Inflection Point Partners an executive coaching practice he launched after a twenty-year career in the financial and corporate world. Matt partners with high-performing executives and their teams in asset management, media, professional sports, and other industries, and last year was named one of the leading coaches in asset management by Institutional Investor. Our conversation covers Matt’s background and path to executive coaching, inflection points in his own career, and his coaching philosophy. We then turn to frameworks for setting goals, executing on them, aligning interests across an organization, and dealing with inevitable setbacks. We close with Matt’s thoughts on turnover in an asset management firms and advice for senior leaders. I should note that Matt was a classmate of mine from business school and is also my executive coach. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s manager meeting, Donna Snider speaks with Bruce Martin. Donna was a past guest on the show when named Institutional Investor’s top CIO of the future.  Sure enough, today she serves as the Chief Investment Officer at Hackensack Meridian Health. Bruce founded Still Lake Capital to invest in a concentrated portfolio of equities after spending twenty-five years in the credit markets, including seventeen at Angelo, Gordon.  Five years later, he’s still at it, managing his capital alongside that of some friends.  Donna was a long-time investor with Bruce at Angelo, Gordon and has watched his progress carefully in his new venture. Before she dives in with Bruce, we chat about why she’s stayed connected to him through his transition and when she might be ready to take the leap to back Still Lake. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

My guests on today’s show are financial journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap, co-authors of “The Caesars Palace Coup,” a book detailing the bankruptcy of Caesars Entertainment. Coming off the heels of our Private Equity Masters mini-series, this conversation dives into a private equity deal gone wrong, including some technical aspects of what it takes to emerge from a bankruptcy. We walk through the intricacies, tensions and dynamics of the Caesars bankruptcy, whose stakeholders included Apollo, TPG, GSO, Elliot, Silver Point, Oaktree, and Appaloosa – a literal who’s who of giants in private equity and distressed investing. We then turn to applicable lessons for investors, including power dynamics, the unwritten rules of distressed investing, and the role of skill and luck.  Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Today’s show is a special sponsor insight highlighting an example of the terrific research that comes out of Pitchbook. My guest is Wylie Fernyhough, PitchBook’s lead private equity analyst, where he produces industry research and dives deep on thematic areas of interest. Our conversation covers his research on the business of buying stakes in asset managers.  We discuss its history, rationale, and perspectives from each side of the table involved in these transactions - the stake buyer, the manager who sells a stake in their business, and investors in the manager’s funds. We also touch on the seeding business, private equity investments in sports franchises, and publicly listed alternative managers. We are grateful to PitchBook for their sponsorship of Private Equity Masters, and eager to highlight the great work they do. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s show, Stephen Gilmore interviews Greg Jensen. Stephen is the Chief Investment Officer at New Zealand Super Fund, the NZD $59 billion (USD $41 billion) innovative sovereign wealth fund whose CEO Matt Whineray was a former guest on Capital Allocators.  Greg is the Co-CIO of Bridgewater Associates, where he works alongside fellow Co-CIOs Ray Dailo and Bob Prince at the $150 billion systematic global macro manager that he joined twenty-five years ago. Bridgewater’s investment process is underpinned by their desire to understand how global markets and economies work, use of technology, and principles-based firm culture focused on radical truth and transparency. We kick if off with my chatting with Stephen about his relationship with Bridgewater, uniqueness of the firm, and fit in New Zealand Super’s portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Our Private Equity Masters mini-series concludes with Chuck Davis, the CEO and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Stone Point Capital. Stone Point has invested $21 billion across 135 businesses, all in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Stone Point’s predecessor entity at Marsh McLellan twenty-three years ago, he was a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he spent the prior twenty-three years, culminating in serving as Head of Investment Banking Services Worldwide. Our conversation covers Chuck’s time at Goldman Sachs, his transition to private equity, and the formation of Stone Point Capital. We then turn to the firm’s multi-year, outbound, targeted search for the best executives in financial services, work with portfolio companies, activity in the asset management sector, and management of Stone Point. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s manager meeting, Kristen VanGelder speaks with Jonathan Lewinsohn. Kristen is Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Evanston Capital, a $4 billion hedge fund of funds whose CEO and CIO, Adam Blitz, was a past guest on the show. She’s spent the last eighteen years at Evanston alongside Adam and the team. Jonathan co-founded Diameter Capital four years ago alongside Scott Goodwin and today manages a $6 billion credit-focused hedge fund alongside $1 billion in CDOs and a $1 billion drawdown fund. The two were colleagues at Anchorage Capital, and Jonathan spent some time at Centerbridge Capital as well before starting Diameter. Their conversation includes insights into the credit markets, Diameter’s approach, and how it all comes together. Before we dive in, Kristen and I discuss how Evanston came to back Diameter on day one and how it fits into their portfolio. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Orlando Bravo is a Founder and Managing Partner of Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm focused on software and technology companies with over $78 billion in assets under management. Among his many accolades, Forbes named Orlando “Wall Street’s best dealmaker” in 2019. Our conversation covers Orlando’s background, early investment lessons, and approach around management, analytics, and collaborative culture. We then turn to the Thoma Bravo’s investment philosophy, team structure, work with portfolio companies, exit strategy, and future. We close with Orlando’s thoughts on SPACs, valuations, and philanthropy. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s manager meeting, Jim Dunn speaks with Julia Bonafede. Jim is a past guest on the show and the CEO and CIO of Verger Capital, an OCIO whose anchor client is Wake Forest University.  Jim previously served as CIO of Wake Forest and before that, was CIO of investment consultant Wilshire Associates, where he worked with Julia.  Julia was at Wilshire for 24-years, capped by serving as President of Wilshire Consulting and as a member of Wilshire’s Board of Directors and Wilshire Consulting’s Investment Committee. In 2016, she co-founded Rosetta Analytics, an investment manager reinventing active management by creating advanced artificial intelligence strategies. Their conversation includes a discussion of the past, present and future of investment consulting, the application of neutral networks and reinforced learning to investing, and the challenges for allocators in adopting an AI approach. Before we dive in, Jim and I discuss why he chose to invest in Rosetta and how the strategy fits into Verger’s portfolios. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Doug Ostrover is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blue Owl Capital, a public company borne out of a merger combining Owl Rock Capital and Dyal Capital. Doug is also the CEO and Co-CIO of Owl Rock Capital Partners, a direct lender to middle-market companies that he co-founded in 2016 and today manages $30 billion in permanent capital assets. The combined Blue Owl manages approximately $53 billion in assets, over 90% of which is in permanent capital vehicles. Previously, Doug was one of the founders, and the O, in GSO Capital Partners, which today is Blackstone’s alternative credit platform. He has been involved in leveraged finance working with private equity sponsors for thirty years. Our conversation covers Doug’s beginnings in leverage financed, the founding of GSO, and keys to his early success. We then turn to the importance of culture, sourcing investment opportunities, the underwriting process, and working with both GPs and LPs. We close with Doug’s perspective on the recent formation of Blue Owl and what the future holds for direct lending. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s show, Tom Lenehan interviews Bill Ford. Tom was a very early guest on the show while at Rockefeller University and earlier this year took over as CIO of the $1.6 billion Wallace Foundation.  Bill is Chairman and CEO of General Atlantic, a pioneer in growth equity investing that was founded by Duty Free Shoppers entrepreneur Chuck Feeney in 1980. Today, General Atlanticmanages $53 billion in assets with a globally-integrated team operating under a single investment platform.  Had the timing worked out differently, Bill quite easily would have slotted right into the roster of Private Equity Masters on Capital Allocators. Their conversation covers Bill’s path to General Atlantic, the key aspects of the firm’s global, growth equity strategy, and a host of rapid fire personal and investing questions including lessons Bill shares from his experience on investment committees. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

Virginie Morgon is the CEO of Eurazeo, a publicly listed asset manager that’s one of Europe’s leading private equity investors with more than $26 billion in assets, including $8 billion in permanent capital, across private equity, private debt, and real asset strategies. Our conversation covers Virginie’s background, transition to private equity, and Eurazeo’s rich history. We discuss the business strategy under her leadership, longstanding emphasis on ESG, European focus, investment strategy, and outlook for Eurazeo going forward.  Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

On today’s manager meeting, Joel Wittenberg speaks with Eli Casdin. Joel is the former Chief Investment Officer of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the U.S. Eli is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Casdin Capital, a $3.5 billion dollar investment firm focused on investments in life sciences. Their conversation starts with Eli’s thematic case for biotech and role of big pharma. They turn to the firm’s assessment of company management teams, private market strategy, internal management of research and decision-making processes, and the future of Casdin Capital. First, I chat with Joel about he came to invest with Casdin the fit of the strategy in Kellogg’s portfolio.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

David Rubenstein is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group. Founded back in 1987, Carlyle is one of the world’s largest and most diversified global investment firms with $260 billion in asset under management across three business segments and twenty-nine offices around the world.   Our conversation covers David’s start in private equity, growing Carlyle from the early days, raising capital skillfully, recruiting talent globally, and managing a public company. We then turn to David’s outlook for the industry, advice for CIOs, and his recent activity across his family office, writing, philanthropy, and interviewing. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Alex Shahidi speaks with Jeremy Grantham. Alex is a past guest on the show and Co-CIO of Evoke Wealth and ARIS Consulting, a $19 billion registered investment advisor he co-founded in 2014.  Jeremy is the famed leader of money manager GMO, overseeing $60 billion in assets. Their conversation discusses the current market bubble unlike any other in history, some thoughts on climate change, value investing, and where to invest today. Alex and I kick it off with his thoughts on GMO and the fit inside his portfolios. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Manager Meetings with Capital Allocators will feature an interview with a money manager, conducted by one of the manager’s institutional clients. We’ll share the stories and strategies that attracted the attention of the investor, bringing to light investment opportunities for allocators, both from well-known and less well-known managers, each time introduced by someone who believes in the manager’s ability to add value. You can find episodes of Manager Meetings at capitalallocators.com/podcast. I hope you enjoy these conversations on Thursday, right on the same Capital Allocators podcast feed.

Robert F. Smith is the Founder, Chairman and CEO, Vista Equity Partners. Vista is a private investment firm that focuses entirely on enterprise software companies and manages $75 billion in assets across private equity, permanent capital, credit and public vehicles.   Taken together, Vista’s current portfolio companies are about 70 in number and house 70,000 employees, 700,000 customers across 175 countries, and 200 million global users. Its combined revenue would make the portfolio one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world.   Our conversation covers Robert’s background, the special characteristics of enterprise software, screening potential targets, adding value through industry expertise, assessing management teams, employing operational and financial leverage, and exiting investments. We then turn to managing Vista and the competitive landscape, and close with reflections on Robert’s past mistakes and impact through philanthropy. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

John Connaughton is a Co-Managing Partner at Bain Capital, a leading global private investment firm that oversees approximately $130 billion in assets. Founded in 1984 as the pioneer of a consulting-based approach to private equity investing, Bain Capital today invests across private equity, credit, public equity, venture capital and real estate. Our conversation covers the early years of private equity at Bain Capital, its growth in products and assets, investment process, competitive environment, culture, and succession planning. We close with JC’s insights for allocators and his outlook on private equity. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript       

My guest on the first episode of Private Equity Masters is John Toomey, one of two members of the Executive Management Committee at HarbourVest Partners. For more than thirty years, HarbourVest has invested across all parts of the private equity spectrum - in funds, secondaries, and direct co-invests. Today, it oversees over $75 billion of assets and canvasses the world.    Our conversation discusses the early days of private equity investing, evolution of strategies across primaries, co-invests, and secondaries, international expansion, best practices of managers, the next wave of growth opportunities, and risks in the space.   John has a unique perch at the top of the industry and offers a wonderful perspective to kick off the mini-series. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Choiceology, Charles Schwab’s popular podcast on behavioral economics, the co-founder and co-director alongside Angela Duckworth of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and most recently, the author of How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You are to Where You Want to Be.   Our conversation covers Katy’s path to studying change and her new book, which is framed around identifying obstacles to change and using scientific principles to get past those obstacles. We outline the eight obstacles in the book and dive in on the challenges of getting started, confidence, conformity, procrastination, laziness, and making changes last. Along the way, we touch on some applications of her research to investing and to her own life.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Alex Rodriguez had a 25-year professional baseball career, highlighted by appearing in 14 MLB All-Star Games, winning the 2009 World Series Championship as a member of the New York Yankees, and hitting 696 home runs including more grand slams than any other player in history.    He is also is the Chairman and CEO of A-Rod Corp, an investment holding company he started at age 20 in 1995 that today spans investments in real estate, venture capital, a SPAC, and recently announced, the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball team.   Our conversation covers Alex’s early interest in business, lessons he learned from Warren Buffett, Magic Johnson, and Greg Norman, the strategy of A-Rod Corp, time management, leadership, and identification of partners. We then turn to his investment activities in real estate, the Slam Corp SPAC, venture capital, and the Minnesota Timberwolves, and we close discussing Alex’s reflections on his year-long suspension from baseball in 2014 and the future of A-Rod Corp.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of sixteen investment books, and now a three-time guest on the show. The bookends of his published library - his seminal book, Investment Policy, and most recent work, The Index Revolution, discuss the case for indexing for most investors. Yet one of Charley’s most longstanding and passionate engagements proved the exception to the rule – his decade and a half of service on Yale University’s Investment Committee, including nine years as Chair. Charley and I first met about twenty-five years ago in that capacity, and he’s occupied a front row seat to Yale’s success ever since.   With the recent passing of David Swensen, we decided to sit down and reminisce about David in a conversational tribute to the investor, man, and leader we both so greatly admired. We discuss Yale’s Investment Committee, roster of managers, investment team, and the unique aspects that made David great. We also touch on Charley’s latest book, the 8th edition of his seminal classic.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Investment luminary Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of 16 books, and one of the most sought-after industry advisors worldwide.  He also believes deeply in the paradox of skill and his latest book, The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now, presents a compelling case for indexing for most investors.. Charley was an early guest on the show and we reconvened to talk through the full case of indexing for individuals and some of its constraints for institutions.  Our conversation covers the case for indexing, smart beta, the retirement problem, investing in alternatives, private equity, and indexing challenges in emerging markets. After we turned off the recording, Charley proffered that we offer a prize for anyone who can find valid fault with the case against active management for most investors. Any takers can drop me an email, and I’ll be happy to put them toe-to-toe with Charley to debate the issue. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Charley Ellis is one of the most highly regarded experts in the investment business.  After spending nearly a decade as an equity research analyst in the 1960s, Charley founded financial services consulting firm Greenwich Associates in 1972 to help institutions understand what their clients think of them.  Over 50 years, Charley has worked hand in hand with nearly every major financial institution in the world and has published sixteen books on investing, including his most recent “The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now.” Charley is not just another preacher for index fund investing. He extols the virtues of indexing after having looked both broadly and deeply under the covers of some of the most successful active managers in the world. Our conversation begins with a glimpse at what equity research and the structure of the markets looked like in the 1960s and the monumentally different way research is conducted and markets function today. Charley describes elegantly why indexing is a winner’s game for many, and then walks through very special and rare qualities of three of the most successful active managers over the last few decades – Vanguard, Capital Group, and Yale University. Charley is a brilliant communicator and masterful storyteller. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoyed the conversation.  Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford University Global Projects Center. Ashby was named by CIO Magazine as one of the most influential academics in the institutional investing world. His current research focuses on the design and governance of institutional investors, with specialization on pension and sovereign wealth funds. Ashby’s most recent book, The Technologized Investor, is a practical guide showing how institutional Investors can gain the capabilities for deep innovation by reorienting their strategies and organizations around advanced technology. He also recently released a significant white paper on transparency and innovation for institutional investors for the Biden Administration.   Our conversation follows-up an early podcast, Episode 29, which is replayed in the feed.  This time around, we discuss the power of asset owners, issue of transparency, need for innovation and obstacles to achieving it, how and when to create change, examples of climate work at New Zealand Super, the Australian Super Funds, and Canadian Pension funds, and Ashby’s handful of technology start-ups focusing on these challenges.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford University Global Projects Center. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, a Senior Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California, and the co-founder of Long Game. Ashby advises sovereign wealth funds and large pension funds, and is involved with a bunch of fin tech companies, all of which attempt to create innovative solutions to fixing the financial future for individuals, pensions and countries in the years ahead. Our conversation starts with Ashby’s early work experience and path through academia, and flows into an exploration of next generation, lower cost approaches to active management for large asset owners.  We touch on investing in public equity, private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds using examples from the Canadian and Australian pensions, New Zealand Super Fund, and University of California endowment. Lastly, we discuss Long Game, an innovative company seeking to improve personal savings in the U.S.  Ashby is a passion-driven, creative thinker who rightfully has the ear of some of the most important pools of capital in the world.  His ideas will change the way you think about allocating capital. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Dan Ariely is a leading behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur and the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University. Dan is a founding partner of Irrational Capital, an investment research firm that quantifies the impact of corporate culture and employee motivation on financial performance.    My initial conversation with Dan two years ago has been one of the most downloaded episodes of the show, and a recent research piece by JP Morgan entitled The Human Capital Factor that highlights his work got me excited to catch up with him again.   Our conversation covers many aspects of his continuing research to identify positive human capital practices and performance in the workplace, including data collection and assessment, gender differences, goodwill, ESG, and changes during Covid. We then turn to the practical application of the research in the capital markets through two indexes and customized research.  We close by talking about Dan’s new research projects and some of his favorite recent answers to his Ask Ariely column in the WSJ.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Dan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor.  He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.  Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between companies and their employees, and invests in human capital factors that are linked to long-term stock price performance.  Last month, Irrational Capital announced a strategic partnership with Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital, a firm that shares their belief in the importance of the impact of corporate culture on long-term enterprise value. Our conversation starts with Dan’s journey studying pain and intuition and turns to applications of his research in the corporate setting.  We discuss his research process, measurement of human capital, applying experiments to an investment strategy, employee motivation and compensation schemes as investment factors, and constructing a portfolio of factors based purely on human capital.  We close by touching on Dan’s projects in government and with start-ups. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Sulaiman Alderbas, the Head of Alternative Investments at Kuwait’s $130 billion Public Institution of Social Security, or PIFSS. Sulaiman arrived at PIFSS from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Development in 2016, shortly before a scandal erupted when the former head of PIFSS was convicted of corruption and embezzling public funds for thirty years amounting to billions of dollars. Alongside Meshal Al-Othman, who joined to lead PIFSS from the Kuwait Fund, Sulaiman took part in a massive restructuring of the organization and portfolio.   Our conversation covers Sulaiman’s early experience as an allocator, lessons from investing in thirty hedge fund of funds at the Kuwait Fund, and transition to PIFSS at the inception of the discovery of the scandal.  We discuss the restructuring that took place over the last four years that canvassed the people, process and portfolio. Along the way, we touch on competitive advantages of size, knowledge transfer from managers, strategic stakes, and allocator innovation.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Mark Johnson is the Managing Partner of Astra Capital Management, a mid-market growth buyout firm specializing in the communications and technology services sectors. Mark co-founded Astra after twenty years of experience investing at JH Whitney, Blackstone, and Carlyle. He partnered with seasoned deal and operating executives and brought the best practices from large shops to Astra with an entrepreneurial lens to address a focused strategy in a new way.   Our conversation covers Mark’s unusually planned life path, lessons from industry giants, and the formation of Astra with a utopian ideal in mind.  We discuss the Astra team, thematic sourcing, financial creativity, deal dynamics, value creation within portfolio companies, factors of long-term success, co-investments, and club deals.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Steve Moseley is the Head of Alternative Investments at Alaska Permanent Fund, a $70 billion sovereign endowment that supports the citizens of Alaska.  Steve leads a small team, based in Juneau, Alaska, that is one of the most active participants in what he calls the space in between General Partners and Limited Partners. Across private equity, venture capital, infrastructure, and private credit, Steve and the fund are considered one of the most innovative investors in private markets.   Our conversation covers Steve’s path to Alaska, the Permanent Fund’s unique pool of capital, the history of its investment strategy, and the development of the private asset portfolio.  We then turn to the attributes of fund investments and his focus on adding value beyond fund investments, including co-investments, stakes, and seeding.  We touch on perspectives on managing through an expensive pricing environment, secondary transactions, future innovation in the portfolio, and the challenges of talent acquisition and retention.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Daniel Adamson is a Senior Managing Director at Wafra and the President of Capital Constellation, a joint venture between mega asset owners in Europe, North America and the Middle East that invests in the next generation of private equity managers. Our conversation focuses on this innovative joint venture and how a group of large asset owners came together to scale their resources.  We touch on a host of issues relating to the formation and implementation of the business, the many possibilities that are arising from this novel setup, and the serious challenges in bringing it to fruition.  I suspect we’ll see more efforts by asset owners to disintermediate pieces of the investment value chain, although as you’ll hear, it’s a lot easier said than done. Learn MoreSubscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Brian Bares is the founder of Bares Capital Management, a $5 billion long only investment boutique that employs independent, qualitative research on growing companies to build highly concentrated portfolios.   Our conversation covers Brian’s early life investing lessons, bootstrapping an asset management business, and finding product-market fit. We then turn to his investment approach, highlighting target companies across business quality, management, and growth, the research process, position sizing, decision making, and sell discipline. Lastly, we discuss the evolution of BCM’s business from a micro cap strategy to three strategies across market capitalizations today.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Cade Massey is a Professor at the Wharton School where his research focuses on judgment under uncertainty, or how, and how well, people predict what will happen in the future. In particular, he studies people analytics, or how to predict who will perform well in the future. Cade is the co-host of the “Wharton Moneyball” podcast and for many years, he’s studied talent selection at the NFL draft, which frames our discussion in advance of this year’s draft next week.   Our conversation starts with Cade’s work in the NFL with data, character assessment, and performance measurement.  We turn to decision-making lessons, including the importance of independence, understanding objectives, tracking decisions, and overcoming algorithm aversion. Along the way, we touch on stories from his work with Google, Wharton’s MBA Admissions, and Teach for America. We close with advice for allocators and insights for this year’s NFL draft.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

In our continuing exploration of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies, headlines of late have turned to NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.  From NBA Top Shots to Beeple’s artwork, NFTs are the hottest use case in the crypto ecosystem.   My friends at a16z recently released an episode on their wildly popular a16z podcast called All About NFTs, featuring Linda Xie from Scalar Capital and Jesse Walden from Variant Fund, interviewed by Sonal Chokshi.  Their conversation covers the definition, use cases, myths, and future of NFTs.    Each of Linda, Jesse, and Chris Dixon at a16z each recently wrote blogs posts that together provide terrific background and perspectives on the space.  You can find those posts alongside this episode at capitalallocators.com/a16znft.   With that, it is my pleasure to replay this episode, All About NFTs, available at a16z.com   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Yen Liow is the founder and Managing Partner of Aravt Global, a fundamental global equity firm based in New York that manages long-short and long only products. Yen founded Aravt after a long stint at famed family office Ziff Brothers Investments, where he was part of the team that managed a market, neutral long-short hedge fund in a culture of framework thinking and continuous improvement.   Our conversation covers Yen’s background, experience at ZBI, and lessons about process, competitive edge, and training. We then turn to his application of those lessons to Aravt Global. We discuss three right tail strategies for long positions, the challenges in owning compounders, the art of short selling, portfolio construction, game selection, drivers of success, and challenges going forward.   For those lovers of learning about the nuance of public equity investment strategies, you’re in for a real treat.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Dominic Garcia serves as Chief Investment Officer for the Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico (PERA), a $16 billion pension system that serves over 90,000 members and provides over $1.2 billion in annual benefits. Dominic is a native of New Mexico, began his allocator career at New Mexico PERA and returned to re-join the system in 2017 as CIO after nearly a decade at SWIB, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board.   Our conversation covers Dominic’s path to the helm at PERA, challenges of governance and compensation in public pensions, addressing underfunding with variable liabilities, and his risk-based investment approach that includes the separation of alpha and beta, overlays, and the selection of alpha managers across public equities, hedge funds, and private markets.  Dominic has three times been named in the 40 under 40 by industry publications, and you’ll soon hear why.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Jeff Housenbold, a Managing Director for the last four years at Softbank Investment Advisors, where he led one of the six investment teams that deployed the $100 billion Softbank Vision Fund. Prior to joining Softbank, Jeff worked at sixteen companies, including eleven years as CEO of Shutterfly. four years in the early days of ebay, four as Special Industry Advisor to KKR, and one as Entrepreneur in Residence at Sutter Hill Ventures. He’s also served on the Boards of dozens of companies, including Caesars Entertainment, Memphis Meats, DoorDash, Compass, Opendoor, Wag, and Groupon.   Our conversation starts with Jeff’s true rags to riches story, and then turns to a whirlwind of lessons learned as an operator at ebay during its hypergrowth and Shutterfly overseeing a successful turnaround. We then dive into the Softbank Vision Fund, including the original investment thesis, sourcing ideas, valuation discipline, decision making in groups, portfolio structure, and results.   We close by talking about the SPAC market, capital market expectations, the characteristics of successful organizations, and succession planning.   Please enjoy the countless nuggets of wisdom in my conversation with Jeff Housenbold.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

As we finish up book launch week, I thought I’d share this interview conducted by Jenny Heller, my friend, the 7th guest on the show, and the President and CIO of Brandywine Group Advisors.  We discuss the business of Capital Allocators, entrepreneurship, effectiveness, and investing – including a brief description of my most recent private equity fund investment.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

Jenny Heller is the President and Chief Investment Officer of Brandywine Trust Group.  Brandywine formed 25 years ago to manage the capital for a small group of families that all share a long-term, multi-generational time horizon. Today, it oversees almost $9B for those same families, much of it from compounding over a quarter century. The Group invests flexibly across asset classes, with a focus on partnering with people who they believe have sustainable competitive advantages, share their long-term vision, and have highly aligned interests.  These elite managers often start with great ideas, but limited capital.  Before taking the helm at Brandywine five years ago, Jenny worked at the Sloan Foundation, Stanford University Management Company, and Merrill Lynch in its investment banking program. She is a graduate of Williams College, where she serves on its Investment Advisory Committee, and Stanford Business School. Our conversation starts with Jenny’s frustrating experiences with a non-profit micro finance in India and South Africa and turns to her career allocating money on behalf of non-profits and families. We touch on subtleties in picking managers for taxable investors, challenges in executing a long-term strategy, learning from mistakes, and mentorship. Jenny’s clear and deep thought process provides pearls of wisdom throughout our conversation. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

I’m excited to share that we have launched our new website at capitalallocators.com or still, at the familiar capitalallocatorpodcast.com.   The new site makes it easier for you to engage with everything in the Capital Allocators Community - the podcast, premium content, events, and writing. Speaking of which, my new book, Capital Allocators: How the world’s elite money managers lead and invest, publishes tomorrow. Pick up a copy at Amazon or listen on Audible.   It’s now incredibly easy to sign up for our monthly mailing list and receive updates and our best reads and listens each month.  At that frequency, it’s just enough to stay in touch and not enough to flood your inbox. From there, you can also join our growing community of premium subscribers, who have access to the library of transcripts and receive a weekly premium email that includes summaries of the show, updates on the business, invitations to member-only events, and my investment thoughts – all of it is designed to connect you further with guests on the show. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy this week’s two special episodes with me on the other side of the mic  

My new book – Capital Allocators:  How the world’s elite money managers lead and invest – releases tomorrow. I’ve been on a bit of a podcast tour the last few weeks, appearing on some of my favorite shows. I thought it would be fun to share an interview about the book here, so I asked Patrick O’Shaughnessy to interview me for the show.   Our conversation covers the journey of the podcast itself and lessons from the book about interviewing, leadership and investing.   Pick up a copy at Amazon, and if you like what you read, there’s more behind the podcast and the book.   All listeners can sign up for our free mailing list and receive a compilation of the top quotes from each of the first 150 episodes of the show.   And for those interested in more, our premium content includes a weekly email, further connectivity to guests on the show, and a whole lot more.   Sign up for both at capitalallocatorspodcast.com.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Ari Paul is the co-founder and chief investment officer of BlockTower Capital, a crypto and blockchain investment firm he started alongside Matthew Goetz in 2017 with backing from Andreesen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. He started his career as a trader at Susquehanna International Group, and later found his way to the University of Chicago endowment as a portfolio manager, overseeing an internal hedge fund portfolio and assessing risk for the university’s $8 billion endowment.   Our conversation covers Ari’s early lessons in trading, discovery of crypto while at University of Chicago endowment, obstacles for institutional participation, and launch of BlockTower in 2017 as a result.  We discuss active management in the crypto markets, research and trading, portfolio construction, opportunities in NFTs and gaming, risks, and the exciting landscape over the coming years.   While this episode concludes our current mini-series, we’ve just scratched the surface on crypto, blockchain protocols, and institutional engagement in the space. In the coming months, we’ll dive deeper into the evolving ecosystem with more key participants and ideas. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Seth Ginns is Managing Partner and Head of Liquid Investments at CoinFund, which he joined a year ago after a seventeen-year run as a large cap growth equity research analyst at Jennison Associates.  While in that role, Seth began angel investing a decade ago and became an early investor in Coinbase, Bitcoin, and Ethereum, which eventually led to diving into the space full-time.   Our conversation widens the discussion of crypto investments beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum with discussions of base layer protocols, decentralized finance, and non-fungible tokens. We discuss Seth’s background, how he invests in these markets, and some of the key issues and risks investing in the space.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Michael Sonnenshein is the CEO of Grayscale Investments, which is the world’s largest digital currency asset manager with $40 billion under management.  Grayscale offers investors access and exposure to digital currencies in the familiar format of publicly traded vehicles. Our conversation discusses the basics of how institutional investors can participate in cryptocurrency investing, including counterparties, custody, and on ramping. We discuss Grayscale’s suite of products, its selection process for new products, technology infrastructure development, service providers, trading dynamics, and institutional interest in the space.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Eric Peters is the founder and CIO One River Asset Management, where he searches for high conviction strategies coming out of his team’s expertise trading and investing in thematic macro, volatility, systematic, and inflation strategies – each as it turns out, turned his focus on study bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.   Eric made news in November when he executed a $600 million purchase of bitcoin, then the largest public transaction to date. He has called bitcoin the most interesting macro trade he’s seen in thirty years in the business, and we kick off this mini series, Crypto for Institutions with his macro case for the digital asset.   Our conversation discusses the intrigue of Bitcoin as a form of money, how digital currencies will somewhat ironically increase the power of governments and the likely co-existence of bitcoin with government digital currencies in the future. The then turn to the development of institutional infrastructure for digital assets, Eric’s perspective on bitcoin as an investor and a trader, the reflexive nature of bitcoin supply, and the risks in the asset.  Lastly, we discuss the story of Eric’s big trade, the future of bitcoin, and institutional interest in the space.   Please enjoy my conversation with Eric Peters in this first of four episodes in the mini-series Crypto for Institutions.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.   Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.   Learn MoreSubscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

Alex Shahidi and Damien Bisserier are the Co-CIOs and of Evoke Wealth and ARIS Consulting, a $19 billion registered investment advisor they co-founded in 2014.  Alex came at the business from a long tenure advising portfolios at Merrill Lynch, and Damien joined after nine years at Bridgewater.   Our conversation covers their respective backgrounds, shared investment philosophy, and strategy of searching for uncorrelated returns across public markets, alpha strategies, and private markets. We discuss the risk parity approach to public markets, incorporating human behavior when calibrating risk, the sweet spot in hedge funds, uncorrelated private equity return streams, and investment process.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

Rostin Behnam is the Acting Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. He was nominated and approved by the prior administration in 2017 to serve as one of five Commissioners of the CFTC and in January, accepted the role as Acting Chairman. The CFTC has a mission to promote the integrity, resilience, and vibrancy of the U.S. derivatives markets, working towards effective price discovery and risk management in fair and transparent markets. As a part of his role, Russ sponsors the CFTC’s Market Risk Advisory Committee. Our conversation covers the history, function and process of the CFTC and the Acting Chair’s path to the seat. We then discuss his perspective on crypto assets and dive into an exhaustive policy piece published last fall by his Market Risk Advisory Committee entitled “Managing Climate Risk in the Financial System.” The document is positioned to become the leading regulatory policy manual on financial climate risk for the new administration. Our conversation took place shortly before Russ rose to Acting Chairman and before the wild market volatility in recent weeks. We touched base about his perspective, but the situation is too fluid for a public response. Acting Chairman Behnam released brief statement about the silver markets that said, “The CFTC is closely monitoring recent activity in the silver markets. The Commission is communicating with fellow regulators, the exchanges, and stakeholders to address any potential threats to the integrity of the derivatives markets for silver, and remains vigilant in surveilling these markets for fraud and manipulation.” Stay tuned, as the subject may well be fodder for another conversation down the road. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy and a popular past guest on the show.  In our first conversation, we discussed branding an asset management firm and many of Jen’s leadership nuggets of wisdom.  That conversation follows on the feed.   Our second conversation discusses the evolution of marketing and brand development in asset management and how the pandemic has accelerated trends already in place.  We discuss business development in a virtual world, including building a digital profile, developing a presentation style, handling significant world events, differentiating from others, and nailing the narrative. We end by turning to lessons Jen learned on internal communication and leadership through the health crisis.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Prosek Partners ranks among the top 10 independent public relations firms in the U.S., and among the top financial communications consultancies.  The firm has been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for nine years running.  Jen is also a two-time author.  Our conversation covers the foibles of professional marketing in asset management, building a brand, measuring a successful branding effort, managing the story of weak performance, and describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding.  We then turn to some of Jen’s fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of ‘Just Ask’, behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata are the co-founders of Symphony Financial Partners, a twenty-year old Asia-based manager of $1.3 billion in assets. Symphony focuses on deeply undervalued companies in Japan, with a long-bias, constructive engagement strategy to work closely alongside willing management teams to see intrinsic value reflected in the share price.   Our conversation covers their early careers in Japan, the country’s employee first, shareholder last culture, the resulting disconnect of corporate activity and share price, and the formation of Symphony to invest in the few companies willing to close the gap over time. We then walk through their investment process, including the challenges of taking advantage of what appears incredible value on paper, offering friendly advice as a key component of due diligence, conducting research, and structuring portfolios. We close with a discussion of corporate governance and the necessity of a long-term perspective to thrive in Japan.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript     

I am excited to share the first episode of a new podcast called The Decision Education Podcast.  It’s the brainchild of the Alliance for Decision Education, a non-profit on whose Advisory Board I serve, whose mission is founded on the belief that better decisions lead to better lives and a better society. In the first season of the podcast, Dr. Joe Sweeney talks to experts and shares tips on all things related to decision making.  Today’s special episode is Joe’s interview with Michael Mauboussin, entitled Base Rates and Bees. Please enjoy this introduction to The Decision Education podcast, which you can subscribe on your favorite podcast platform.

Today’s show is a preview of a mini-series coming in a few months, where I’ll be speaking with some of the preeminent leaders in private equity to learn more about what the continuing insatiable interest in the asset class is all about.   Paul Salem is a Senior Managing Director Emeritus at Providence Equity. Providence is a premier private equity and asset management firm focused on media, communications, education, software and services with $49 billion in asset commitments. Paul joined Providence when it was a $171 million media focused boutique in 1992 and became an integral part of the firm’s growth and success ever since until retiring a year ago. Paul considers himself the luckiest guy in the world, which you can hear more about in a TED talk he delivered a few years ago.   Our conversation covers Paul’s entry to the business, the benefits of specialization, Providence’s nice guy advantage, and the development of the firm over three decades.  We then turn to the competitive landscape for deals, value of operating partners, evolution of private equity, advice for allocators in the space, and life after stepping away from the business.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Collette Chilton is the CIO of Williams College where she has overseen its $3 billion since 2006. Collette is nothing short of a legend in the business. She has sat in a CIO seat since the early 1990s at the helm of public pension MassPrim and corporate pension Lucent before joining Williams. Institutional Investors bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Collette in 2019, and Barron’s named her one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance in 2020.   Our conversation covers Collette’s career path and lessons learned before joining Williams. We then turn to her arrival at Williams in 2006 to a phone, a computer, and a legacy portfolio, Williams’ governance structure leveraging alumni advisors, asset allocation, manager selection, manager monitoring, hedge funds, venture capital, and navigating around popular managers.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

Fran Kinniry is a twenty-three year veteran at the Vanguard Group, where he’s led the teams that spearhead Vanguard’s research into new products. Fran helped Vanguard enter the direct advice business, developed Vanguard’s Advisor Alpha concept, started its Investment Strategy Group, and most recently heads Vanguard’s latest initiative investing in private equity. Our conversation covers an overview of Vanguard business, Fran’s three roles over a quarter century at the firm, behavioral coaching, and the firm’s foray into private equity. We discuss the research process leading to the introduction of private equity, potential scale across institutional and retail clients, timing of the decision, fees, and manager selection.  We then close discussing Vanguard’s cooperative ownership model, compensation, and the future of index fund. When the industry’s leading index fund manager known for low-cost investing steps into high-cost private equity after years of research that showed the benefits of the asset class, those calling for the abandonment of active management should take notice. Like all other practitioners in active management, Fran and Vanguard preach outcomes over costs. Learn MoreSubscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google  Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

Chris Dixon is a General Partner at Andreesen Horowitz, where he focuses on the a16z Crypto Funds.  Before joining Andreesen in 2013, Chris co-founded, built and sold two technology companies and was a prolific seed investor, founding member of Founder Collective, and personal investor.  At various spots along the way, Chris was an investor in BuzzFeed, Uber, Venmo, Hotel Tonight, Coinbase, and Oculus, among many others.   Our conversation covers Chris’ early interest in computers and business, and lessons from starting companies and angel investing.  We then turn to his activities since joining Andreesen Horowitz, discussing new computing platforms, a brief history of centralized and decentralized computing, development of blockchain technologies, potential killer apps, token basics, and investor perception.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript   

James Clear, author of last year’s New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits, which has already sold 3 million copies worldwide.  James also publishes a weekly email entitled 3-2-1 Thursday that works to deliver the most wisdom per word of any newsletter on the web. You can sign up at jamesclear.com   Our conversation covers James’ entrepreneurial missteps that led to writing, following what worked to focus on habits, and lessons to build a large audience.  We then turn to Atomic Habits, covering the definition of a habit, four steps to creating habits, importance of identity, obstacles to good habit formation, and the practical application of these principles in James’ life. We close with James’ New Years resolutions for 2021 and his advice for bringing yours to fruition.   Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List  Read the Transcript 

With a big thank you for your enthusiastic engagement with the show, Ted offers a year in review of the podcast and the business behind the podcast.  He closes with a countdown of the top episodes of 2020. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Rahul Moodgal has spent 20 years as a fund raiser across long only strategies, hedge funds, fund of funds, customized solutions, start-ups, and non-profits.  Collectively, Rahul has raised and helped raise $60 billion for firms since 2005.  He started his career in the industry at powerhouse TT International, and later joined The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) where he led the marketing effort that raised $20 billion in just 3½ years.  Within TCI’s affiliate model, Rahul also was responsible for the largest India fund raise in history ($1 billion for TCI New Horizon Fund), and the largest sector fund launch in history ($1.1 billion for Algebris Investments). Our conversation covers capital raising lessons learned from teaching, the value of transparency, the gold rush before 2008, the lean times afterwards, modern fee structures, the three key points to effective marketing, the three traits that will kill you, the two biggest issues start-up funds face, the best questions asked by leading allocators, and some of the worst horror stories in attempted capital raising. We close comparing by fund raising for charities and investment firms.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Dan Rasmussen is the Founder and portfolio manager at Verdad Advisers, which he launched in 2014 to replicate the historical success of private equity in the public markets.  He’s an outspoken critic of the market’s enthusiasm for private equity, resulting from research he conducted in the business while working at Bain Capital. Our conversation covers Dan’s early education in the Socratic method, research into why private equity works, current risk in the private equity and private credit markets, and the launch of Verdad to find private equity-like outcomes in the public markets.  We then turn to Verdad, including key lessons upon shifting to public equity investing, stock screens, portfolio construction, position sizing and the competitive advantage of capacity constraints.  Lastly, we touch on Verdad’s written research and preparing a portfolio for a recession. If you like Dan’s thought process, you can sign up to receive his team’s weekly research at verdadcap.com/strategy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Gregory Zuckerman is a special writer at the Wall Street Journal and the author of five books, including his most recent, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution.  Greg joined the Journal in 1996 and writes about big financial trades, firms, and personalities.  He’s a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, the highest honor in business journalism, and his work has included breaking the stories of the discord between Bill Gross and PIMCO, the London Whale trade, subprime mortgage collapse, and meltdown of hedge fund Amaranth in 2007. Our conversation starts with Greg’s path to journalism, touches on the aftermath of his book The Greatest Trade Ever about John Paulson and the subprime meltdown. We then turn to his recent tome on Jim Simons and Renaissance, including the formation and evolution of the Medallion fund, precarious moments in its history, the human element of a quant shop, differences between Renaissance and other quant competitors, leadership, impacting the world with vast wealth, and why Renaissance has been so special. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

In the midst of this unprecedented time, I thought it would be helpful to hear from James Aitken, the extraordinary macro strategist who specializes in understanding the functioning of the financial system. I reached out to James with one key question in mind – are we facing a systemic risk outside of what we see happening to the economy and markets.  That conversation follows. Please stay safe and healthy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund and one of my favorite writers about investing. Morgan recently released his first book, The Psychology of Money, and I’ll go on record and predict it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation starts with Morgan’s non-traditional education, his path to writing, and his process for writing each week. We then turn to the book and discuss some anecdotes about luck and risk, greed, compounding, patience, and tail events. We close with two of Morgan’s personal stories – one about his own investing and the other, which seems inconceivable as you listen, about his lifelong challenge with stuttering. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Annie Duke, former professional poker player, decision-making expert, best-selling author, and regular guest on the show. Annie’s latest masterpiece is her book entitled How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices, and it releases next week. How to Decide follows her best-seller Thinking in Bets, shifting from highlighting causes of bad decisions to discussing process for making better ones. Our conversation covers the six steps to outline a comprehensive decision framework, factors that determine when to shorten that lengthy decision process, the power of negative thinking, decisions in groups, and work with Committees. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

André Perold, the Co-Managing Partner and Chief Investment Officer of HighVista Strategies, a $4B firm with roots in endowment-style investing that searches for inefficiencies across asset classes. André was the 2nd guest on the show, where we discussed his background as a renowned investment professor at HBS and the founding of HighVista.   Our second conversation covers the evolution of HighVista over the last few years. We discuss changes in the business and the firm’s response by focusing on inefficient markets. We then dive into examples of opportunities in biotech, private credit and litigation finance, and close with a perspective on active management and private markets.   Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

André Perold is the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Managing Partner at HighVista Strategies, where for the last dozen years he has sat at the helm of a now $3 billion fund that takes a multi-asset class, endowment-like approach emphasizing broad diversification and risk management. Over this period, André has definitively rebuffed the cliché that those who can’t do, teach. In his prior career, he spent over 30 years teaching at the HBS, where he is the George Gund Professor of Finance and Banking, Emeritus. André had a distinguished career teaching investment management at Harvard and is a legendary master of the case study classroom. Just about everyone in the investment profession with Harvard Business School on their resume took a seat in his classroom at one point in time. André received numerous awards for teaching excellence, including being voted the School’s most outstanding professor in a Business Week student survey. While at Harvard, André authored and co-authored 27 articles in financial journals, two books, and over 100 case studies, all relating to investment management, capital markets, and the financial system. He literally chronicled the development of modern finance as it occurred through is work at HBS. Among his directorships and trustee roles over the years, André currently is a Board member at The Vanguard Group. In this episode, we spend the first 11:30 talking about teaching at Harvard, and then turn to the practice of investing: the active vs. passive debate, a risk-based approach to asset allocation, and what makes investing so hard.  I found it fascinating hearing how André takes all of his academic experience and knowledge and applies it the practice of investing at HighVista. His wisdom and clarity of thought are second to none, and his soothing South African accent only adds to the allure. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Daryn Dodson is the founder of Illumen Capital, a venture fund of funds that seeks to invest in the best impact fund managers and takes them through a process to reduce implicit bias in their business and investing decisions. Our conversation covers Daryn’s early experience with discrimination, work backing more than 1,000 entrepreneurs in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans, Board work at impact-focused Calvert Funds, and launch of Illumen. We discuss Illumen’s three pillars of academic research, investing in the thesis, and training managers across hiring, investing and Board selection – all with the aspiration to become better investors and take advantage of a huge inefficiency in capital allocation. Please enjoy, my conversation with Daryn Dodson of Illumen Capital in this continuation of our mini-series on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Chamath Palihapitiya is the founder and CEO of Social Capital, where he invests in private businesses, public markets, and experiments with that objective of compounding capital at high rates so that he can advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. Chamath previously was an early employee at Facebook, a prolific angel investor, and co-founder of the venture capital business that was the first version of Social Capital. He’s been in the press of late for raising and deploying a series of large SPACs and for his outspoken views. Our conversation covers Chamath’s path to Facebook and Social Capital, his period of self-discovery, and the resulting Social Capital 2.0 to express his views of the world. From there, we dive into SC Emerging Managers, Social Capital’s newest program to back managers from diverse backgrounds. Lastly, we circle back to the purpose of Social Capital and how Chamath gets it all done. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Ben Reiter, longtime Sports Illustrated columnist, author of the NY Times best seller Astroball, and host and producer of The Edge, a documentary podcast about the scandal that tarnished the Houston Astros.   Ben joined me on the show two years ago to discuss Astroball, which chronicled the Astros rise from cellar dweller to World Series champion in the 3 years after he predicted it would happen on the cover of Sports Illustrated. What happened after was a shock to his system. His podcast is his post-mortem on the team and on his work.   Our conversation discusses what happened, Ben’s assessment of the team and his book, and his conclusions. In the end, Ben found that the Astros’ story is about much more than baseball. It’s about power, money, culture, and accountability. About a modern world where everyone is seeking an edge, and about who ultimately benefits from that world. It sure sounds familiar to our world of investing.   If the conversation peaks your interest, I strongly recommend having a listen to his podcast, The Edge. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Joel Greenblatt is a legendary value investor, founder of Gotham Capital, longtime teacher at Columbia Business School, and author of four investment books, the latest of which, Common Sense: The Investors’ Guide to Equality, Opportunity, and Growth recently hit the bookstands. Our conversation takes a tour through Joel’s career. We cover his background, early success running a concentrated portfolio, closing of the fund to manage his own money, and re-opening with a more diversified approach. We discuss Joel’s timeless investment beliefs and along the way also discuss the Value Investors Club, seeding managers, and applying investment lessons to education. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Shane Parrish is the founder of Farnam Street, host of the Knowledge Project Podcast, and author of Brain Food, a weekly email full of timeless insight for business and life. His goal is to uncover the best of what other people have already figured out. Our conversation covers Shane’s background, work in a three-letter-intelligence agency, and creation of Farnam Street. We then discuss the learning loop process and lessons from reading, interviewing and writing. Lastly, we discuss Shane’s application of those lessons to managing a team, investing, building relationships, and forming habits. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Karyn Williams is the founder of Hightree Advisors, a new independent consultant that is helping organizations improve the effectiveness of their invested assets through practical quantitative metrics of risk. Karyn is an engineer by training, who previously was a partner at Wilshire Associates, CIO of Farmers Insurance Group, and head of client solutions at hedge fund Two Sigma Our conversation covers the early days of financial engineering, taking lessons to portfolio analytics at Wilshire Associates, and discovering a disconnect in theory and practice with mean-variance optimization and the application of early factor models. We then turn to Karyn’s applying risk frameworks and factors at Farmers Insurance, joining Two Sigma, and creating Hightree to help institutions measure risk practically. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

You may remember my popular first meeting from a few years ago with Paul Black of WCM, then a $25 billion asset manager in Laguna Beach, CA. Since then, WCM has gone up and to the right in every way, they sold a minority piece of the business to Natixis, continue to put big numbers on the board, and have grown to north of $66 billion, defying the fade of active management outflows. My guest on today’s show is Mike Trigg, a partner and portfolio manager of WCM’s Focused International Growth strategy that comprises the majority of the firm’s assets. We discuss Mike’s background, arrival at WCM in 2005, near implosion of the firm shortly thereafter, and the rising of the international strategy from those ashes. We then dive in deeper to the core tenants of WCM’s approach, discussing how the firm analyzes widening moats and cultures tied to competitive advantage. Lastly, we talk about how WCM’s growth has impacted the firm. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast   Show Notes 2:54 – How Paul got started in the business 4:52 – Lessons learned in the early years of his career             5:56 – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings             6:01 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor             6:05 – The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel 7:49 – What works about growth stock investing 9:01 – What constitutes a great growth company 13:47 – Defining and measuring a company’s competitive advantage 17:50 – How does he assess a company’s culture             19:41 – The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance 20:26 – Questions that help assess company culture 21:57 – Any data to back up claims that companies with good cultures perform better over time 22:46 – Culture aligning with competitive advantage 24:30 – Looking at WCM’s moat and culture 31:23 – The landscape for active management 33:53 – Weathering tough periods for the firm 37:02 – How do they think about culture in other countries 39:01 – Why does growth stock investing work when the data shows otherwise 40:47 – What is he excited about in growth stocks 43:45 – Tailwinds at the sector level 45:10 – Downside protection in the portfolio 46:38 – Patterns of positive and negative allocator behavior 48:35 – How do they manage the change in the portfolio going from 200 million to 26 billion 49:53 – Closing questions

Marko Papic is the Chief Strategist at Clocktower Group, where he provides research on geopolitics, macroeconomics, and markets. Marko recently published Geopolitical Alpha: An Investment Framework for Predicting the Future, an imminently readable book with colorful examples of political analysis. Marko’s approach is akin to Moneyball for politics, challenging the orthodoxy of how others traditionally make investment decisions. Our conversation covers Marko’s upbringing, the flaws of most political analysis, and his constraints-based framework. We then turn to the obvious political topic at hand – next week’s U.S. Presidential election. We discuss his views of different possible outcomes on the U.S. equity market, rates, tech stocks, China, private equity, ESG, Europe, and emerging markets. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Carrie Thome is the longtime former CIO at WARF, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, a $3 billion pool that arose from monetizing technologies developed at the University of Wisconsin. She recently left to start a venture capital firm called NVNG, or Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained. Our conversation covers Carrie’s Wisconsin roots, her early experience at SWIB, the State of Wisconsin pension fund, and investing at WARF over the last two decades. We discuss WARF’s unique structure, technology transfer, and an all-weather portfolio for the Foundation, including separation of alpha and beta, portfolio construction, and manager selection. We then turn to Carrie’s new adventure NVNG, a venture capital firm seeking to bring the benefits of entrepreneurial activities in Wisconsin to local firms and national venture capitalists. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mathieu Chabran, a co-founder and Co-CIO of Tikehau Capital, a publicly listed alternative asset manager that oversees 25 billion Euros across private credit, real estate, private equity, and liquid strategies. Our conversation tells the story of how Mathieu and his friend Antoine began with 4 million EU in 2004 and turned it into one of Europe’s alternative asset juggernauts in just 14 years. We cover the founding of Tikehau, the importance of alignment and having skin in the game, and having a diverse, multi-cultural team. We then turn to investing, and discuss why good deals have no wheels, the competitive landscape, sourcing, due diligence and decision-making processes, opportunities and risks, and lessons learned. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Scott Wilson is the CIO at Washington University of St. Louis, where he oversees a $10 billion endowment. Scott joined Wash U three years ago from Grinnell College, where he learned a completely different style of endowment investing than is practiced by others. Our conversation covers Scott’s upbringing, early Wall Street career in equity research and derivatives across New York, London and Tokyo, and his leap to Grinnell. We then turn to his applying the Grinnell model at Wash U, transitioning an endowment model portfolio to a concentrated book. We touch on hedge funds and frontier markets and turn to the process of underwriting individual ideas and managers in the context of a concentrated endowment portfolio. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien are long-time veterans of the hedge fund industry who hold the Chairman and Deputy Chairman seats of the SBAI, or Standards Board of Alternative Investments. The SBAI is an industry consortium that brings together managers and investors to set best practices for the alternative investment industry. In their day jobs, Luke is the CEO of Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund company with $120 billion in assets, and Mario is the Head of Investment Funds and External Management at Canadian pension and insurance fund manager CDPQ, where he oversees $45 billion of funds managed externally. Our conversation focuses on the activities of the SBAI, including its purpose, origin, members, and evolution. We cover how members of an industry driven by different interests came to agree on anything and what has transpired since its founding after the financial crisis. We then turn to the state of the hedge fund industry and discuss its structure, fees, and future. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mario Therrien is Senior Vice President of External Portfolio Management at Canadian asset manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP). CDP oversees $270 billion Canadian ($200B in USD) for the pension funds in the province of Quebec. Mario joined CDP in the early 1990s after completing his Masters degree in Finance and has worked there ever since. Mario started out at CDP managing a tactical asset allocation strategy, created an internal global macro hedge fund, and later built and managed the team responsible for investments in external public market funds. Starting from scratch, CDP oversees $20B of external manager allocations today. Mario's team serves as CDP’s ‘window to the world’ of markets, strategies, and managers across the globe. Our conversation dives into the ‘Canadian pension model’ which has gained prominence in recent years for the strong performance by funds north of the U.S. border. The model incorporates internal management, risk control, partnership, and collaboration.  Drawing on a quarter century of experience, Mario shares his window into this little-known world of investment success. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Sir Paul Marshall is a co-founder and Chairman of Marshall Wace Asst Management, which is Europe’s largest hedge fund overseeing $48 billion. The firm specializes in long-short equity management and notably combines fundamental investing with systematic and quantitative strategies. Paul recently authored the book 10 ½ Lessons from Experience: Perspectives on Fund Management, and the show completes a trifecta of consecutive book authors whose work I thoroughly enjoyed this summer. Alongside his long history in the business, Paul has been deeply involved in philanthropy focused on education, and he was knighted for this work in 2016. And if that’s not quite enough, his son Winston is a band member of the popular folk rock band Mumford & Sons. Our conversation covers Paul’s background. the history of Marshall Wace and the firm’s evolution. We touch on his thoughts about quantitative and qualitative investing and on internal and external fund management. And then we turn to his new book, covering lessons relating to market efficiency, skill, portfolio construction, shorting, man and machines, size, and careers. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Annie Duke, former professional poker player, decision-making expert, best-selling author, and regular guest on the show. Annie’s latest masterpiece is her book entitled How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices, and it releases next week. How to Decide follows her best-seller Thinking in Bets, shifting from highlighting causes of bad decisions to discussing process for making better ones. Our conversation covers the six steps to outline a comprehensive decision framework, factors that determine when to shorten that lengthy decision process, the power of negative thinking, decisions in groups, and work with Committees. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Gary Klein is a noted cognitive psychologist with an innate ability to see what others don’t. Over his 40-year career in the field, he’s pioneered the field of naturalistic decision making, the Pre-Mortem method of risk assessment, and the ShadowBox training approach. Gary is the author of five books and editor of three more, and most recently, founded Shadow Box, LLC in 2005 to train decision makers on his technique. You can learn all about Gary at gary-klein.com. Paul and Paul, you may recall, were guests on the show discussing their book that I greatly enjoyed, Pitch the Perfect Investment. Both are former investors and professors of finance. Together Gary, Paul and Paul co-authored a paper entitled Rendering a Powerful Tool Flaccid: The Misuse of Premortems on Wall Street. The paper is a detailed look at how properly conduct Pre-Mortem analysis. Our conversation covers Gary’s background studying expertise with fighter pilots, tools to improve decision-making, including the Shadow Box technique, Cognitive After-Action Reviews, and Pre-Mortems. We then do a deep dive on Pre-Aortem analysis, including its history in the Air Force, what it is, how it works, when it falls short, and the benefits of reducing overconfidence, time efficiency, increasing candor, making groups smarter. We discuss views on other risk mitigation techniques as well, including devil’s advocates, red teams, risk assessment, and critiques. I found the conversation an incredible door opener to one of the most effective and time-efficient sources of value in improving investment decision-making processes. I’m privileged and excited to share this conversation with you. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My guest on today’s show once again is Annie Duke, decision-making expert, former world-famous poker player, and author of the best seller, Thinking in Bets.  I had a chance to interview Annie at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the live interview follows. Special thanks to Andrea Szigethy and Donna Holly, founders of the Institute, for having Annie and me down for their terrific event. Our conversation covers the challenge of separating signal from noise in making decisions, the formation and confirmation of beliefs, forming decision groups, communicating with teams, and mistakes Annie’s advisory clients have made after reading her book.  We close with some questions from the audience and end with two great poker stories of how Annie approached being a woman in the male-dominated poker world.  Annie’s irrepressible brain was on display this time around, covering a few of the same ideas from our last conversation and some new ones with different anecdotes along the way. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Annie Duke is a renown public speaker and decision strategist. For two decades, she was one of the top poker players in the world, including winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2 million winner-take-all WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her study of the science of smart decision-making began with a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which she used study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.  Among her charity work and television appearances, Annie was a runner-up to Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice, during which she raised $700,000 for Refugees International. She is a natural teacher and storyteller with an active mind that constantly searches for accurate truth. I highly recommend Annie’s new book, Thinking in Bets, which comes out this week. In her life after poker, she is a featured speaker, writes a newsletter and a blog, and advises companies on improving their decision-making process. Have a look at her website, annieduke.com, for more information. Our conversation discusses Annie’s path from an Ivy League education to professional poker, the nature of a bet, how we form beliefs, why we make bad decisions, and what we can do to improve our decision-making process. Towards the end, we also talk about bankroll management, poker faces, and advice she would give the President on how to make better decisions. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund and one of my favorite writers about investing. Morgan recently released his first book, The Psychology of Money, and I’ll go on record and predict it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation starts with Morgan’s non-traditional education, his path to writing, and his process for writing each week. We then turn to the book and discuss some anecdotes about luck and risk, greed, compounding, patience, and tail events. We close with two of Morgan’s personal stories – one about his own investing and the other, which seems inconceivable as you listen, about his lifelong challenge with stuttering. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

EP.245 – Eva Goicochea

Joel Wittenberg is the chief investment officer and vice president of W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where he has managed the foundation's $8 billion in assets since 2009. The Kellogg Foundation is guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive. In accordance with that mission, in 2007 its Board committed to be an effective anti-racist organization that promotes racial equity. Over the ensuing thirteen years, the organization has become a leader in applying research and taking effective action. Our conversation touches on Joel’s background in the fixed income markets and the application of duration and convexity to allocating capital. We then turn to his work at the Foundation fostering racial equity. We discuss the importance of open conversations about race, Kellogg’s expanding equity program for majority-owned managers, emerging manager allocations and impact investments. Lastly, Joel shares his plans to broaden the expanding equity program to allocators and managers in the coming years. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Today’s show is an episode of another podcast called Invisible Forces. It’s hosted by insiders at Jefferies, Shannon Murphy and Erin Shea, who dive into unseen influences that are dramatically changing the global economy. Season 2 looks five years into the future to understand where we’ll live, how we’ll live, and what we’ll buy. What follows is the first episode of Season Two. I hope you enjoy this show, and I suspect you will. If you like what you hear, search for Invisible Forces anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Shundrawn Thomas, President of Northern Trust Asset Management, where he oversees the $900 billion organization. Shundrawn joined Northern Trust Corporation in 2004 and rose to the leadership team in 2008. Over the last 8 years, he has hired and promoted much of Northern Trust Asset Management’s executive team, whose fifteen members include nine women and minorities. Shundrawn is deeply involved in diversity efforts across the industry and was named one of this year’s Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America and previously one of the Most Powerful Blacks on Wall Street. Our conversation covers Shundrawn’s early career and issues of race, the culture that drew him into to Northern Trust, and examples of unconscious bias. We turns to his values-based methodology to foster change across recruiting, mentorship, promotion, leadership and performance at Northern Trust, and we close with his perception of how the renewed interest in diversity provides an opportunity for businesses to take action. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Kim Lew is the highly regarded Chief Investment Officer of Carnegie Corporation and a two-time former guest on the show. Our conversation starts with Kim’s childhood and early career experience with conscious and subconscious bias. We then turn to her career as an allocator and cover the challenges and opportunities afforded by diversity across investment teams, manager selection, and running a fund. We close with a discussion of organizations supporting diversity and the challenges of making progress in a mature industry. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Kim Lew is the Vice President and CIO of Carnegie Corporation, where she is responsible for the investment and oversight of the Corporation’s $3.5 billion Foundation. Kim joined Carnegie in 2007 after spending a dozen years at the Ford Foundation. She is also a Trustee of Ariel Investments, the Board Chair of the Stevens Cooperative Schools, and a member of the investment committees of the Girl Scouts of America and the ACLU, and the steering committee of the Private Equity Women Investor Network. Last year, Institutional Investor awarded her Endowment & Foundation CIO of the year.   Our conversation covers the American dream story of Kim’s parents, Kim’s path to picking technology stocks and venture capital managers at Ford Foundation, two very different models of successful Foundation investing, blow-by-blow of the creation of an atypical Co-CIO seat at Carnegie, responsibilities that CIOs hate, idiosyncratic investments, committee meetings that foster long-term thinking, evolution of a farm team of managers, risk-taking in investing and life, and what to do when you turn 50 years old. Learn MoreRead the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jake Walthour is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blueprint Capital Advisors, an alternative investment manager that advises, sources, and oversees portfolios of managers on behalf of institutional clients. Jake launched Blueprint after two decades of experience on Wall Street, including senior roles at investment consultants Aksia and Cliffwater, and at investment managers Cowen, Citadel, Moore Capital, and Morgan Stanley Asset Management. Black Enterprise Magazine recognized him as one of the Most Influence Blacks on Wall Street. Our conversation discusses Jake’s path through investment banking to investment management, lessons from top alternative managers, and the business at Blueprint. Along the way, we address examples of structural and unconscious racial bias on Wall Street, points of sensitivity for Black professionals, and Blueprint’s current lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. Jake’s experience sheds terrific insight into some of the subtle problems causing Diversity and Inclusion challenges in finance. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Matthew Granade is Chief Market Intelligence Officer at Point72 and the Managing Partner of Point72 Ventures. Matthew oversees all proprietary research and data efforts at the firm, manages several of the internal systematic strategies, leads early stage venture investing, and recently launched Hyperscale, a new strategy that invests in AI-driven startups and connects them with operating companies to build model-driven businesses. Before joining Point72, Matthew started his investment career at Bridgewater and later was a co-founder of Domino Data Lab, a business that develops systems-of-record for enterprise data science teams across industries. Our conversation covers Matthew’s work optimizing the research process at Bridgewater, creating Domino Data, and leaving the company to join Point72. We turn to his tackling research and data science at Point72, blending the power of computers and humans, and overseeing Point72 ventures and Hyperscale. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Randall Stutman is founder and co-head of the Leadership Practice at CRA. and the Admired Leadership Institute. Randall is probably the top executive coach that you’ve never heard of before. He’s spent 30 years coaching and learning about the behaviors and routines of extraordinary leaders. To give you a sense, he was worked in the White House and the Olympics, with something like 2,000 senior executives and 400 CEOs, and in our world, the most senior executives at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Blackstone. Randall is also well known among the titans in the hedge fund community, where he’s worked with many of the industry’s leading funds. And he’s done all of this entirely by word of mouth referral. Randall was one of the first people I asked to come on the show three years ago, and he respectfully declined – at that point in time not wanting share the uncovered behaviors that drive his work. A few months ago, he and his partners launched Admired Leadership, an online course with short videos of 100 behaviors repeated by the most talented CEOs. The course is extraordinary. It’s so ridiculously good that I started sharing a link to it in my email signature as a gift to those who don’t know about it. Our conversation covers Randall’s path to coaching and the coaching process. We cover behaviors common among hedge fund managers, the admired leadership course, and examples across inspiring others, decision making, time management, and elevating performance. We close with Randall’s thoughts on behaviors that allocators can identify in their manager research. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Taimur Hyat is the Chief Operating Officer at PGIM, a $1.3 trillion asset manager across public equity and fixed income, private credit, real estate and alternative strategies. Alongside President and CEO, David Hunt, Taimur distills insights from across PGIM’s portfolio teams and shares long-term views on the investment implications of global megatrends annually. Their most recent Megatrends piece, After the Great Lockdown, is the subject of our conversation. We cover Taimur’s lessons from academic research in economics, management consulting, and Lehman Brothers through the financial crisis, PGIM’s business, and the Megatrends series. We then turn to the latest Megatrends piece and discuss the impact of the pandemic on supply chains, inventory management, weightless firms, commercial and residential real estate, remote work, and purposeful firms. We close with a discussion of investment opportunities coming out of the pandemic. If you’re as intrigued as I was, you can see all the previous Megatrends reports at pgim.com. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Adam Fisher is the CIO of Commonwealth Asset Management, which he founded as Commonwealth Opportunity Capital in 2008 and re-launched in 2019 after a two-year interlude Soros Fund Management. Commonwealth manages both a global macro hedge fund and private real estate assets with a thematic bent. In getting there, Adam traded his bar mitzvah money, attended law school, and started real estate investment companies in the U.S. and Asia. Our conversation covers Adam’s self-taught trading, early stumbles in private equity, and a one-off encounter with Richard Rainwater that led to his creating his first business. From there, we touch on thematic real estate investing, hedging his investments leading into the financial crisis, and pivoting back to trading alongside real estate investing thereafter. We discuss the challenges of traditional global macro businesses, the benefits of investing in one-off big ideas, the synergies across real estate and macro investing, interest rates, and Adam’s outlook on the markets and industry. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast  

Hiro Mizuno is the recently departed Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of GPIF, Japan’s $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, which is the largest pool of institutional capital in the world. In taking the seat five years ago, Hiro sought to change how large asset owners go about investing capital. Our conversation covers his differentiated thought process across drivers of return, the home country bias, implementation of investing, and structural alignment with active managers. We then talk about the Universal Ownership concept, stewardship of passively managed assets, evaluation of manager effectiveness, ESG integration in fixed income, and the current carbon footprint for GPIF and therefore for the global economy. Hiro has made a serious dent in how asset owners, index fund managers, and companies consider sustainable investing principles and was the perfect guest to complete this mini series, Sustainable Investing: The Next Frontier. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Reuben Munger is the Managing Partner of Vision Ridge Capital, a private investment firm with over $1 billion in assets that focuses on sustainable real assets. Reuben started Vision Ridge in 2008 after a decade of value investing experience at The Baupost Group. Our conversation discusses Reuben’s path and his approach to sustainable real asset investing in the private markets. We talk about his time at Baupost, transition from broad public market investing to focused venture impact investing personally, and the creation of Vision Ridge alongside Jeremy Grantham and Capricorn Investment Group. We then discuss Vision Ridge’s flexible investment strategy, creative structuring, portfolio construction, opportunities in power and mobility, competitive dynamics, team, and outlook. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Lauren Taylor Wolfe is co-founder and Managing Partner of Impactive Capital, an activist hedge fund that engages with companies to drive long-term sustainable returns. Impactive employs a breadth of tools common to activist strategies, working with management teams on capital allocation, operational initiatives and capital structure, and adds material ESG improvements as a key component of the long-term future success of its portfolio companies. Our conversation covers Lauren’s early interest in investing, her path to founding Impactive, and investment philosophy. We touch on Impactive’s four key investment criteria, examples of ESG activism in a hotel, an auto dealer, and a waste water business, evolution of interest in sustainability from management teams, the value of long duration capital, and perspectives for women in the industry. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Tony Davis is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Inherent Group, a value-oriented hedge fund that invests across the capital structure and uses ESG factors to source and underwrite its investments. Prior to founding Inherent Group, Tony was co-founder, President and portfolio manager at Anchorage Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund. Our conversation covers Tony’s early career experience at Goldman Sachs, key lessons from twenty years at Anchorage Capital, his retirement and philanthropic work in impact investing that led to the formation of Inherent Group.  We then turn to his activities at Inherent, including his rationale for taking in outside capital, sourcing longs and shorts, incorporating E, S and G factors in underwriting, quantifying sustainability, constructing the portfolio, and engaging with portfolio companies.  We close with a few investment examples, potential opportunities in distressed debt, and tips for allocators researching ESG managers. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Richard Lawrence is the Executive Chairman of Overlook Investments, a leading value-oriented investment firm in Asia that he founded in 1991. Richard was an early guest on the show telling Overlook’s story, and that conversation follows in the feed. Over the years, Richard grew passionate about the environment and ESG principles, and quietly integrated them in Overlook’s research process starting a decade ago. Our conversation covers the ESG integration lens at Overlook. We discuss stories of early governance challenges in Asia and the development of modern finance technology, social issues related to the quality of businesses, and environmental considerations of excluding industries, reporting challenges, principles, and tradeoffs. We close with Richard’s philanthropic work on climate change and in the closing questions, his take on US-China relations. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and implemented disciplined investment and business philosophies that interconnected to drive extraordinary results for its partners. Overlook has compounded capital at an annualized 14.5%, outperforming its benchmark by an insane 9% per annum. But that’s not all, as Richard would proudly tell you himself, the capital weighted return of the average investor in Overlook is nearly identical to the time weighted return over any period of time – a rare feat in the money management industry. Indeed, today’s asset base is the result of $4 billion of investment gains on top of $1 billion in contributed capital. Our conversation starts with a look at investing in Asia in Overlook’s early days and walks through the particulars of the approach Richard takes to investing and running his business, including attractive investment attributes, management integrity, portfolio construction, selling discipline, and China Yangtze Power - the only stock the firm supersized in an SPV in its history. We discuss Overlook’s long-held cap on subscriptions and periodic reductions in its management fee, two business philosophies that Richard believes have been key drivers of Overlook’s success. If you enjoyed my conversation with Tom Russo, you won’t want to miss this one with Richard. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

David Blood is co-founder and Senior Partner of Generation Investment Management, a pioneering sustainable investing firm he started with seven partners in 2004, including Vice President Al Gore. Our conversation covers the importance of culture in organizations, building businesses at Goldman Sachs, and David’s fortuitous introduction to Al Gore. We turn to Generation’s investment philosophy, principles, and investment process, including its focus on desirable industries, great businesses, and integration of ESG factors in research. We close by looking out at the next 5-10 years and addressing the urgency of the initiatives to improve the climate and social injustice. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Manny Citron is Managing Partner at Volery Capital, a private equity firm he co-founded in 2017 to invest in asset management businesses and companies that generate positive social and environmental impact. Manny and his team have canvassed a landscape of over one thousand sustainable investing focused funds and shares a glimpse of what that research discovered. We discuss Manny’s path to founding Volery, mapping the universe of impact managers, identifying attractive manager characteristics and thematic opportunities, conducting due diligence, measuring impact, and adding value to portfolio companies. We then turn to investor interest in the space, risks, Volery’s backing of Renewable Resources Group, and the future of impact investing. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Bob Litterman is a founding partner and Chairman of the Risk Committee at Kepos Capital. Prior to Kepos, he spent 23 years at Goldman Sachs, where his roles included heading the firm-wide risk function and the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group at GSAM. Bob was one of the original inductees into Risk Magazine’s Risk Management Hall of Fame and is well known for co-developing the Black-Litterman Global Asset Allocation model with the late Fisher Black. After leaving Goldman in 2009, he became fascinated by the risk management problem posed by climate change, and that is the focus of this 3rd episode in Sustainable Investing, the Next Frontier. Our conversation covers Bob’s background in quantitative research, applying risk management principles to address climate change, modeling the price of carbon emissions, and concluding that we must slam on the brakes immediately to address global warming. We then turn to his work on policy to implement his conviction and his activity in the public markets across the World Wildlife Fund’s stranded asset swap and research at Kepos to play a rapid adoption theme from the lens of a quant investor.

Liqian Ma is the Head of Impact Investing Research at Cambridge Associates. Liqian developed an early interest in the climate growing up in a coal-dependent city in China. He began focusing on sustainable investing over a decade ago and leads Cambridge Associates work with its 150 clients focused on the space. Our conversation provides an allocator’s overview of sustainable investing. We start with Liqian’s path and turn to how interested investors go about creating and implementing sustainable investment strategies. Along the way, we touch on manager selection, portfolio integration, investment opportunities and risks, and the implementation of sustainable investing concepts across the rest of Cambridge Associates activities. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Wendy Cromwell is Vice-Chair of Wellington Management and the Director of Sustainable Investment at the firm. She joined Wellington out of business school 25 years ago and has been there ever since. A year and a half ago, Wendy also became one of two asset managers on the 10 person Board of the UN PRI, or United Nations-supported Principles for Responsible Investment. PRI is the world’s leading proponent of responsible investment, canvassing 2,500 signatories globally across asset owners, asset managers and service providers. Their mission is to understand the investment implications of ESG factors and support the incorporation of those factors globally. Our conversation discusses Wendy’s path within Wellington, the lingo of sustainable investment, market inefficiencies for an active manager in the space, implementation of sustainable investing across a large asset management firm, growth of interest in sustainable investing, integration of scientific climate research, rapidly rising interest and research in social considerations in companies, and developments on the come with carbon footprint, divestment, and regulation. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jean Hynes is a Managing Partner at Wellington Management, where she one of three people responsible for the governance of Wellington’s storied partnership.  Jean also is the sector leader of the firm’s healthcare team that manages the Vanguard Healthcare Fund, three global healthcare hedge funds, and global healthcare sector portfolios. She joined Wellington after graduating from college in 1991 and has been at the firm ever since.  Our conversation covers Wellington’s humanistic culture, its evolution from a U.S. value shop to a global federation of boutiques, talent recruitment, the successful merit-based partnership structure, and the Wellington of the future.  Along the way we touch on Jean’s progression from an administrative assistant to a Managing Partner, the healthcare team’s investment philosophy and process, a day in her work life, and topical issues of active vs. passive, public and private investing, and large vs. small firms. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Clarke Futch is a co-founder, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Investment Committee at Healthcare Royalty Partners, an investment firm that purchases royalties and uses debt-like instruments to generate non-correlated return streams from biopharmaceutical assets. The firm is a leader in the space and has invested over $3 billion in 70 investments since its founding 14 years ago. Our conversation covers Clarke’s background in investment banking and path to pharmaceutical royalties in the earliest days of the business. We discuss the nature of the opportunity, the reason why it exists, and how it works, and the team in place at Healthcare Royalty Partners that makes it happen. We then turn to the investment process, covering sourcing, screening criteria, due diligence, deal structure, portfolio construction, competitive landscape, risks, and opportunities in the current market. Clarke offers an inside look at one of the more intriguing modern investment strategies with great insight and examples along the way.

Brett Jefferson is the President and Co-CIO of Hildene Capital Management, an asset manager he founded in 2008 that oversees $9 billion in structured credit strategies and was listed in Barron’s Top 100 Annual Hedge Funds ranking for six consecutive years. Our conversation starts with Brett’s education, in which he majored in lacrosse and minored in school. We hit on the early days of CDOs, putting his knowledge to work at Marathon Asset Management, taking a break, and then starting Hildene in the aftermath of the GFC. We then turn to Hildene’s success in the inefficient market for bank trust preferred securities, its evolution from a founder-driven firm, success factors in the business, current opportunities and risks in CLOs, and Brett’s involvement in the Premier Lacrosse League founded by Paul Rabil, who discussed the league on Episode 95 that follows in the feed. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Paul Rabil is the co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League or PLL, a new tour-based league of the top professional lacrosse players in the world that will debut on June 1st.  Paul was the #1 player in the draft for Major League Lacrosse in 2008 after winning a national championship at Johns Hopkins.  He is a 7-time Champion and 3-time MVP.  Alongside his on-the-field accomplishments, Paul is a passionate entrepreneur who was the first lacrosse player to earn $1 million in endorsements. Our conversation covers Paul’s early interest in lacrosse, developing a social media fan following, the importance of sponsorship revenue for athletes, and the leverage athletes have over teams. We then turn to the formation of the PLL, including Paul’s attempt to purchase the MLL with a search fund, his shift in business model from private equity to venture capital, the tour-based model, operations, distribution, and the on-field product.  We close by discussing Suiting Up, Paul’s podcast where he interviews top professional athletes and coaches, and the Paul Rabil Foundation, which brings lacrosse to schools for children with learning differences. Paul is as savvy off-the-field as his is skilled on it, and as the PLL takes off as I suspect it will, this conversation may well mark an important moment in time for this fascinating start-up league. Tune in to NBC to watch the first games from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on the first weekend in June. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Daylian Cain is a Senior Lecturer in Negotiations and Ethics at the Yale University School of Management. His research focuses on “judgment and decision-making” and “behavioral business ethics.” In other words, he studies the reasons why smart people do dumb things. Daylian teaches a course in negotiations and we turned to that for the subject of this show. Our conversation covers tactics for successful negotiating, things like preparing, deciding whether to ‘go first’, playing a weaker hand, asking for more, and gaining value from walking away. We close with current research in the field and in a closing question, tips on delivering effective constructive criticism. This was the last conversation I recorded before the onset of shelter-in-place, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to put it out ever since. Daylian refers to an online course he taught in April, and that sold out faster than he ever imagined. He’s put together a new online training program called Negotiating in Difficult Times that I’m excited to take. The presale is now available, which you can access at negotiationmindgames.com. He’s kindly offered a 20% discount to listeners of the show – just use the coupon code “allocators” when you sign up. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Larry Siegel is the Gary Brinson director of research at the CFA Institute Research Foundation and an independent consultant, writer and speaker. Before his “retirement”, he spent fifteen years as the head of research at the Ford Foundation and a dozen before that at Ibbotson Associates. Our conversation starts with lessons Larry learned in his time as an allocator and turns to his recent paper describing the 10 Myths of investing, an allocator’s version of Byron Wien’s annual surprises. After walking through each, we touch on his recently released book “Fewer, Richer, Greener,” which offers a case for long-term prosperity and growth, even amidst the unexpectedly challenging times we’re currently facing. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Daniel Adamson is a Senior Managing Director at Wafra and the President of Capital Constellation, a joint venture between mega asset owners in Europe, North America and the Middle East that invests in the next generation of private equity managers. Our conversation focuses on this innovative joint venture and how a group of large asset owners came together to scale their resources.  We touch on a host of issues relating to the formation and implementation of the business, the many possibilities that are arising from this novel setup, and the serious challenges in bringing it to fruition.  I suspect we’ll see more efforts by asset owners to disintermediate pieces of the investment value chain, although as you’ll hear, it’s a lot easier said than done. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Tim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at consulting powerhouse NEPC, who serves 350 clients with total assets over $1.2 trillion. Tim joined me for the last of our special updates from the field during this unique and challenging period. Our conversation touches on the separation of short-term and long-term strategies, different responses across hospitals, public funds, corporate funds and private clients, opportunities in credit, the state of private equity, due diligence conducted virtually, and long-lasting changes in workflow. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Tim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, an investment consultant that advises on $1 trillion in assets on behalf of 400 institutional clients.  Tim oversees NEPC’s 50-person investment research team and leads investment strategy for the firm.  In each of 2014, 2015, and 2016, CIO Magazine recognized Tim as one of the world’s most influential consultants. Our conversation covers NEPC’s client centric model, meeting the needs of a range of client types, forming and implementing capital market views, researching managers, sourcing in public and private assets, allocating to scarce capacity managers, and forming and leaning into the megatrends of artificial intelligence, income inequality, demographics, and shifting currency regimes. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Mervosh, clinical psychologist and founder of the Hero’s Journey Foundation. Michael joined me to talk about how people are managing their way through the crisis. Our conversation covers the unexpected resonance of shelter-in-place, facing ordeals, valuing connection, and discovering creativity. We close with a simple tip to participate in something bigger than yourself, and a poetic word about kindness. If you’d like to learn more about Michael and his work, in which I’ve been an active participant, check out herosjourneyfoundation.org/introduction, and have a listen to our previous conversation that follows on the feed. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Both times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He has a passion and indescribable skill in enlivening the developmental process and fostering vitality, meaning and well-being in individuals, groups, and organizations. When not running programs or training others, Michael practices psychotherapy at the Nuin Center in Pittsburgh, where he has professionally resided for 25 years. Our conversation took place in the mountains towards the end of this year’s journey and is quite different from those you may be accustomed to hearing on the show. We cover Michael’s path to creating the experience, the myth of the Hero, lessons in how the world actually works, the call to adventure, perfectionism, uncertainty, fear, and poetry. If you’re intrigued, I strongly encourage you to check out herosjourneyfoundation.org. Spaces are limited for the annual summer Men’s and Women’s Journeys, so sign up for next year’s trip at the website or reach out to me.  I intend to be back on the mountain next year and hope to see you there. Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast Book Links Phillip Shepherd, New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Jack Kornfeld, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path Joseph Jastrab, Sacred Manhood Sacred Earth: A Vision Quest into the Wilderness of a Man's Heart

Andy Golden is the President of PRINCO, where he has overseen the management of Princeton University’s $25 billion endowment since 1995. He was an early guest on the show and came back to discuss steering the ship in this tricky time. Our conversation covers communicating remotely, adding value incrementally in volatile markets, managing time, considering liquidity, and playing offense. Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

After getting some great feedback from the replay of my conversation with Scott Malpass, I am going to repeat some gems from the past every few months. This week I picked out my conversation with Andy Golden, the venerable head of Princeton’s 24 billion dollar endowment. It’s another master class in endowment management from a seasoned veteran. Andy Golden is the President of Princeton University’s Investment Management Company (PRINCO). Having grown from $3B at the time of his arrival in 1995 to $22.5B today, PRINCO has been among the highest performing endowments in the world. Andy came to PRINCO from Duke Management Company, where he was an Investment Director, and received his formative training in the business working for David Swensen at the Yale University Investments Office. Andy currently serves on the fund Advisory Boards of several well-known private equity and venture capital managers, including Bain Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Greylock Partners. He was a founding member of the Investors’ Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and serves as a Trustee of the Princeton Area Community Foundation and Rutgers Preparatory School. Andy holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Duke University and an M.P.P.M. from the Yale School of Management. Our conversation discusses Princeton’s endowment two decades ago and today, including its strategic advantages as an institution, shifts in thinking about asset allocation, decision making, team development, and partnership with managers. Andy’s long tenure in his seat, insight, and wisdom provides a treasure trove of information about how a top endowment manager practices his craft, and his subtle wit always keeps things light. CapSigLearn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My friend Brian Portnoy recently put together a Zoom call where he and Jonathan Novy interviewed Annie Duke about decision making in the crisis. Brian was a long-time fund investor and has authored two books in the field of behavioral finance. He and I discussed his second book, The Geometry of Wealth, on Episode 57 that follows on the feed.  He is currently a financial wellness consultant for advisors, corporations, and industry associations. Jonathan is a financial advisor at Ritholtz Wealth Management, a prominent and fast-growing RIA. And Annie is a regular on the show.  She’s a poker legend, decision-making theorist and best selling author.  And, she’s releasing a new book later this year entitled How To Decide, but that’s subject matter for another show down the road What follows is the segment of their call pertaining to the crisis.  They discuss the difference between complicated and complex decisions, the tradeoff between time and certainty when making decisions, the process of preparing clients to make good investment decisions today, and decision-making education for children. Please enjoy Brian and Jonathan’s conversation with Annie Duke. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Brian Portnoy Brian is currently the Director of Investment Education at $100B investment solutions provider Virtus Investment Partners, where he strives to simplify the complex world of money in an effort to help investors make better decisions and lead a joyful life. For the past two decades, he has held senior investment, research, and strategy roles in the hedge fund and mutual fund industries at Chicago Equity Partners, Mesirow Financial, and Morningstar.  Brian is the author of “The Investor’s Paradox,” a book about manager selection rooted in choice theory.  His second book, “The Geometry of Wealth” hits electronic and physical bookstores this week. Our conversation covers Brian’s experience in manager research and lessons learned, choice theory and managing expectations, differences between institutional investment and private wealth management, distinction between seeking wealth and trying to get rich, his terrific new book, and why volatility is risk. Brian’s insightful take on investing and his journey from the complex to the simple is full of investment nuggets of gold. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My guest on today’s show once again is Annie Duke, decision-making expert, former world-famous poker player, and author of the best seller, Thinking in Bets.  I had a chance to interview Annie at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the live interview follows. Special thanks to Andrea Szigethy and Donna Holly, founders of the Institute, for having Annie and me down for their terrific event. Our conversation covers the challenge of separating signal from noise in making decisions, the formation and confirmation of beliefs, forming decision groups, communicating with teams, and mistakes Annie’s advisory clients have made after reading her book.  We close with some questions from the audience and end with two great poker stories of how Annie approached being a woman in the male-dominated poker world.  Annie’s irrepressible brain was on display this time around, covering a few of the same ideas from our last conversation and some new ones with different anecdotes along the way. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Sandra Robertson, OU Endowment Management’s esteemed CEO and CIO, rejoined me for an update on how she and her team have been navigating the markets. It’s quick and chock full of wisdom, including her priorities, calibration of the portfolio, assessment of opportunities, and shopping list in a time that she renders too late to sell and too early to buy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Sandra Robertson is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of OU Endowment Management Ltd, a subsidiary company of the University of Oxford that manages the 4 billion GBP Oxford Endowment Fund. Simply put, she is one of the most respected endowment managers in the world. Our conversation covers Sandra’s start at the Wellcome Trust in the mid-90s, her arrival at Oxford in 2007, Oxford’s investing lens across inefficiencies, talent and themes, decision making, behavior and actions in volatile markets, private equity fees and alignment, and ESG. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Steve Nelson is CEO of the Institutional Limited Partners Association or ILPA, a non-profit that engages, empowers and connects limited partners (LPs) to maximize their performance. It has over 500 member institutions that represent $2 trillion in private assets under management or approximately 50% of the global institutional market.  ILPA is the only global organization dedicated exclusively to advancing the interests of LPs and their beneficiaries through best-in-class education, research, advocacy, and events. Our conversation covers Steve’s twenty years at Cambridge Associates leading to his time at ILPA, the mission of ILPA and the ways it achieves that mission.  We then turn to the most important needs of private asset allocators before this crisis, their focus during this challenging period of time, and the current status of capital calls, position marks, subscription lines, communication between managers and clients, impacting investing, and the outlook for ILPA’s efforts going forward. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Eric Peters is the founder and CIO One River Asset Management, an investment manager dedicated to delivering high conviction absolute-return strategies, where each individual strategy comes out of the team’s expertise in thematic macro, volatility, systematic, and inflation trading/investing. Eric has been a long-time trader and writes a widely dispersed email called Weekend Notes, in which he shares macro insights through colorful anecdotes. Our conversation starts with Eric’s early exposure to trading, macro blow-ups, and the formation and activities of One River. We then turn to the current environment and get his sobering thoughts on what has transpired and what the turmoil will mean for private equity and asset allocation going forward. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mark Baumgartner is the CIO of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he oversees a $1 billion portfolio. I reached out to Mark in this rapidly changing environment to get his take on how he’s navigating these rough seas. He was kind to spare a few moments to share his thoughts. Our conversation covers Mark’s framework for approaching this crisis, communicating with his team, orienting to the environment, communicating with managers, filtering and prioritizing the opportunity set, and taking action. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mark Baumgartner is the CIO of the Institute for Advance Study, where he oversees a $1 billion portfolio that seeks to achieve just median returns but with significantly less risk. Prior to joining IAS, Mark had stints at the Ford Foundation overseeing risk, at Morgan Stanley’s Alternative Investment Partners, at both quantitative and qualitative hedge funds, and as a management consultant. Oh, and he studied to be a rocket scientist before that. Our conversation covers Mark’s path to IAS and the principles of luck, risk, and uncertainty on that path. We discuss the IAS portfolio, one catered to achieve a low risk profile, and how he has stayed the course when that structure hasn’t been rewarded by markets. We talk about identifying managers that fit into his approach and different metrics of defining risk at both the manager and portfolio levels.  Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Prosek Partners ranks among the top 10 independent public relations firms in the U.S., and among the top financial communications consultancies. The firm has been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for nine years running. Jen is also a two-time author. Our conversation covers the foibles of professional marketing in asset management, building a brand, measuring a successful branding effort, managing the story of weak performance, and describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding. We then turn to some of Jen’s fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of ‘Just Ask’, behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white.  Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Ben Inker is the head of the Asset Allocation team at GMO, a $60 billion asset manager known for its value bias under founder Jeremy Grantham.  Ben joined GMO right out of college nearly thirty years ago and has been there ever since. Our conversation starts with Ben’s early investment lessons from renown economics professors at Yale and how that led him to GMO upon graduation.  We discuss his framework for thinking about investing and the struggles of value investing over the last decade, including the impact of global dominators, technology, and interest rates.  We then turn to the case for value today, the challenges of value going forward, and the characteristics Ben sees in allocators’ successes and mistakes. Lastly, our conversation took place a few weeks ago, but the world’s changed a lot since then. I reached back out to Ben late last week to get his current thoughts on the market. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Michael Mauboussin is the Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global and fortunately, a regular guest on the show. Michael is an astute researcher of behavior, decision-making and complex systems, and I reached out to him to get his reasoned temperature on the current climate. We discussed frameworks for making a good decision in turbulent markets, monitoring stress, assessing valuation, and determining where to look for opportunities. We then touch on Michael’s current research and detour to our inevitable topic of sports. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Michael Mauboussin is the well-known investment strategist currently plying his wares at Blue Mountain Capital. He joined me for the second time to discuss his new research entitled “Who’s on the Other Side?” Our conversation dives into the work, discussing how investors can focus on process over outcome, the four types of investment edges, behavioral traits of single and group portfolio managers, portfolio position weighting, informational edges available from paying attention and complexity, the principal-agent issues that create cycles and opportunities during dislocations, the growth of private markets, and implementing his research. We close with a discussion of data analytics in the game of lacrosse. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager. He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason. Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia Business School for 24 years. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, the paradox of skill, academic research more favorable to active management, decision-making, optimal size and composition of teams, unsettling features in the market, data analysis in sports, career risk, the Santa Fe Institute, and Michael’s new research on the horizon. Every time I speak to Michael I come away thinking better and feeling smarter, and this time was no exception. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

In the midst of this unprecedented time, I thought it would be helpful to hear from James Aitken, the extraordinary macro strategist who specializes in understanding the functioning of the financial system. I reached out to James with one key question in mind – are we facing a systemic risk outside of what we see happening to the economy and markets.  That conversation follows. Please stay safe and healthy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Greg Fleming is the founding CEO of Rockefeller Capital Management, where he took the helm of a storied family office in 2018 to build and serve other families and institutions as well. Prior to taking on this challenge, Greg was the President of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management and before that spent seventeen years at Merrill Lynch, culminating in serving as President and Chief Operating Officer from 2007-2009. Our conversation walks through some of Greg’s career path, including highlights from the financial crisis, and the Rockefeller Capital Management business and strategy.  We hit on ESG investing, serving clients, and leadership. And I couldn’t help asking Greg about his relationship with Yankee great Derek Jeter. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Christie Hamilton is the Head of Investments at the $2 billion Children’s Health Medical Center of Dallas.  She’s perhaps the most well-followed institutional allocator on Twitter, under the handle @ROIChristie. Our conversation covers Christie’s career path, experience with Twitter, and the investment process at Children’s, covering the mission, strategy, manager selection, opportunities and risks.  In our closing questions, you won’t want to miss Christie’s list of investment pet peeves and life lessons learned. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mike Mauzé is the General Partner at VMG Partners, which is one of those little known, closed capacity private equity firms that a small number of top institutions have loyally invested with since its founding 15 years ago.  VMG manages $2 billion focused solely on building iconic consumer brands and has an astonishing record of delivering a 45% IRR to its LPs since inception. Our conversation covers Mike’s path from banking to private equity investing, VMG’s thesis in the CPG space, its investment criteria, sourcing, work with portfolio companies, assessment of brands and exit strategy.  We then discuss the firm’s decision-making process, how it built a business with a core group of loyal LPs, and the globalization of brands and work in China. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Doug Phillips is the CIO of the University of Rochester, where he has overseen the school’s $2.6 billion endowment for twenty years.  Doug’s two-decade tenure at Rochester constitutes only the back half of his work in the endowment world, as he previously managed Williams College’s endowment for fourteen years and started his career in the early eighties at Princeton. Our conversation covers the history of Rochester’s endowment, the University’s broad stakeholders, asset allocation, manager sourcing, research process, investment committee, assessment of past decisions, and efforts to be a good partner to managers.  We then dive into each asset class, touching on traditional equity, hedge funds, real assets, private equity and venture capital. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Dan Rasmussen is the Founder and portfolio manager at Verdad Advisers, which he launched in 2014 to replicate the historical success of private equity in the public markets.  He’s an outspoken critic of the market’s enthusiasm for private equity, resulting from research he conducted in the business while working at Bain Capital. Our conversation covers Dan’s early education in the Socratic method, research into why private equity works, current risk in the private equity and private credit markets, and the launch of Verdad to find private equity-like outcomes in the public markets.  We then turn to Verdad, including key lessons upon shifting to public equity investing, stock screens, portfolio construction, position sizing and the competitive advantage of capacity constraints.  Lastly, we touch on Verdad’s written research and preparing a portfolio for a recession. If you like Dan’s thought process, you can sign up to receive his team’s weekly research at verdadcap.com/strategy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

I’m excited to announce Capital Allocators LIVE!, a live event that will take place in NYC on June 18th. I’ll host a series of live podcasts with Michael Mauboussin, Morgan Housel, Andre Perold, Atomic Habits author James Clear, and Annie Duke. You can hear us live and sit alongside a bunch of other past guests on the show as well. Founder’s Class Tickets and Golden Tickets are now available. Founder’s Class Members will receive a discounted price for the event and the same price for all future LIVE! events.  There are just 50 Founder’s Class Memberships available for those early birds catching the worm. Golden Tickets are also available, and those include the event and a special dinner afterwards with Annie, James, Morgan and me for those 25 Golden Ticket holders. Hop onto capitalallocatorspodcast.com and buy your tickets today!

James Aitken is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic research boutique based in Wimbledon, England from where he pens his weekly “Notes from a Small Island” and consults approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. After a wildly popular show two years ago, James came back for another doozy. Our conversation covers the ESG tsunami and the impact fund flows will create on business economics, politics, and investments, the dynamics of Brexit and incumbent Investment opportunities, China’s evolving economic plan, and the tenuous plumbing of the US financial system. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Peter Kraus is the Chairman and CEO of Aperture Investors, a $5 billion asset manager he founded after a storied four-decade career on Wall Street, including heading the Investment Management Division at Goldman Sachs and serving as Chairman and CEO of AllianceBernstein. Throughout his career, Peter has been a vocal proponent of pay-for-performance compensation models and the need for trust between active managers and their clients. He ultimately decided that a successful culture of performance-linked fees that properly aligns the manager and client could only occur in a new firm built from scratch. He teamed up with Italian insurance company Generali to launch Aperture in 2018. Our conversation covers Peter’s career at Goldman Sachs and AllianceBernstein, the structural problem of incentives in the asset management industry, and Peter’s attempt to disrupt that structure. We then discuss his process for selecting managers on Aperture’s platform, including screening, due diligence, and the nuances in idea generation, track record, value system, and managing teams. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Last year, I appeared on the Rational Reminder podcast, a show hosted by Cameron Passmore and Ben Felix of PWL Capital, a terrific Ottawa, Canada-based wealth manager that focuses on low cost, passive investing. We discussed the depth of the institutional investment research process, hedge funds, alternatives for individuals, index fund investing around the world, lessons from the big Bet, and a few other fun topics. Cameron and Ben are thoughtful investors and offer high-quality content through their podcast.  I’d encourage you to have a listen. Please enjoy Cameron and Ben’s interview with me. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Beezer Clarkson is Managing Director at Sapphire Ventures where she is responsible for the management of Sapphire’s fund investments in early stage venture funds globally.  Her career through direct and fund investing has left her with unusually deep knowledge and insights in the space. Our conversation starts with Beezer’s meandering career and turns to her work at Sapphire, including its structure and unique relationship with SAP, Series A investing, winnowing through a massive funnel of fund opportunities, the due diligence process and re-underwriting process, implications of companies staying private longer, and #OpenLP, a public forum to hear the voice of VC LPs that Beezer created with past podcast guest Chris Douvos. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Gregory Zuckerman is a special writer at the Wall Street Journal and the author of five books, including his most recent, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution.  Greg joined the Journal in 1996 and writes about big financial trades, firms, and personalities.  He’s a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb award, the highest honor in business journalism, and his work has included breaking the stories of the discord between Bill Gross and PIMCO, the London Whale trade, subprime mortgage collapse, and meltdown of hedge fund Amaranth in 2007. Our conversation starts with Greg’s path to journalism, touches on the aftermath of his book The Greatest Trade Ever about John Paulson and the subprime meltdown. We then turn to his recent tome on Jim Simons and Renaissance, including the formation and evolution of the Medallion fund, precarious moments in its history, the human element of a quant shop, differences between Renaissance and other quant competitors, leadership, impacting the world with vast wealth, and why Renaissance has been so special. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Our annual rundown of the most downloaded shows of 2019.  Wishing you a new year filled with wealth, health, and joy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Dr. Sarel Vorster is a practicing neuro surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, where he performs procedures on the brain and spinal cord. Sarel has a cross-disciplinary interest in the effect of stress and risk on cognition and decision-making.  He attended Yale to study for an MBA at the ripe age of 50 to pursue that interest. Our conversation covers the process of conducting surgery, offering an thorough example in a high stakes field. We discuss communicating with patients, making the decision to operate, preparing, using checklists, assessing outcomes, managing risk in a life or death situation, managing a team, improving skills, coping with stress, and seeing similarities between surgery and finance. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Neal Triplett is the CIO of DUMAC, the organization that oversees Duke University’s $19 billion endowment, and Kim Lew is the CIO of the Carnegie Corporation, where she manages the $3.5 billion foundation created by Andrew Carnegie. A few weeks ago, Institutional Investor named Kim its CIO of the Year.  She also appeared on the show last year in Episode 52, which is replayed after this one on the feed. I had the chance to interview Neal and Kim at the 2019 TIFF Annual Investment Forum.  Neal and Kim are Board members of TIFF, a non-profit organization founded in 1991 as The Investment Fund for Foundations, that today manages $7.5 billion on behalf of only other non-profit pools of capital. Our conversation covers a number of topics relating to Neal and Kim’s respective day jobs, including the evolving of their investment approach, integrating macroeconomic risk, defining their own competitive advantage, managing a team, countering behavioral biases, using data in manager evaluation, and tackling the most challenging part of their jobs. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Kip McDaniel is the Chief Content Officer and Editor-in-Chief at Institutional Investor.  In the early days of Capital Allocators, Kip joined me to share his insights about the CIOs he covers as a journalist. You can find that show in the feed right after this one. This time, we got together to talk about II’s business and the lessons he’s learned in producing content for allocators.  We cover the four key characteristics of a well-written story, the increasing use of PR firms by asset managers, and the essential importance and tricks of the trade of effectively packaging content. Kip stays true to his roots as a storyteller and offers a few great ones here again. On the intro, I recorded Please enjoy twice - use the second one (Please enjoy my second conversation with Kip McDaniel) Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Kip McDaniel is the Chief Content Officer and Editorial Director at Institutional Investor.  Prior to joining II a year ago, Kip spent seven years as the Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief of CIO Magazine, a media platform that led him to interview 2,000 Chief Investment Officers across every type of asset base around the world. Kip is a graduate of Harvard College, received a Master’s at Cambridge University, and was an elite crew rower, culminating in bringing home bronze medals for Team Canada in two World Championships. Kip is inordinately well-liked in the community, and I had a hunch I would learn a lot from getting his perspective on the people who make capital allocation happen. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Our conversation starts with an inside look at Chief Investment Officers – how Kip finds them, ranks them, and discovers what makes them tick. Over the back half of the discussion, we turn to the lessons he’s learned about investment success, incentives, fads, and issues that permeate capital allocation. Kip’s modus operandi is story-telling, and this conversation is chock full of good ones. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Anne Martin is the Chief Investment Officer for Wesleyan University, where she manages the school's $1 billion endowment. Anne's career started in the tech world and shifted to endowment management at Yale's famed investments office. She took over at Wesleyan a decade ago, as one of a handful of Yale Investment alumns serving other institutions. Our conversation covers Anne's path from competitive rowing to the tech world and a fortuitous connection with David Swensen. We cover the transferable skills from private equity to endowment management, key lessons learned at Yale, experience taking on a "start-up" at Wesleyan, application of knowledge to a smaller pool of capital, development of a team and a portfolio, perspectives on natural resources and venture capital, and Wesleyan's competitive advantage as an allocator. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Drew Dickson is the founder of Albert Bridge Capital, and CIO of the Alpha Europe funds, where he manages $350 million in European equities. Our conversation covers Drew’s early career across the Chicago school, Fidelity and Och-Ziff, and his perch in Europe. We then go through Albert Bridge’s investment process, portfolio construction, assessment of risk-reward, and client communication through blogging and tweeting. All told, Drew offers a deep dive on how to blend fundamental research and behavioral finance in taking on the stock market. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Steve Rattner is the Chairman and CEO of Willett Advisors, which invests former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets. Steve’s career has ranged from a journalist for the New York Times to investment banking at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Lazard Freres, to founding private equity firm Quadrangle Group, and lastly to serving in the Obama Administration as head of the successful restructure of the automobile industry after the financial crisis. He returned to oversee Willett Advisors after his work in the government. Our conversations starts with a quick tour through each of Steve’s careers, and then turns to his work investing the assets of Michael Bloomberg’s family office, including selecting an investment model, building a team of specialists, using internal management to supplement external managers, and thinking through private equity, hedge funds, public equity, and the manager selection process. We close with Steve’s perspectives on China and his ongoing engagement in politics. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jason Karp is the Founder and CEO of HumanCo, a mission-driven, disruptive holding company focused on investing in healthier living. Before diving into this endeavor, Jason had a very successful twenty-year career in the hedge fund industry, culminating in a six-year run as founder of Tourbillon Capital. Our conversation covers Jason’s career in hedge funds across quant research, quantamental investing, and entrepreneurship.  Along the way, we touch on lessons derived from checklists, poker, and chess, and discuss Jason’s sobering take on the hedge fund industry today. We then turn to changes in his life, including moving from NYC to Austin and focusing on his lifelong passion for health and wellness. We discuss Jason’s autoimmune disease, testing the limits of human performance, and the sickness that led to the creation of Hu Kitchen with his wife and brother-in-law. Lastly, we discuss the formation of HumanCo, a holding company investing in food and consumables that create clean solutions to common problems using only the highest quality ingredients. We cover the attractive attributes of consumable businesses, use of data and AI to source companies and improve inventory management, efficiency of a holding company structure, incubating companies, leveraging data science, and an example in the cannabis space to work on the controversy surrounding vaporization. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Dawn Fitzpatrick is the Chief Investment Officer at Soros Fund Management, where she manages $25 billion in Soros family and philanthropic assets. Dawn started her career as a trader at O’Connor and went on to serve as the global head and CIO of O’Connor. In 2016, UBS Asset Management promoted her to Global Head of Equities, Multi-Asset and O’Connor, where she oversaw more than $500 billion in assets. Dawn regularly appears on lists of the most powerful women in finance, most recently getting named to the 2018 Worth Power 100. Our conversation starts with Dawn’s development in the industry from trading in option pits to navigating the Global Financial Crisis at O’Connor and leadership roles at UBS. We then turn to her taking the helm at Soros Fund Management, including creating a long-term strategy tied to the needs of the Foundation, building in short and medium-term targets to allow flexibility, blending internal and external management, connecting the dots across asset classes, sharing perspectives on public markets, private credit and private equity and measuring and managing risk. Dawn contends that Soros has a uniquely attractive platform for the right type of leading investors to apply their trade, and I would agree. If you’re a manager interested in having a look, reach out to Brenda Formes at [email protected] Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My guest on today’s First Meeting is Ash Fontana, a Managing Director at Zetta Ventures, a venture capital firm that backs Artificial Intelligence companies with B2B business models.  The firm invests in early-stage companies with unique data sets and models, and rolls up their sleeves to help founders by using a playbook Zetta created specifically for AI companies.  Ash started his career as an entrepreneur and investor, and before joining Zetta started and built the money side of AngelList alongside Naval Ravikant. Our conversation covers Ash’s background, Zetta’s thesis, team, and strategy, and turns to Zetta’s sourcing, due diligence, decision making, portfolio construction, working for portfolio companies, and investment examples.  Along the way, we cover the evolution of AI, assessing data sets, misperceptions about AI, competing with the tech giants, and the future of investing in the space. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Ana Marshall is the Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, where she oversees a $10.5 billion pool of capital. Ana joined Hewlett in 2004 after spending eighteen years as a direct investor in high yield credit, emerging market debt, and international equities. Our conversation covers Ana’s lifelong passion for investing, joining the “super buy side,” conducting company meetings to inform the manager selection and allocation process, portfolio structure, manager selection, monitoring and measuring risk, perspectives on peers, internal dynamics, and working through a big mistake. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jay Girotto is the President of Farmland Opportunity, a $400 million investment manager that provides direct ownership of high quality, consistently productive row crop farmland in the U.S.  Like many managers in traditional asset classes, Farmland Opportunity searches for inefficient transactions, value-added improvements, and an aligned structure to maximize the benefits of farmland for the long-term. Our conversation covers Jay’s path from software engineer to farmland investor and discusses the attractive features of the asset class, including macro characteristics of uncorrelated returns and inflation hedging, and micro features of supply-demand imbalances, labor-intensive sourcing, unprofessional operations, and land value appreciation.  We then turn to Farmland Opportunity’s strategy in the area incorporating a specific regional focus, operational partners, aligned incentives, risk assessment and exit strategies. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jonathan Tepper is the founder of Variant Perception, an economic research group that works with institutional managers, hedge funds, and allocators to provide objective and comprehensive data to form actionable ideas from leading indicators and emerging trends. He is also the author of three books, the most recent of which, The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, received widespread acclaim earlier this year. Our conversation covers Jonathan's unusual upbringing, learning about currencies from Big Macs, building economic and liquidity forecasting models, and catering Variant Perception's research to investors. We then turn to The Myth of Capitalism, discussing the history, causes, and ramifications of the absence of competition in U.S. industries, natural and unnatural monopolies, examples in the tech giants, funeral home operators, airports, and hospitals, and what can be done to counter this negative trend. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Joe Lonsdale is a founding partner at 8VC, a leading venture capital firm that partners with top founders and entrepreneurs to build lasting technology platforms.  He began working at Peter Thiel’s PayPal while Joe was an undergraduate at Stanford, and upon graduation became an early executive at Thiel’s Clarium Capital, which became a multi-billion dollar global macro hedge fund. From within Clarium, Joe went on to become a co-founder of Palantir, and later founded Addepar and OpenGov. After operating this series of successful start-ups, he turned to early stage venture investing for himself and then as a founding partner of Formation 8, the precursor to 8VC.  In 2016 and 2017, Joe was the youngest member of the Forbes 100 Midas List. Our conversation begins with Joe’s dive into entrepreneurship out of school, the founding of Palantir and Addepar and his shift from operator to venture capitalist.  We discuss the venture landscape, 8VC’s competitive advantage, building new companies within 8VC, price competition for deals, the due diligence process, adding value to portfolio companies, and new ideas on the horizon in venture investing. Although we were pressed for time, Joe packs the conversation with great nuggets of wisdom from his incredible success. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Gary Klein is a noted cognitive psychologist with an innate ability to see what others don’t. Over his 40-year career in the field, he’s pioneered the field of naturalistic decision making, the Pre-Mortem method of risk assessment, and the ShadowBox training approach. Gary is the author of five books and editor of three more, and most recently, founded Shadow Box, LLC in 2005 to train decision makers on his technique. You can learn all about Gary at gary-klein.com. Paul and Paul, you may recall, were guests on the show discussing their book that I greatly enjoyed, Pitch the Perfect Investment. Both are former investors and professors of finance. Together Gary, Paul and Paul co-authored a paper entitled Rendering a Powerful Tool Flaccid: The Misuse of Premortems on Wall Street. The paper is a detailed look at how properly conduct Pre-Mortem analysis. Our conversation covers Gary’s background studying expertise with fighter pilots, tools to improve decision-making, including the Shadow Box technique, Cognitive After-Action Reviews, and Pre-Mortems. We then do a deep dive on Pre-Aortem analysis, including its history in the Air Force, what it is, how it works, when it falls short, and the benefits of reducing overconfidence, time efficiency, increasing candor, making groups smarter. We discuss views on other risk mitigation techniques as well, including devil’s advocates, red teams, risk assessment, and critiques. I found the conversation an incredible door opener to one of the most effective and time-efficient sources of value in improving investment decision-making processes. I’m privileged and excited to share this conversation with you. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson are investors, professors, and co-authors of Pitch the Perfect Investment.  Paul Sonkin is an analyst and portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors and has researched small, micro, and nanocap companies for a quarter century. He taught for 16 years at Columbia Business School. Paul Johnson runs advisory firm Nicusa Investment Advisors, and previously was a top-ranked sell side analyst, hedge fund manager, and an investment banker across 35 years.  He also taught 2,000 students across 40 classes at Columbia Business School and Fordham University, and has received a host of awards for his prowess in the classroom. Their recently released book is the first I’ve come across that reverse engineers a portfolio manager’s thought process. It starts with crystal clear first principles of business analysis and covers everything an analyst needs to know to identify a great stock. Then, Paul and Paul describe how portfolio managers assess ideas. Their framework is targeted for analysts starting their careers in the field, but seasoned portfolio managers and allocators both will also learn a lot about communication with their teams from the clear descriptions and colorful examples in the book. Our conversation covers the concept of the book, the wisdom of crowds, getting an ‘edge’, the four questions every portfolio manager needs to answer, and the role of creativity in investing. These gifted professors offer clear terminology for investment first principals and along the way offer a renewed appreciation for how difficult it is to beat the markets. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Michael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance (BLA) and JAMBOS.  Last year, I sat down with Michael and discussed his playing career and the formation of BLA.  That conversation, which you can listen to on the feed right after this one, has been the most downloaded episode of Capital Allocators. Our second conversation starts with an update on BLA, the private equity fund that takes stakes in the future earnings of minor league baseball players.  We touch on the implementation of the strategy and the development of the BLA sports analytics team since last year. We then discuss other ideas Michael brainstormed with his team to deploy their unparalleled horsepower in sports analytics.  That exercise led to the formation of a new sports betting service called JAMBOS.  We walk through the business of predicting the outcome of sporting events, the disruption of tout subscription services for sports betting through transparency and accountability, and the potential impact of predicting game outcomes on the future of sports and sports entertainment.  You can find out more about the service at www.jambospicks.com. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Michael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings.  Before founding BLA, Michael was a professional baseball player, working his way through the minors and reaching the majors as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.  A shoulder injury left him pondering what to do next, which led to the creation of BLA.  Our conversation discusses Michael’s career as a player, the difficult life of Minor Leaguers, and his mission to improve their fortunes.  We discuss his passion for statistics, application of Sabremetrics, and development of a team of All-Stars in the game of sports analytics.  We close with a look into the future of BLA and Michael’s prediction for this year’s World Series Champion.  Whether his bet proves right or wrong, Michael’s rationale exemplifies second order thinking through the lens of data analytics that is never far from his mind. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Matt Whineray is the CEO of New Zealand Superannuation Fund or Super Fund, one of the highest performing, most innovative and well-regarded large-scale investment allocators in the world. The New Zealand government created the Super Fund in 2001 to help defray the costs of retirees in the country in the decades to come. Matt joined the organization in 2008 and became the CEO in 2018 and oversees NZ$42 billion. Our conversation starts with Matt’s background and the creation and objectives of the Super Fund. We then walk through the Super Fund’s investment philosophy, which is guided by four competitive advantages or endowments and nine investment beliefs. From there, we dive into the implementation of the strategy, covering the risk allocation process, reference portfolio or benchmark of liquid assets, long-term risk budget and medium-term tactical targets across five risk baskets. We discuss the difference between these risk allocations and a traditional asset class structure, hybrid structure employing internal and external managers, internal strategic tilting program, structure of the team, current perspectives on asset classes, ESG, scaling activities to support upcoming inflows, and culture. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z for the 16 letters between the A in Andreessen and the z in Horowitz. Scott is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He joined Andreessen at its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees and $300 million under management to 150 employees managing in excess of $10 billion. Scott has served on a number of industry-related Boards, including as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and he currently sits on four non-profit Investment Committees. A few months ago, Scott published the national bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It,https://amzn.to/2GX5O9M Our conversation is a full-blown overview of one of the leading venture capital firms and the dynamics at play in the venture industry. We cover Scott's shift from finance to an operating role, and from an individual producer to a manager, the formation of a16z, its founder-centric investment model, building services to increase their portfolio companies chance of success, sourcing investment ideas, conducting due diligence, making decisions, the competitive environment, Board seats, changes in the venture industry, the cardinal sins of venture investing, new frontiers for venture investment, how venture capitalists manage their own money, and the purpose of writing his book. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Eric Ries is the founder and CEO of LTSE, the company that is affiliated with the SEC-approved Long-Term Stock Exchange, which seeks to build a new relationship between companies that are built to last and the stakeholders who believe in them. Eric is an entrepreneur who created the Lean Startup methodology and wrote the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup. He was named by Fortune to its 2018 "40 Under 40." Our conversation covers Eric’s early startup experience, the core principles of a Lean Startup, his path to creating LTSE, key components of its business philosophy, value proposition, and business model, and the application of Lean Startup principles to building this business. LTSE’s mission is extraordinarily important to improve investment outcomes in public markets for all of our benefit. I encourage you to join the LTSE’s Long-Term Investor Coalition on its website ltse.com or by emailing [email protected], and ask questions of companies and managers you meet with to keep this movement top of mind. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

David Druley is the CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm that works with premier institutional investors and family offices to manage custom investment portfolios that aim to generate outperformance so they can maximize their impact on the world. David works with Cambridge’s leaders to set and execute the firm’s strategy, enhance its capabilities, and evolve its processes. David brings a quarter-century of investment experience to the role, including a 16-year tenure at Cambridge. Our conversation covers David’s path from value investing to Cambridge Associates, including a key early career lesson in calibrating risk tolerance. We discuss the history of Cambridge Associates, key characteristics of generating great investment returns, the manager selection process, and David’s take on co-investments, long-only managers, hedge funds, fixed income, innovation, and future opportunities and challenges for the business. The discussion offers a nice compliment to my earlier conversation with Margaret Chen, who oversees Cambridge Associates’ OCIO business.  You can find that conversation replayed right after this one on the feed. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting.   Our conversation covers Margaret’s career path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring performance, and the tension between being the same and being different for clients. Margaret has the ear of almost everyone in our field, and brings incredible perspective to addressing the key issues allocators face.   Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital, a merchant bank with a balance sheet to invest that seeks to serve as the bridge between the crypto and institutional investment worlds. Mike is well-known speculator who started his career at Goldman Sachs and later managed Fortress’ multi-billion dollar hedge fund, the Drawbridge Global Macro Fund. He’s notably made and lost a few fortunes in his career, most recently riding bitcoin up starting in 2013, almost all the way down in 2017, and back up again this year. Our conversation covers Mike’s background as a wrestler and helicopter pilot, his development from salesman to trader, the art of speculation, his initial interest in Bitcoin, the business of Galaxy Digital, the development of the crypto ecosystem use cases in privacy, payments and video games, and obstacles to institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain assets. We close by discussing how Mike invests his family office assets and his engagement with criminal justice reform. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

My guest on today’s first meeting is Paul Black of WCM Investment Management.  This show is a replay of our conversation on Capital Allocators last year, and has been one of the most listened to conversations with a manager on the show.  At the time, WCM managed $26 billion and since then they’ve continued to perform and grow.  Today, WCM oversees $40 billion and earlier this year announced the sale of a minority stake in their business to Natixis Investment Managers. Paul Black is portfolio manager and Co-CEO of WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  His early career included positions at Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Jon Harris is the CEO of Alternative Investment Management, a twenty-year-old investment firm that started as a family office and has evolved into managing $1 billion in hedge fund and private equity strategies on behalf of a range of fascinating business and investment executives.  Our conversation starts with the formation of AIM and its people-based investment approach.  We discuss building a network to source and diligence managers, filtering the universe of prospects, understanding the motivations of managers, conducting reference checks, and using the information they gather. We then turn to AIM’s private equity strategy, including selecting managers, the misalignment of interests in co-investments, and the death by a thousand cuts of hidden fees.  We close talking about the continued purpose of hedgeD funds, due diligence tricks, preparing for unexpected risk, managing time, and philanthropy. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

André Bourbonnais is a Managing Director at Blackrock and Global Head of its newly launched Long-Term Private Capital business, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital private equity fund.  André brought thirty years of private market transaction and management experience to the role, most recently as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of PSP Investments, the $110 billion Montreal-based Canadian pension fund.  He previously served as Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Private Investments at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), where he was responsible for over $65 billion in private market assets, the largest program of its kind globally. Our conversation talks about the creation of Blackrock’s innovative private equity fund starting with a clean sheet of paper.  We discuss the traditional private equity playbook, the changes in financial structure, business strategy, and return drivers that can occur with permanent capital, the structure of the fund, deal origination, a new ownership playbook, the re-underwriting process, sell decisions, portfolio construction, and managing a team whose careers will be shorter than the duration of the fund. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast  

My guest on today’s First Meeting is Richard Lawrence of Overlook Investments Group, one of the top managers of Asian equities.  The conversation that follows is a replay of an early episode on Capital Allocators and one of the inspirations for the First Meeting concept.  Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and implemented disciplined investment and business philosophies that interconnected to drive extraordinary results for its partners. Overlook has compounded capital at an annualized 14.5%, outperforming its benchmark by an insane 9% per annum. But that’s not all, as Richard would proudly tell you himself, the capital weighted return of the average investor in Overlook is nearly identical to the time weighted return over any period of time – a rare feat in the money management industry. Indeed, today’s asset base is the result of $4 billion of investment gains on top of $1 billion in contributed capital. Our conversation starts with a look at investing in Asia in Overlook’s early days and walks through the particulars of the approach Richard takes to investing and running his business, including attractive investment attributes, management integrity, portfolio construction, selling discipline, and China Yangtze Power - the only stock the firm supersized in an SPV in its history. We discuss Overlook’s long-held cap on subscriptions and periodic reductions in its management fee, two business philosophies that Richard believes have been key drivers of Overlook’s success. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast

Ash Williams is the Executive Director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration, where he oversees $200 billion in assets for the State of Florida including one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S.  He is as highly regarded as they come, and among other accolades, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CIO Magazine in 2017. Ash began his career serving the State of Florida as a staff assistant to two House speakers, as Chief of Staff to a former Governor and Comptroller of the State, and as Executive Director of the SBA. He left for a decade on Wall Street and returned after the global financial crisis to help resurrect the state’s assets. Our conversation covers Ash’s early experience in Florida legislature, the SBA in the 1990s, moving from the public sector to Wall Street, and returning in the thick of the financial crisis.  We discuss many aspects of managing a large pools of assets, including a six-year effort to modernize the compensation scheme, asset allocation, blending active and passive managers and internal and external fund management, managing around political interests, communicating expectations and transparency, character, proxy voting, private equity, hedge funds, and the process of selecting managers. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Sam Sicilia is the Chief Investment Officer of HostPlus, Australia’s AUZ 37 billion ($25B USD) Superannuation Fund.  Sam joined HostPlus in 2008 after a storied career in academia and the finance industry stretching back to the early 1990s. During that time, he held senior roles, both in Australia and internationally, consulting at Russell Investments, managing assets at Bank of Ireland, and consulting with Frontier Investment Consulting and Towers Perrin. Our conversation starts with Sam’s mathematics training and turns to his work over the last decade at HostPlus, covering the Fund’s long time horizon, his strategy to take advantage of that horizon, infrastructure investing for downside protection, private equity, venture capital in Australia, public equity focusing on people, hedge funds as a liquidity buffer, and working with a Board. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital, a non-profit created by a group of concerned, influential leaders, including Deepak Chopra and Paul Tudor Jones.  JUST Capital is an independent research organization thanks ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most, with a mission to build a more just marketplace that better reflects the true priorities of the American people. Last year, it launched the JUST ETF in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Our conversation covers with Martin’s history of following the money that ultimately led to his position at JUST, defining a “just company”, engaging the public in the polling process, engaging companies in the results, applications of the research including the JUST ETF, common characteristics of companies that rank highly, the impact of the polls on companies, application to private companies, and new initiatives. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jon Wertheim is a sports journalist and author who has a passion for psychology and economics.  He is the Executive Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has been a full-time staff member since 1996. Jon also is a contributing correspondent on 60 Minutes and an analyst for the Tennis Channel at the four Majors.  He is the author of ten books including Stokes of Genius about the Federer-Nadal rivalry, the New York Times bestsellerScorecasting, and more recently, This Is Your Brain on Sports.  Our conversation spans across sports, behavior and decision making, discussing Jon’s path to a career in sports journalism, insider perspective on tennis, role of luck, cycles in basketball strategy, loss aversion, job preservation, omission bias, sports gambling, the business of sports, and lessons from interviewing. Jon moves with ease across sports, investing and psychology, and the parallels with his anecdotes and the world of investing are both entertaining and readily apparent. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

I'm excited to announce the launch of a spinoff of capital allocators called first meeting. First meeting episodes will be conversations with leading investment managers across asset classes. First meeting will seek to catalyze a step change improvement in the due diligence process by sharing conversations that replicate a first meeting and allocator might have with the manager. We’ll help both managers and allocators save time from repeating the same meeting over and over again, create scale in transparency, and increase the efficiency of communication. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Patrick O’Shaughnessy is the CEO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, the host of the Invest Like the Best podcast, and a great friend.  Patrick’s podcast and widely read monthly mailing list of books, available at investorfieldguide.com, have made him a celebrity of sorts in the investing world. Those familiar with his voice will already know how wide his curious mind travels, but I image far fewer know much about his daily investing activities. Our conversation begins with Patrick’s early start in the business and discovered passion for research. We turn to investing at OSAM, covering four core quantitative factors, how those factors work, the research process to dive deeper into each factor and explore new ones, machine learning, differentiated portfolio construction, and the impact of quants on the market.  We then turn to Patrick’s experience as a podcaster, discussing his conceptual learning loop, lessons from interviewing, and the ways he has applied lessons from the podcast to OSAM’s asset management business. We close by discussing investing in external managers, including a great nugget on probing quantitative strategies. Patrick and I both finished this conversation feeling that we had just scratched the surface, which might be fodder for a Part B down the road.  Regardless, I’m indebted to Patrick for being the catalyst behind the creation of Capital Allocators two years ago, and it was my great pleasure to get him on the other side of the microphone. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Khe Hy rose to be one of the youngest Managing Directors at Blackrock’s hedge fund of funds business. In his 30s he left the industry to explore what would come next. His path led to creating the RadReads blog and coaching about facing fears and insecurities attached to the relationship of psychology and money. Khe has since been dubbed the “Oprah for Millenials” by CNN and “Wall Street Guru” by Bloomberg. Our conversation starts with Khe’s career on Wall Street evaluating mortgage derivative hedge fund strategies, reaching his lifelong career goals, and then leaving it behind. Ky discusses his path and asks questions that provoke an exploration of the value of money, including the power of asking “Why?”, what to do if you won the lottery, how much to leave behind for your children, the marginal utility of money, and lessons on staying the course on an entrepreneurial path. Khe’s real-time journey tackles issues that many in our profession face when they take a moment to reflect on their lives. The lessons reminded me of my conversation with HBS Professor Tom DeLong, which I’ve replayed on the feed.  Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom DeLong is a renown expert in organizational behavior, leadership, and human development of high performance professionals, the so called “soft skills” often dismissed in the asset management business. After starting an academic career under the wing of Stephen Covey, Tom found himself recruited by John Mack to work alongside him to develop a positive culture at Morgan Stanley. After eight years in the trenches, he returned to academia as a professor at Harvard Business School, where he has remained the past twenty years. Unlike most of us, Tom’s resume and achievements are unusually difficult to locate online or elsewhere. It was a sign of things to come in our fascinating conversation, which is simultaneously a master class in authentic leadership and a live case study in self-exploration with Tom as his own protagonist. Tom is exactly the type of person he has studied, and strives to be the type of leader he promotes. We discuss the meaning of work, the importance of feedback, the ways high performing professionals derail themselves, the difference between your image and your essence, the omnipresence of insecurity in high achievers, and some techniques to foster deeper conversation in relationships. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He left active duty to earn his MBA at Harvard in 2000, where he was Co-President of his class. Bull started a business career after graduate school; however, when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, Bull voluntarily returned to active duty. He saw combat action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and served as a Congressional Liaison for the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and the Special Operations Command. With a daughter on the way and 25 years of service under his belt, Bull retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Since then, he has applied his leadership and management experience to the business world, focusing on organizational design and business development. His leadership training program, entitled WHOOPASS, has positively impacted start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike. Oh, and he took a break from that in 2016 to run for U.S. Congress. Our conversation discusses principles of leadership, management, and resource allocation, alongside colorful stories of success and failure. Bull's frameworks have clear applicability to anyone overseeing an investment process. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tim Recker is the CIO of the $2.4 billion James Irvine Foundation.  He joined the foundation in 2016 after spending a decade in private equity and real assets for the University of California Regents, four years overseeing Alternatives at the Michigan Retirement System, and his early years at GE Asset Management Our conversation covers Tim’s career path, the culture and structure at GE and Michigan Retirement, and co-investments at UC Regents. We then turn to the intricacies of managing a highly concentrated portfolio of managers at Irvine, including effective governance. flexibility, team structure, due diligence, and decision making. We close with Tim’s perspectives on hedge funds, real estate and fixed income, and the tradeoffs in preparing for a downturn. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Mauboussin is the well-known investment strategist currently plying his wares at Blue Mountain Capital.  He joined me for the second time to discuss his new research entitled “Who’s on the Other Side?”  Our conversation dives into the work, discussing how investors can focus on process over outcome, the four types of investment edges, behavioral traits of single and group portfolio managers, portfolio position weighting, informational edges available from paying attention and complexity, the principal-agent issues that create cycles and opportunities during dislocations, the growth of private markets, and implementing his research.  We close with a discussion of data analytics in the game of lacrosse. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager.  He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason.  Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia Business School for 24 years. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, the paradox of skill, academic research more favorable to active management, decision-making, optimal size and composition of teams, unsettling features in the market, data analysis in sports, career risk, the Santa Fe Institute, and Michael’s new research on the horizon. Every time I speak to Michael I come away thinking better and feeling smarter, and this time was no exception. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jon Hirtle is the Executive Chairman at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., a $20 billion Outsourced CIO business he founded in 1988.  Hirtle Callaghan retains the distinction of initiating the OCIO model that is flourishing in the market today. Our conversation covers leadership lessons from Jon’s experience in the Marines and at Goldman Sachs, the genesis of the idea to create Hirtle Callaghan, the structure, culture, philosophy and execution of their investing, Jon’s outlook on emerging markets, the economy, private equity, and credit, and the concept of governance alpha. Jon has a gift for distilling the investment process into understandable frameworks and analogies that we all can use to communicate with our many constituents. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. His column discusses current events in corporate finance and markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit.  As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger.  If you receive my monthly email, you’ll already know that I’m a huge fan of Matt’s and that Money Stuff has become my go to source of business news. Our conversation covers Matt’s path to journalism through law school and investment banking, his daily routine, and some of his favorite writing topics, including why everything is securities fraud, stock buybacks, the CDS market, index funds, private markets, quantitative investing, and beating benchmarks. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Both times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He has a passion and indescribable skill in enlivening the developmental process and fostering vitality, meaning and well-being in individuals, groups, and organizations. When not running programs or training others, Michael practices psychotherapy at the Nuin Center in Pittsburgh, where he has professionally resided for 25 years. Our conversation took place in the mountains towards the end of this year’s journey and is quite different from those you may be accustomed to hearing on the show. We cover Michael’s path to creating the experience, the myth of the Hero, lessons in how the world actually works, the call to adventure, perfectionism, uncertainty, fear, and poetry. If you’re intrigued, I strongly encourage you to check out herosjourneyfoundation.org. Spaces are limited for the annual summer Men’s and Women’s Journeys, so sign up for next year’s trip at the website or reach out to me.  I intend to be back on the mountain next year and hope to see you there. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

David Zorub is the founder of Parsifal Capital, a new hedge fund he is launching later this year.  Before founding Parsifal, Dave spent fifteen years in research and portfolio management at hedge funds and another few in investment banking and private equity.  I interviewed David recently at Columbia University’s Student Investment Management Conference and that conversation follows. We cover his career path and his insights into the philosophy and structure of a hedge fund business and investment portfolio. It’s not easy starting a hedge fund these days, and those eager to try will get a sense of the challenges ahead by listening to an experienced investor who’s making a go of it. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Paul Rabil is the co-founder and CEO of the Premier Lacrosse League or PLL, a new tour-based league of the top professional lacrosse players in the world that will debut on June 1st.  Paul was the #1 player in the draft for Major League Lacrosse in 2008 after winning a national championship at Johns Hopkins.  He is a 7-time Champion and 3-time MVP.  Alongside his on-the-field accomplishments, Paul is a passionate entrepreneur who was the first lacrosse player to earn $1 million in endorsements. Our conversation covers Paul’s early interest in lacrosse, developing a social media fan following, the importance of sponsorship revenue for athletes, and the leverage athletes have over teams. We then turn to the formation of the PLL, including Paul’s attempt to purchase the MLL with a search fund, his shift in business model from private equity to venture capital, the tour-based model, operations, distribution, and the on-field product.  We close by discussing Suiting Up, Paul’s podcast where he interviews top professional athletes and coaches, and the Paul Rabil Foundation, which brings lacrosse to schools for children with learning differences. Paul is as savvy off-the-field as his is skilled on it, and as the PLL takes off as I suspect it will, this conversation may well mark an important moment in time for this fascinating start-up league. Tune in to NBC to watch the first games from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts on the first weekend in June. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

A few months ago, Marcel van de Hoef interviewed me on his podcast, The Meeting Strategist.  He created Meeting Strategist to help senior professionals across industries think more strategically about business conversations and improve their listening, questioning and meeting skills.  With his permission, I’ve shared that discussion on this week’s show.  You can learn more about his work at meetingstrategist.org. Our conversation starts with my background and covers my communications with Warren Buffett, characteristics of successful active managers, manager meeting structure, culture assessment, tools for effective listening, lessons I learned from David Swensen, and my preparation and conducting of podcast interviews. Please enjoy my thoughts on interviewing and manager meetings, with Marcel van de Hoef asking the questions. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides  

I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, present and future. We subsequently recorded two other conversations.  For the first, I asked him to interview me about the Buffett Bet. You can find that conversation on Episode 5. In the second, Patrick interviewed me alongside our friend and star micro private equity investor, Brent Beshore. You can find that entertaining conversation at Invest Like the Best, Episode 30. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

  Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capital Allocators. If you like the subject matter, I’d encourage you to check out Khe’s podcast, entitled Rad Awakenings, available on iTunes or his website, radreads.co. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:53 – Ted’s time with Dave Swensen 2:40 – How did Ted get the job not knowing about stocks 3:56 – The start of Ted’s time at Protégé 5:27 – How did Ted view the world as someone picking managers vs someone picking stocks 9:01 – Early days at Protégé 10:36 – Attributes that Ted tried to unpack about individuals 13:18 – Understanding a team’s intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations 15:03 – How much of investing is about true skill vs being on the right side of a market trend 17:06 – What did Ted learn about greed during the bull market run of the early 2000’s 20:00 – The ego, envy and entitlement of financial professionals 22:36 – The potential to hit a high-water mark and never feeling satisfied 28:20 – Loving what you do despite the financial windfall 32:50 – Would Ted have the same passion for the markets if he hit the proverbial lottery 34:36 – The feeling of financial survival and what would happen if Ted didn’t have it             37:24 – Citizen Schools 38:41 – How to stop caring about other people’s perception of you 40:46 – Most underrated attribute of Ted that he has discovered in his reinvention 41:53 – Times Ted’s resilience was tested             43:08 – Ted on Invest Like the Best Podcast             43:10 – Hero's Journey Foundation 45:02 – What does higher education and first jobs look like for the next generation given the digital changes in society 49:20 – Do millennials have less upward mobility then past generations             49:43 – The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial 52:09 – Follow and learn more about Ted at capitalallocatorspodcast.com 57:41 – Closing questions with special guest interviewers  

Dan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor.  He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight.  Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between companies and their employees, and invests in human capital factors that are linked to long-term stock price performance.  Last month, Irrational Capital announced a strategic partnership with Jeff Ubben’s ValueAct Capital, a firm that shares their belief in the importance of the impact of corporate culture on long-term enterprise value. Our conversation starts with Dan’s journey studying pain and intuition and turns to applications of his research in the corporate setting.  We discuss his research process, measurement of human capital, applying experiments to an investment strategy, employee motivation and compensation schemes as investment factors, and constructing a portfolio of factors based purely on human capital.  We close by touching on Dan’s projects in government and with start-ups. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jordi Visser is the President & CIO of $1.7 billion Weiss Multi-Strategy Advisers, an asset management firm with a 40-year history of focusing on innovative investment processes and cutting edge thought leadership.  Our conversation covers Jordi’s decade of learning at Morgan Stanley, and then turns to a deep dive on all aspects of Weiss’ equity market neutral, multi-manager process, including the importance of data visualization to risk management, behavioral alpha, improving portfolio manager performance, blending macro insights with a multi-manager team, factor-based replication, hiring managers, ranking managers, and knowing when to move on.  We then discuss issues with the use of analytics outside of public equities, pending problem caused by high corporate leverage, opportunities in biotech and healthcare, the future of the hedge fund industry, and positioning an asset manager for the future. Jordi leads a rigorous approach to identifying, assessing, and improving an internal multi-manager team using data analytics.  The transparency and tools he employs are a few steps ahead of where most allocators find themselves today, and as such, his insights can shine a light on the path where all allocators can develop going forward. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast    

Manny Friedman is the founder of EJF Capital.  Manny discussed his background and his nuanced take on markets last July in Episode 61 of the podcast. In that conversation, he mentioned a new regulation in the U.S. that created an area of investing called Economic Opportunity Zones.  I started learning about Economic Opportunity Zones from Manny and dove in for my day job.  Since then, more and more eyes are viewing investments in Opportunity Zones, and I asked Manny to sit down with me to share his perspective. Our conversation covers the governments broad, bipartisan effort to reallocate capital to underinvested areas of the country, how tax incentives will potentially unlock trillions of dollars of unrealized capital gains, the future attraction of Economic Opportunity Zones to nontaxable and ESG investors, the ways in which the program could fall short of its lofty goals, and specific examples of how a virtuous circle can get created and make a meaningful dent in the economic divide in the United States Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Manny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer.  Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic opportunity zones, long-term impact of government stimulus, stranded assets created by technological change, regulation, and philanthropy. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Garnder Russo & Gardner. Last week, Tom talked in detail about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway.  This week, we continue the conversation with his new holding in Google. Our conversation covers buying Google now, comparing the company to Facebook, future growth opportunities starting from a large base, competition from Amazon, Google X’s long-term moonshots, and related stories in Tom’s portfolio companies Philip Morris and Nestle. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner.  Tom and I sat down in Episode 16 to discuss his background and investment strategy in what was one of the most popular episodes on the show.  He oversees $13B in a global value strategy focused on family-operated public companies. Our second conversation is a two-part episode for this week and next.  First, we talk solely about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway, a stock he first bought 38 years ago. The conversation covers Tom’s initial purchase of Berkshire, company meetings, reaffirming his thesis and search for disconfirming information, the genius of Warren Buffett, research on Mitek, cross-fertilization of Berkshire’s CEOs, the subdivisions of insurance, public market investments and regulated businesses, valuation, compensation, Berkshire after Warren, and Tom’s sell discipline. We close with a teaser for next week’s episode, as Tom reveals the name of the first significant stock he’s bought for his clients in eight years. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first partnership, Semper Vic Partners, has compounded at 14.6% per year for 33 years, besting the S&P 500 by 3.6% per annum. Tom is a graduate of Dartmouth College (B.A., 1977), and Stanford Business and Law Schools (JD/MBA, 1984). He has served on Dean's Advisory Council for Stanford Law School, Dartmouth College's President's Leadership Council, and the Advisory Board for the Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School, as well as on the boards of the Winston Churchill Foundation of the U.S., Facing History and Ourselves, and Storm King Art Center. Our conversation covers how Tom created an investment strategy by personalizing early lessons from Warren Buffett, the capacity to re-invest, the capacity to suffer, and what it takes to own a stock for decades.  Tom’s time horizon and fortitude as an investor parallels those of institutions with permanent capital. Listeners will get a fresh perspective on what it means to be a long-term investor Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Matt Botein is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Gallatin Point Capital, a $1.5 billion private investment company he founded after departing from BlackRock, where he had served as the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of the firm’s $160 billion Alternatives business.  Before sitting atop that lofty perch, Matt formed a bank after the financial crisis, was a Managing Director at hedge fund Highfields Capital and a private equity Principal at Blackstone. Our conversation starts with Matt’s early career experience, touching on differences in public and private investing and forming new financial companies after periods of crisis. We then turn to his reconnection with Larry Fink, who in short order tapped Matt to run BlackRock’s giant Alternatives business.  We discuss his unusually graceful exit from BlackRock, flexible investment approach at Gallatin Point, and perspective from meeting a wide array of large pools of institutional capital globally.  We finish with his take on the opportunities and challenges for private equity, headwinds for hedge funds, and real assets for his personal portfolio. Back when Matt and I were in school together, he was renowned for taking an occasional snooze in class, getting cold called by the professor, and waking up only to offer the most plugged in and articulate answer anyone could have imagined.  I suspected tapping into his brilliant mind would provide lots of food for thought, and he certainly didn’t disappoint. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Rahul Moodgal has spent 20 years as a fund raiser across long only strategies, hedge funds, fund of funds, customized solutions, start-ups, and non-profits.  Collectively, Rahul has raised and helped raise $60 billion for firms since 2005.  He started his career in the industry at powerhouse TT International, and later joined The Children’s Investment Fund (TCI) where he led the marketing effort that raised $20 billion in just 3½ years.  Within TCI’s affiliate model, Rahul also was responsible for the largest India fund raise in history ($1 billion for TCI New Horizon Fund), and the largest sector fund launch in history ($1.1 billion for Algebris Investments). Our conversation covers capital raising lessons learned from teaching, the value of transparency, the gold rush before 2008, the lean times afterwards, modern fee structures, the three key points to effective marketing, the three traits that will kill you, the two biggest issues start-up funds face, the best questions asked by leading allocators, and some of the worst horror stories in attempted capital raising. We close comparing by fund raising for charities and investment firms.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Chris Ailman is the chief investment officer of the $220 billion pool for California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). He joined CalSTRS back in 2000 after 4 years as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and 11 years as CIO of the Sacramento Country Employees Retirement System.  Chris is a legend in the business and the list of accolades for his work is longer that the list of my podcast episodes. Our conversation dives in with the flawed business model of government running a money management firm, looming retirement crisis, and challenges of governance and communication with a rotating Board.  We then turn to the inner workings CalSTRS, including the use of internal and external managers, managing a long-term asset allocation cruise ship, inflation sensitive investments, risk mitigating strategies, private equity for a huge pool of capital, the innovation lab, ES and G, and building influence among large asset owners. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast  

Steve Kuhn is a retired hedge fund manager.  He spent two decades in the industry, specializing in mortgage-backed securities at Cargill, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Pine River.  In his last stint in the business until his retirement in 2016, Steve was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at then $14 billion Pine River Capital Management and was one of the hedge fund industry’s most widely known fixed income traders. Our conversation covers parlaying a passion for playing games into a two-decade Wall Street career, spending time productively when your investing specialty is out of favor, stepping away from the money game, presenting the evidence-based case for active manager alpha, talking the state of the hedge fund industry, managing his own money, engaging in philanthropy, and proposing the IDEAL immigration model. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Donna Snider is a Managing Director at the $4 billion Kresge Foundation, where she has worked for ten years as one of three senior team members under Chief Investment Officer Rob Manilla.  Last summer, Institutional Investor named Donna the number one ranked Most Wanted CIO of the future. Our conversation starts with Donna sharing the cross fertilization of bringing her sell side trading experience to a Foundation and on the flip side learning manager selection from her very first data point. We then turn to the inner workings of the Foundation investment program from the perspective of a long-tenured senior team member, including the nitty gritty details of the internal investment process, the tricky decision process that goes into adding a manager or taking one out of the portfolio, the management of overlays and internal trades, the different roles of a CIO and senior investment team member, current challenges in venture capital, value investing, hedge funds, and emerging markets, and the politics of getting named a Most Wanted future CIO. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Ron Biscardi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Context Capital Partners and a Partner and Board Member of Context Summits.  Ron sits at the intersection of buyers and sellers for small funds, and actively invests as a provider of acceleration capital.   Our conversation covers Ron’s path from an engineer to an asset management entrepreneur, the challenges and opportunities of investing in small hedge funds, the disconnect with the perception of hedge funds in the media and the reality that occurs at the Context Summit, the interests of single-family offices, and new investment opportunities on the horizon.  Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jean Hynes is a Managing Partner at Wellington Management, where she one of three people responsible for the governance of Wellington’s storied partnership.  Jean also is the sector leader of the firm’s healthcare team that manages the Vanguard Healthcare Fund, three global healthcare hedge funds, and global healthcare sector portfolios. She joined Wellington after graduating from college in 1991 and has been at the firm ever since.  Our conversation covers Wellington’s humanistic culture, its evolution from a U.S. value shop to a global federation of boutiques, talent recruitment, the successful merit-based partnership structure, and the Wellington of the future.  Along the way we touch on Jean’s progression from an administrative assistant to a Managing Partner, the healthcare team’s investment philosophy and process, a day in her work life, and topical issues of active vs. passive, public and private investing, and large vs. small firms. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading international public relations and financial communications consultancy with offices in New York, London, Los Angeles and Connecticut. Prosek Partners ranks among the top 10 independent public relations firms in the U.S., and among the top financial communications consultancies.  The firm has been listed as an Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company for nine years running.  Jen is also a two-time author.  Our conversation covers the foibles of professional marketing in asset management, building a brand, measuring a successful branding effort, managing the story of weak performance, and describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding.  We then turn to some of Jen’s fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of ‘Just Ask’, behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Please enjoy this countdown of the top 10 most downloaded episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018 (and top 5 most downloaded episodes featuring CIOs). If you have any ideas and can make introductions to guests who might crack next year's top 10, please send the my way.  Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Tim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, an investment consultant that advises on $1 trillion in assets on behalf of 400 institutional clients.  Tim oversees NEPC’s 50-person investment research team and leads investment strategy for the firm.  In each of 2014, 2015, and 2016, CIO Magazine recognized Tim as one of the world’s most influential consultants. Our conversation covers NEPC’s client centric model, meeting the needs of a range of client types, forming and implementing capital market views, researching managers, sourcing in public and private assets, allocating to scarce capacity managers, and forming and leaning into the megatrends of artificial intelligence, income inequality, demographics, and shifting currency regimes. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es, an investment firm that buys small family-owned businesses with the intention of holding them indefinitely.  After launching a few businesses out of college, Brent developed a distinct investment strategy and style. Earlier this year, he raised outside capital for the first time in a permanent capital vehicle, and I am a happy investor in the fund. Brent regularly shares his insights on business and investing through his widely distributed letters on his website and commentary on Twitter. And just last week, he released his first book, The Messy Marketplace:  Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers.  It’s a fantastic instructional guide that covers everything from emotional expectations to the fine print in documentation. Our conversation covers Brent’s childhood interest in business, early mistakes, structural differences in his strategy from traditional private equity, search funds and fundless sponsors, sourcing deals, conducting due diligence, understanding valuation, negotiating, raising a first-time permanent capital vehicle, entering the ranks of professionals, and his new book. Brent is unusually insightful about investing in general and deeply knowledgeable about the niche he occupies. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Bushey is the founder of Sunderland Capital, a Boston-based hedge fund he started in 2016.  Tom graduated from the Wharton School as an undergraduate, and worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, private equity analyst at Thayer Capital, hedge fund analyst at Millenium and Mayo Capital, and portfolio manager at Blackrock before trying his hand on his own.  Even with that stellar resume, the road to success running an asset management business has plenty of obstacles along the way. Our conversation tells Tom’s story of what happened through his career and launch process.  He shares an inside look from a manager’s perspective of what it takes to get a fund off the ground.  As an important aside and disclaimer, I’ve known Tom for a while and have advised him for the last two years.  I happen to like him a lot, both personally and professionally, but you should know I have a small vested interest in his success.

Mark Baumgartner is the CIO of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he oversees a $1 billion portfolio that seeks to achieve just median returns but with significantly less risk.  Prior to joining IAS, Mark had stints at the Ford Foundation overseeing risk, at Morgan Stanley’s Alternative Investment Partners, at both quantitative and qualitative hedge funds, and as a management consultant.  Oh, and he studied to be a rocket scientist before that.   Our conversation covers Mark’s path to IAS and the principles of luck, risk, and uncertainty on that path. We discuss the IAS portfolio, one catered to achieve a low risk profile, and how he has stayed the course when that structure hasn’t been rewarded by markets.  We talk about identifying managers that fit into his approach and different metrics of defining risk at both the manager and portfolio levels. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

My guest on today’s show once again is Annie Duke, decision-making expert, former world-famous poker player, and author of the best seller, Thinking in Bets.  I had a chance to interview Annie at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the live interview follows. Special thanks to Andrea Szigethy and Donna Holly, founders of the Institute, for having Annie and me down for their terrific event. Our conversation covers the challenge of separating signal from noise in making decisions, the formation and confirmation of beliefs, forming decision groups, communicating with teams, and mistakes Annie’s advisory clients have made after reading her book.  We close with some questions from the audience and end with two great poker stories of how Annie approached being a woman in the male-dominated poker world.  Annie’s irrepressible brain was on display this time around, covering a few of the same ideas from our last conversation and some new ones with different anecdotes along the way. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Lombardi is a thirty-year veteran of professional football, including as a General Manager and a three-time Super Bowl winning executive.  He is the author of the fantastic recently released bookGridiron Genius, A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL. The book is a tour de force of applied leadership through his learnings working alongside football greats Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick.  Since stepping aside from the front office to write his book, Michael appears as a commentator on television, hosts the top-ten sports podcast, GM Street, and speaks to businesses about leadership and teamwork. Our conversation covers his early passion for football, the contrasting leadership styles of Bill Walsh and Al Davis, the magic of Bill Belichick, the four areas of leadership, the science and art of scouting, and where the front office breaks down. Michael embodies the style of leader that he describes, and his lessons are applicable to investment and business leaders alike. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Last week, the senseless and tragic events at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh left me and many others asking questions about our world today. This one hit a little closer to home for me than the many other equally terrible events that have occurred because my mother grew up in Squirrel Hill. Our family is a generation removed and not closely connected to the town anymore, but my friends Andy Fisher and Jeff Solomon very much are. Andy is the President of CIM Investment Management in Pittsburgh, where he has worked for a quarter-century and oversees $1.4 billion. He was born and raised in Squirrel Hill and lives a few blocks from the Tree of Life Synagogue.  Andy sent me an email last Monday with a clip from an interview that our mutual friend Jeff conducted on MSNBC. Jeff is the CEO of Cowen Group and is a proud Pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill native.  He was also the guest on the 9th Episode of Capital Allocators, and you can find a replay right after this special episode. I sat down with Jeff last Wednesday to talk about his experience in the initial days of these tragic events.  That conversation follows. I want to offer a special thanks to Andy for the thread that led to this episode, and offer prayers and healing to Andy, Jeff, their family and friends directly impacted in Squirrel Hill, and to everyone I don’t know wherever acts of hated have impacted their lives.

Jeffrey Solomon is the President of publicly listed Cowen Group (TK: COWN), a financial services company focused on supporting and providing active management to the marketplace. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, Jeff deferred an acting career with a brief respite on Wall Street, but he hasn’t looked back since. In 1994, he joined Peter Cohen, then the former head of investment bank Shearson Lehman Brothers, to form money management firm Ramius Advisors. Ramius grew to become one of the largest hedge funds in the world, and in 2009 merged with boutique investment bank Cowen Group. Following the merger, Jeff switched over to the investment bank side of the business and today serves as its Chief Executive Officer, where he embodies the firm’s core values of vision, tenacity and empathy. Our conversation starts with a passionate description of Pittsburgh sports, and flows to how active managers succeed in the 1990s and need to evolve to succeed today. We discuss the importance of empathy in the investment business, and touch on how Jeff’s summer camp experience as a kid informs how he manages people today. His answers to my closing questions are just amazing. If you’re short on time, fast forward to the 51stminute of the show. You’ll miss plenty along the way, but you don’t want to miss these. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeff Solomon. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Karl Scheer is the Chief Investment Officer of the University of Cincinnati’s billion-dollar endowment.  Before taking the helm at Cincinnati in 2011, he co-ran a family office and spent eight years in the venture capital industry. Our conversation covers Karl’s background, running a family office in the teeth of the Global Financial Crisis, high-functioning governance, avoiding the worst managers, taking the hard road, conducting due diligence with popular managers and without checklists, and picking your spots. Book Links John Brooks, Once in Golconda:  A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1938 Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation John Brooks and Michael Lewis, The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Andrew Tsai is the Chief Investment Officer of Chalkstream Capital Group, which he founded in 2003 to manage the assets of quant guru Peter Muller.  Andrew’s fascinating background started on the Lehman arbitrage desk in the early 1990s, after which he formed a quantitative hedge fund in 1997, built a dot.comlogistics business in 1999, and led the turnaround of a private equity-backed business thereafter.  He combined his wide range of skills to focus on investing at Chalkstream. Our conversation walks through the stories and lessons from Andrew’s background and turns to Chalkstream.  His investment program is the opposite of asset allocation, emphasizing deep dive research, concentrated themes in niche spaces, low beta, long tails, and culture. We close by fleshing out examples of Chalkstream’s themes in Japan and electricity trading. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings.  Before founding BLA, Michael was a professional baseball player, working his way through the minors and reaching the majors as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies.  A shoulder injury left him pondering what to do next, which led to the creation of BLA.  Our conversation discusses Michael’s career as a player, the difficult life of Minor Leaguers, and his mission to improve their fortunes.  We discuss his passion for statistics, application of Sabremetrics, and development of a team of All-Stars in the game of sports analytics.  We close with a look into the future of BLA and Michael’s prediction for this year’s World Series Champion.  Whether his bet proves right or wrong, Michael’s rationale exemplifies second order thinking through the lens of data analytics that is never far from his mind. Learn More   Discuss show and Read the Transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Join the Capital Allocators Forum   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Michael Batnick is the Director of Research at Ritholz Wealth Management, author of theIrrelevant Investor blog, co-host of the Animal Spirits podcast, and recently, author of his first book, Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments. Our conversation starts with Michael’s atypical career path, his arrival at Ritholz, and his blog. We then turn to stories from his book about Ben Graham, Jesse Livermore, Jack Bogle, Stan Druckenmiller, John Maynard Keynes, Charlie Munger, and Chris Sacca.  Lastly, we discuss how Michael applies the lessons in his book at Ritholz. Michael is a widely followed rising star in financial social media, and our conversation is packed with nuggets of timeless investment wisdom. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

After getting some great feedback from the replay of my conversation with Scott Malpass, I am going to repeat some gems from the past every few months. This week I picked out my conversation with Andy Golden, the venerable head of Princeton’s 24 billion dollar endowment. It’s another master class in endowment management from a seasoned veteran. Andy Golden is the President of Princeton University’s Investment Management Company (PRINCO). Having grown from $3B at the time of his arrival in 1995 to $22.5B today, PRINCO has been among the highest performing endowments in the world. Andy came to PRINCO from Duke Management Company, where he was an Investment Director, and received his formative training in the business working for David Swensen at the Yale University Investments Office. Andy currently serves on the fund Advisory Boards of several well-known private equity and venture capital managers, including Bain Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Greylock Partners. He was a founding member of the Investors’ Committee of the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets and serves as a Trustee of the Princeton Area Community Foundation and Rutgers Preparatory School. Andy holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Duke University and an M.P.P.M. from the Yale School of Management. Our conversation discusses Princeton’s endowment two decades ago and today, including its strategic advantages as an institution, shifts in thinking about asset allocation, decision making, team development, and partnership with managers. Andy’s long tenure in his seat, insight, and wisdom provides a treasure trove of information about how a top endowment manager practices his craft, and his subtle wit always keeps things light. Learn more at www.PeterAttiaMD.com Connect with Peter on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram.

Raff Arndt is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s AUZ$145 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Future Fund.  He trained as an engineer and dove into infrastructure policy at the beginning of Australia’s privatizations in the late 1990s. After investing in the space for six year, he joined the Future Fund in 2008 to head the infrastructure team. Six years later, Raff became CIO. Our conversation spans all aspects of the management of a next generation institutional portfolio, including a one team, one portfolio philosophy, disaggregating beta and factors from skill in public markets, separating the impact of leverage and timing from skill in private markets, venture capital and co-investment opportunities in a large pool of capital, the option value of flexibility, the team required to make decisions in this format, compensation, fees, views on China, and the current market environment. Australia created the Future Fund only eleven years ago with a mandate to compound capital for 20 years before even contemplating withdrawals. It has been described to me as a pool of capital with the size and transparency of CalPERS and the sophistication of Yale. I’m sure you’ll soon understand why. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Professor Stephen McKeon spent six years out of college working in finance for venture-backed startups before returning to graduate school and earning his PhD in finance in 2011. Blending his interest and experience, Steve focuses his research on corporate finance, M&A, security issuance, and most recently, crypto assets, where he has become a leading academic authority in the nascent area. Our conversation starts with Steve’s first job smack into the teeth of the tech meltdown in 2000 and his subsequent roles at a winery and a drone company.  We then turn to his work as an academic in the world of crypto assets, walking through the thesis for security tokens.  Steve presents a case for the future of security tokens that is tangible and achievable.  Now that the noise from soaring crypto currency prices has died down, we can learn a lot from Steve about what blockchain technology may bring to investing in the years ahead. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Both times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He has a passion and indescribable skill in enlivening the developmental process and fostering vitality, meaning and well-being in individuals, groups, and organizations. When not running programs or training others, Michael practices psychotherapy at the Nuin Center in Pittsburgh, where he has professionally resided for 25 years. Our conversation took place in the mountains towards the end of this year’s journey and is quite different from those you may be accustomed to hearing on the show. We cover Michael’s path to creating the experience, the myth of the Hero, lessons in how the world actually works, the call to adventure, perfectionism, uncertainty, fear, and poetry. If you’re intrigued, I strongly encourage you to check out herosjourneyfoundation.org. Spaces are limited for the annual summer Men’s and Women’s Journeys, so sign up for next year’s trip at the website or reach out to me.  I intend to be back on the mountain next year and hope to see you there. Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's monthly Mailing List Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast Book Links Phillip Shepherd, New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces Jack Kornfeld, After the Ecstasy, the Laundry: How the Heart Grows Wise on the Spiritual Path Joseph Jastrab, Sacred Manhood Sacred Earth: A Vision Quest into the Wilderness of a Man's Heart

Sarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal, a non-profit consortium of large asset managers, allocators, and corporations dedicated to encouraging long-term behavior in business and investment decision-making. FCLTGlobal conducts research, convenes business leaders, develops actionable tools, and generates broad awareness of ways in which a longer-term focus can increase innovation, economic growth, and future savings. Prior to joining FCLTGlobal in 2016, Sarah spent 21 years at Wellington Management Company, where she was most recently a Partner and Director of Alternative Investments.  She started her career at Goldman Sachs, and had stints at the U.S. Department of State and McKinsey before joining Wellington. Our conversation beings with Sarah’s career and turns to FCLTGlobal. We talk about potential improvements at the corporate level, including eliminating quarterly guidance, executive compensation,  capital allocation, and Board dynamics, and then turn to the relationship between money managers and allocators, including fee structures, setting expectations, reporting returns, and governance. Lastly, Sarah discusses new research initiatives.  I’m pulling for Sarah.  If her work bears fruit, we all will be better off, and most importantly, so will our clients. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Kristian Fok is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s A46B ($35B USD) Construction & Building Industry Superannuation Fund, or CBUS. Prior to joining CBUS in 2012, Kristian spent 14 years consulting to Australian Super Funds at Frontier Advisors.  Australia’s Superannuation program mandates that employers contribute 9.5% of its employee salaries into a Super Fund, which is owned by the employee, like a 401k in the U.S., and grows with investment returns until retirement. The employees, in turn, have a choice of providers to invest their savings. The model has been one of the most successful in the world in preparing the population for retirement. Our conversation starts with Kristian’s path to the CIO seat at CBUS and focuses on the hybrid investment model blending internal and external management. We discuss the transition to internal management as assets scale, example of CBUS’ internal property company, economics of internal management, talent recruiting and retention, portfolio structure, external manager selection, people management, and investment with a long time-horizon. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Josh Wolfe is the co-founder of Lux Capital, a $1.5 billion venture capital firm formed to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time. Josh’s innovative thought process across his activities offers frameworks and insights applicable across the spectrum of investing. Our conversation covers Josh’s early passion for science and finance, building a competitive advantage in venture capital from scratch, sourcing ideas, conducting due diligence, making investment decisions, constructing portfolios, making exits, learning from mistakes, navigating a challenging private equity environment, posting on Twitter, active vs. passive management, dinner table conversation, and life lessons. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Ben Reiter is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and the author of Astroball:  The New Way to Win It All.  He joined SI in 2004 a few years out of college and has written for them ever since. In 2014 Ben wrote a cover story for SI entitled YOUR 2017 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS featuring the then sorry Astros who were the laughingstock of baseball at the time.  Three years later, his prediction came true. His book chronicling the journey has been dubbed Moneyball 2.0. Our conversation blew me away in how closely the parallels have been between baseball management and fundamental investing over the last 15 years.  From the incorporation of data to the challenges in managing people, I suspect if you just change the names of the players and the labels for the process, this could be a full blown conversation about investing. Baseball may even be ahead of the data revolution in investing, and the story of the Astros could hint at lessons that money managers will need to apply going forward.  Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Roz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates.  Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cover opportunistic-based allocation, theme identification, benefits of concentrating in managers, oversight of a team and due diligence, stories from the front lines, exciting investment opportunities, co-investments, and governance. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Investment luminary Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of 16 books, and one of the most sought-after industry advisors worldwide.  He also believes deeply in the paradox of skill and his latest book, The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now, presents a compelling case for indexing for most investors.. Charley was an early guest on the show and we reconvened to talk through the full case of indexing for individuals and some of its constraints for institutions.  Our conversation covers the case for indexing, smart beta, the retirement problem, investing in alternatives, private equity, and indexing challenges in emerging markets. After we turned off the recording, Charley proffered that we offer a prize for anyone who can find valid fault with the case against active management for most investors. Any takers can drop me an email, and I’ll be happy to put them toe-to-toe with Charley to debate the issue. Discuss the show and Read the transcript   Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Write a review on iTunes   Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Manny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer.  Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic opportunity zones, long-term impact of government stimulus, stranded assets created by technological change, regulation, and philanthropy. Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

This replay is the one of the most downloaded shows from last year, and one that new listeners may have missed.  Regular listeners no doubt might pick up a new insight listening again. Scott Malpass is the esteemed Vice President and CIO of Notre Dame University, where he oversees the school's $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees at Notre Dame, and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 years, as defined by both performance and impact, place him indisputably in rare company at the very top of the field. Our conversation is a full-blown master class on endowment management, including the benefits of a long tenured team, asset allocation frameworks, passive management, preparing for dislocations, the state of venture capital, sourcing, monitoring and exiting managers, incremental process improvements, professional and personal development, and education and alignment across constituencies. It’s hard not to be in awe of Scott’s combination of humility, experience, and success. Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast  

The name Anthony Scaramucci currently has 55% name recognition in the U.S. according to Politico. Anthony has been an entrepreneur in the hedge fund industry for 23 years, growing to prominence within the industry through his oversight of fund of funds Skybridge Capital, creation of the popular SALT conference, regular television appearances, and rejuvenation of the iconic television show Wall Street Week.  He grew to prominence worldwide when his longtime political interests led to a brief tenure as White House Communications Director in 2017. Our conversation starts off with a bang and turns to the ups and downs in Anthony’s career, including getting fired and rehired at Goldman Sachs, starting and selling his first hedge fund, creating Skybridge and watching it almost fail, and thriving after the financial crisis. We discuss Anthony's thoughts on hedge funds, lessons from his stint in Washington, and books he has written about his experiences. Along the way, he shares life lessons about managing people, building relationships, resiliency, laughing at yourself, greed, ego, and fame. Anyone who has only known Anthony from his recent public profile might be surprised to hear the depth of his insight, self-effacing honesty and caring of others, alongside his irrepressible salesmanship. Those who have known him longer will recognize the same Mooch as always in all his splendor.   Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:48 – Anthony’s professional history 8:03 – Time at Oscar Capital/Neuberger Berman 9:25 – Neuberger sells to Lehman 10:13 – Leaving Lehman to start Skybridge 13:13 – Getting through the financial crisis 14:04 – Launching SALT conference 15:35 – Buying Citigroup's fund of funds business 17:34 – Anthony’s approach to the hedge fund business 20:28 – How he handles the relationships with managers 22:15 – Environment for the hedge fund space             24:12 – After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead 26:02 – Hedge fund space moving forward 28:03 – What he learned from being fired 31:22 – Handling public adversity 32:40 – Selling the business to serve the country 35:35 – Life lessons learned throughout his career and shared in his books             35:40 – Goodbye Gordon Gekko: How to Find Your Fortune Without Losing Your Soul             38:40 – The Little Book of Hedge Funds             38:44 – Hopping over the Rabbit Hole: How Entrepreneurs Turn Failure into Success 39:20 – The key principles that Anthony tries to impart on his team 41:47 – Lessons in launching a hedge fund business 45:00 – What changed upon his return to Skybridge 46:33 – How does it feel to be famous 48:10 – Closing questions             56:06– The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947

Peter Troob is the co-Founder and CIO of Troob Capital Management, an opportunistic investor and family office with particular expertise in distressed situations. Prior to starting TCM in 2002, Peter spent six years focusing on distressed debt investing at Contrarian Capital and Everest Capital.  He started his career as an investment banker, and after his tenure in self-proclaimed purgatory, he co-authored the entertaining book ‘Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle.” Our conversation begins with life as an investment banking analyst, and turns to competing with large distressed funds, the frothy high yield market, trickery in the CDS market, high yield ETFs, idiosyncratic opportunities, diversifying family assets, managing teams, and learning from the dinner table.   Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:09 – Start of his career 3:02 – Peter's book Monkey Business 3:47 – The life of an investment banker 4:22 – Decision to leave the bank 4:50 – His experience at a hedge fund 5:27 – Some of his early mistakes 6:15 – The dynamics of distressed debt investing 8:05 – The appropriate size for a distressed fund 11:28 – What should your expectations be if you invest in a large fund 13:12 – Short credit thesis 18:00 – Impact of private equity owned companies on defaults 19:49 – Shenanigans we are seeing in the CDS market 24:36 – Concerns about high yield ETFs 26:42 – Investing family capital 29:16 – Sourcing idiosyncratic deals 32:49 – What Peter has learned about managing a team 35:43 – Hiring millennials 36:22 – Lessons from investing mistakes 43:05 – What is it like working with family 45:58 – Closing questions             49:56 - Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts

Australian James Aitken is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aitken Advisors, a one-man macroeconomic consultancy based in Wimbledon, England that works with approximately one hundred of the most influential pools of capital in the world. James started his career in 1992 as a foreign exchange trader, moved to London in May 1999, and in March 2002 joined the infamous AIG Financial Products team in London. In August 2006 he joined UBS, where he deployed his knowledge of the inner workings of the financial system to help his institutional investor clients successfully navigate their portfolios through 2007 and 2008. At the urging of his clients, James established his own firm in June 2009. Our conversation covers James' perspective on the Global Financial Crisis from his seat at its epicenter, the Eurozone crisis in 2011, subsequent process-driven opportunities in Greece, views on Central Banks in the US, China, & Europe, some brief observations on India, positioning for the current environment, and what makes a great macro manager.   Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 3:03 – The start of his career at AIG Financial Products 7:19 – Move to UBS             9:03 – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion 10:42 – Sell off of 2006 13:12 – Leaving UBS to go off on his own 24:22 – What makes a great manager 27:55 – What is he seeing in the markets today, especially the US Fed 33:09 – MIDROLL 34:08 – What happens when bond rates normalize 46:36 – China 56:50 - Japan 59:10 – Europe 1:05:28 – Risk in the asset markets 1:08:49 – Advice to allocators 1:11;05 – Why people should be focused on India 1:16:39 – How he spends his time 1:20:56 – Closing Questions

Brian Portnoy Brian is currently the Director of Investment Education at $100B investment solutions provider Virtus Investment Partners, where he strives to simplify the complex world of money in an effort to help investors make better decisions and lead a joyful life. For the past two decades, he has held senior investment, research, and strategy roles in the hedge fund and mutual fund industries at Chicago Equity Partners, Mesirow Financial, and Morningstar.  Brian is the author of “The Investor’s Paradox,” a book about manager selection rooted in choice theory.  His second book, “The Geometry of Wealth” hits electronic and physical bookstores this week. Our conversation covers Brian’s experience in manager research and lessons learned, choice theory and managing expectations, differences between institutional investment and private wealth management, distinction between seeking wealth and trying to get rich, his terrific new book, and why volatility is risk. Brian’s insightful take on investing and his journey from the complex to the simple is full of investment nuggets of gold.   Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:24 – Brian’s start in the business 5:18 – The useful skills he developed during his tenure at Morningstar 6:37 – The hard questions he would ask 7:15 – Why he left Morningstar 8:53 – What he learned at Mesirow that made him so detail oriented 10:57 – Leaving Mesirow 12:08 – What led Brian to writing The Investor's Paradox: The Power of Simplicity in a World of Overwhelming Choice             14:51 – The Art of Choosing 16:58 – What is the investors paradox             17:04 – The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less 19:29 – Reaction to the book 24:10 – Difference between his views on the asset management side vs the wealth management side 27:11 – The concept behind The Geometry of Wealth: How To Shape A Life Of Money And Meaning 30:58 – The shapes used to take people from confusion to comfort with money and investments, starting with the circle 36:00 – Moving on to the triangle in this formula 41:03 – The second triangle, focused on behavior 43:36 – The big blue square 49:29 – Hopes for the book 52:46 – Closing questions

Tom Lydon is one of the leading experts in the ETF and mutual fund industries. He is the founder and CEO of ETF Trends, a business he created in 2004 whose website, etftrends.com, is filled with news, analysis, and webcasts about the world of ETFs. Before creating ETF Trends, Tom ran a financial advisory and publication business that followed the mutual fund industry. Our conversation covers the evolution of mutual funds in the 80s and 90s and the rise of ETFs in the 2000s. We discuss the composition of the ETF marketplace, structure and tax advantages of ETFs, passive, factor and actively managed funds, characteristics of a superior manager, leveraged ETFs, VIX blowup, potential future problems in high yield and emerging market ETFs, and coming trends in the space.   Learn More Discuss the show and Read the transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:01  – A look at Tom’s early career 4:52 – What drove people to buy or sell a mutual fund in those early days 5:33 – How did Tom's sell signal just before Black Monday impact the business 6:21 – What were the right funds to invest with 6:56 – What were the key trends during the 80’s and 90’s 8:25 – Layers of cost for mutual funds in the early days 9:04 – Average active management fee back then 10:56 – Evolution of ETF’s 13:49 – Some numbers on the ETF landscape today 15:40 - Why did the last downturn foster more growth in ETFs 18:08 – The institutional presence in the ETF market 18:55 – Fees in the ETF space 19:50 – Distribution of ETFs 21:29 – Actively managed ETF’s 23:35 – Tax efficiency of ETF’s 26:42 – Judging ETF managers 31:26 – Do levered ETFs add any value             34:00 – Ted paper against levered ETFs 35:18 – Potential landmines in ETFs 38:49 – Risks in the ETF space today 42:11– How do ETFs impact pricing distortions 46:16 – What’s happening in active fixed income ETFs 47:43 – Will fund flows chase hot managers? 48:35 – The big trends on the horizon 49:52 – What happens with liquid alternatives 51:08– What are businesses have thrived in the ETF space 53:56 – A deep dive into Tom’s business ETF Trends 55:41 – Closing questions    

Tali Sharot is a leading expert on human decision-making, optimism and emotion. A neuroscientist by trade, Tali combines research in psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions, beliefs and inaccurate expectations of the future. She is currently a visiting professor at MIT, and is also an associate professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London where she directs the Affective Brain Lab. Tali is the author of The Influential Mind, The Science of Optimism, and The Optimism Bias.  Our conversation tackles many of the issues Tali has studied in her career, including the optimism bias, sense of control, confirmation bias, behavioral change, and overconfidence.  We then touch on some of the applications of her work to investing, including the home country bias, making non-economic financial decisions, active management, emotion-driven decisions, team-based decisions, and research heuristics.  Lastly, we learn a few parenting tricks from the Influential Mind. This conversation took place behind closed doors at the Context Leadership Summit in Las Vegas.  Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 3:18  – Tali’s educational path to becoming a cognitive neuroscientist 4:58 – Why people make mistakes, optimism bias 7:24 – Does optimism bias impact our view of others as strongly as ourselves 9:12 – What should we do about our optimism bias 12:37 – How does controlling your environment impact how your brain works 14:47 – How do we work around our problems in decision making? 17:40 – How do you get more people to conform to things that are beneficial 21:11 – The impact of different personality types on these tactics 22:05 – How do we use this information to impact financial decisions 23:53 -  Home country bias among investors 25:00 – Is home country familiarity a bad thing? 27:12 – Impact of well-being on investment decisions 28:20 – Picking stocks because of the illusion of control 29:52 – The role of emotion in driving our decisions 32:39 – How do you use this information to help individuals or teams make better decisions 36:23 – New research 40:41 – Raising kids 42:29 – Closing questions

John Pfeffer is an entrepreneur, investor and author of “An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets.”  He is currently Partner of Pfeffer Capital.  In the 2000s, John was a Member at private equity firm KKR, and in the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of leading French IT company Groupe Allium S.A. Before that, he advised on turnarounds while with McKinsey in Europe and Latin America. Our conversation jumps in the thought process and structure behind John’s family office portfolio, which combines building new businesses alongside fund investments in public equity, private equity and venture capital. We touch on common issues like active vs. passive, access and fees, but from a very different insider’s perspective. We then turn to his work in the crypto world and discuss his framework for incorporating crypto investing in a portfolio, conducting research in the space, defining the proposition for store of value and utility protocols, and valuing tokens and coins. John was the first investor I’ve come across that has both done a deep dive into the crypto world and is neither all-in nor all-out.  He connects markets and economics with the complex ecosystem just simply enough that a layman like me can follow along.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:38 – How John thinks about managing his own capital 2:51 – Process to find a business to build 5:08 – Sizing of thematic deals 5:50 – New project copying a European retail model 7:18 – Core of the portfolio 9:02 – Biases of investment alternatives 11:18 – How will tax changes impact the private equity business 11:49 – What does he know about GP’s as an insider that other LP’s might not know 13:53 – How do they tackle venture capital investing 16:25 – Fees 17:40 – First involvement in looking at cryptocurrencies             17:46 – Institutional Investors Take on Crypto Assets 19:40 – Where do crypto assets fit in the structure of the portfolio 21:20 – Holding period for an asymmetric option 22:07 – What else did he do in cryptoassets after that first investment 24:54 – Store of value and utility protocols 29:51 – Valuing crypto assets 31:51 – Velocity of crypto exchange 40:12 – Gold replacement value of bitcoin 45:21 – Closing questions

Ross Israel is the Head of Global Infrastructure Investments for QIC, Queensland, Australia’s 82B AUZ ($62B USD) investment fund. The Queensland government formed QIC in 1991 to oversee its Superannuation Fund, and the business has since evolved into a Global Diversified Alternative Asset Manager. Ross joined QIC in 2006 to create the Global Infrastructure effort and also serves as a member of QIC’s Executive Committee.  He has a quarter century’s worth of experience in corporate finance and infrastructure funds management.  Our conversation covers QIC’s structure, examples of long duration assets in ports and waterways, crossing knowledge between private and public markets, managing external assets alongside a substantial internal pool, governance structure, compensation and incentives, navigating stakeholders, and opportunities and risks in the space. The subtle differences in constituents and objectives of sovereign wealth funds from other institutional pools come out in the implementation of QIC’s investing. It’s a topic we’ll continue to explore on future shows.  Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 3:10 – A look at Ross’s background 5:58 – QIC and how is it structured 7:32 – Portfolio composition when Ross arrived 9:08 – What was his strategy for putting money to work 10:03 – What was the thinking behind such a concentrated portfolio 11:28 – Port of Brisbane 15:38 – Local vs. global focus 16:58 – Most challenging deal he’s done 18:28 – Lessons learned from their investing strategies 20:01 – Structure of their investment decision meetings 22:43 – Why does QIC take on outside capital? 25:27 – How does being part of a government entity play out in the deal dynamics 27:43 – How does decision making work on the fund? 29:06 – What happens if an internally run fund falters? 30:40 – QIC’s approach to incentives and compensation 37:13 – What influence do the large pool of funds have on the way they pursue investments 39:06 – How do they think about their objectives 41:30 – What is the competitive landscape for infrastructure investments 44:38 – What are the concerns as they look out on the horizon 47:32 – How do they view public debt 48:54 – Closing Questions

Kim Lew is the Vice President and CIO of Carnegie Corporation, where she is responsible for the investment and oversight of the Corporation’s $3.5 billion Foundation. Kim joined Carnegie in 2007 after spending a dozen years at the Ford Foundation. She is also a Trustee of Ariel Investments, the Board Chair of the Stevens Cooperative Schools, and a member of the investment committees of the Girl Scouts of America and the ACLU, and the steering committee of the Private Equity Women Investor Network. Last year, Institutional Investor awarded her Endowment & Foundation CIO of the year.   Our conversation covers the American dream story of Kim’s parents, Kim’s path to picking technology stocks and venture capital managers at Ford Foundation, two very different models of successful Foundation investing, blow-by-blow of the creation of an atypical Co-CIO seat at Carnegie, responsibilities that CIOs hate, idiosyncratic investments, committee meetings that foster long-term thinking, evolution of a farm team of managers, risk-taking in investing and life, and what to do when you turn 50 years old.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:52 – A look at Kim’s background 4:03 – How did her family life impact her schooling 5:26 – Was there anything in her upbringing that drew her to business 6:18 – First job out of college 7:15 – Heading to Harvard Business School 8:42 – The move to Prudential 9:48 – Her time at Ford Foundation 17:35 – Move to venture funds at Ford 18:20 – Comparing the job of sourcing managers then to today 20:27 – Kim’s move to Carnegie 22:42 – How the investment thinking was different at Carnegie 26:32 – How did their thinking on investing play out in individual decisions 27:55 – The decision to have Co-CIO’s 34:22 – Worst parts of being a CIO 37:13 – An outside responsibility that has been helpful to Kim’s career 38:56 – How the thinking on an investment committee for a pension can be different 40:05 – Stepping into the sole CIO role 41:06 – Imparting your influence on investment decisions when you are less in the weeds 41:42 – Carnegie's investment strategy 46:38 – Implementation 56:59 – Taking risks vs being smart with your capital 1:01:36 – 50 things she had never done before 1:05:42 – Closing questions

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:54 – How Paul got started in the business 4:52 – Lessons learned in the early years of his career             5:56 – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings             6:01 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor             6:05 – The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel 7:49 – What works about growth stock investing 9:01 – What constitutes a great growth company 13:47 – Defining and measuring a company’s competitive advantage 17:50 – How does he assess a company’s culture             19:41 – The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance 20:26 – Questions that help assess company culture 21:57 – Any data to back up claims that companies with good cultures perform better over time 22:46 – Culture aligning with competitive advantage 24:30 – Looking at WCM’s moat and culture 31:23 – The landscape for active management 33:53 – Weathering tough periods for the firm 37:02 – How do they think about culture in other countries 39:01 – Why does growth stock investing work when the data shows otherwise 40:47 – What is he excited about in growth stocks 43:45 – Tailwinds at the sector level 45:10 – Downside protection in the portfolio 46:38 – Patterns of positive and negative allocator behavior 48:35 – How do they manage the change in the portfolio going from 200 million to 26 billion 49:53 – Closing questions

Jim Williams is the Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Treasurer of the Getty Trust, where he oversees a $7 billion portfolio for the Getty Museum. Before joining the Getty in 2002, Jim spent three years as the President of Harbor Capital Advisors and prior to that, was manager of the Ford Motor Company pension department. Our rich conversation covers all aspects of managing a significant pool of non-profit assets including modeling liquidity, creating a specialist team structure, sourcing managers, discerning between talented managers, co-investing, sizing manager positions, investing in venture capital, viewing hedge funds like a basketball point guard, working with a constructive board, and finding opportunities in the current “least dirty shirt” market. This conversation ranks way up there in the breadth, depth, and quality of discussion. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed speaking to Jim.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:40 – A look at Jim’s background and how he got to the Getty Museum 8:23 – A look at the pool of capital at Getty 9:47 – How does the high dependence of the endowment on the institution impact asset allocation 12:17 -  How do they think about liquidity 14:29 – What happens when they find a priceless work of art to acquire 17:52 – What beliefs did Jim bring to the table in shaping how Getty allocated capital 22:46 – How does Jim think about asset allocation vs manager selection 24:17 – Their approach to China 24:55 – Finding good managers in China 27:29 – What are underlying factors when choosing between two similar managers 30:34 – What are some ways Jim determines if people have the “stuff” to manage capital 34:23 – Deep dive into the co-investment program 36:07 – How do they underwrite co-investments in a short period of time 37:53 – Why do they pass on co-investment opportunities 40:58 – How does Jim size investments 42:24 – Number of manager relationships across the portfolio 44:14 – Thinking about the level of diversification their strategy creates 48:35 – Jim’s take on public equities and hedge funds 51:15 – Exploring the working relationship with the board and trustees 53:19 – Why do endowment and foundation trustees seem to have more success than other groups of trustees 54:24 – How does Jim exercise his decision-making authority 56:06 – Example of when Jim pushed back on an idea from a senior member of the team 1:00:47 – How have they found and retained team members 1:03:35 – Other competitive advantages that Jim brings to the table 1:05:20 – What is Jim most excited about and most worried about in the markets/his portfolio 1:09:28 – Closing questions  

Michael Cembalest is the Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, a global industry leader with $2 trillion of client assets under management. Michael is also a member of the Investment Committee for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management and the Investment Committee for the J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan that covers the firm’s 250,000 employees. Before taking on his current seat in 2012, he spent eight years as Chief Investment Officer of J.P. Morgan’s powerhouse Global Private Bank. Prior to his work on the buy side, Michael worked on the sell side at J.P. Morgan Securities as head strategist for Emerging Markets Fixed Income. He started his thirty-year tenure at the firm as a member of the Corporate Finance division. Our wide-ranging conversation begins with Michael’s early career that included watching a financial crisis unfold in the late '80s and side-stepping another in the late '90s, and turns to his role as CIO of a large, global private bank. We discuss differences in asset allocation and implementation between private clients and institutions and along the way come across his evaluation of Bernie Madoff, the creation of his strategy piece - Eye on the Market, the chart that everyone hates, the impact of politics, government debt, and energy on the markets, and views about active management. Lastly, you won’t want to miss an amazing story Michael tells in answer to a new closing question. Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 3:14 – Michael’s start at J.P. Morgan 4:12 -  The creation of the first Brady Bond 6:14 – How did starting his career during a crisis impact his views on the world 8:10 – Early career roles 10:07 – Transition to the buy side 16:30 – Differences in managing money for a public company from managing money as an independent asset manager 17:25 – Transition to CIO 18:30 – First steps in changing the private bank investment structure from a closed model 22:21 – Overseeing a diverse group of clients 29:15 – How does he stay informed about everything impacting the markets 27:54 – Assessing Bernie Madoff 28:19 – Hedge funds and the tax difference they provide 30:28 – Differences in how Michael views various asset classes between taxable and tax-exempt pools 31:40 – Shift to strategy work and writing 34:09 – How does Michael describe Eye on the Market 35:20 – Domestic politics and geopolitical impact on the markets 38:52 - Looking at the high corporate profit landscape against the enormous debts of governments, nationally and locally 42:31 - Any way out of the debt problems we are seeing at state and local government level 47:31 – Entitlement spending in other countries 48:33 – Research on energy and consumption 51:44 – Use of technology to distribute his research 53:43 – Thoughts on active management 56:30 – Closing questions

One common refrain across my conversations has been the importance and subtleties of effective governance in making optimal investment decisions.  Alongside Steven Galbraith’s incredible career as an analyst, strategist, portfolio manager, and entrepreneur in the asset management business, he has served on as many Boards as anyone I know. I imagine many of you have heard Steve’s story, but if not, you may want to have a listen to the very first episode of Capital Allocators before diving in here.   Our conversation today starts with an update on Steve’s personal investment in the Narragansett Beer Company and moves into a practical discussion inside the Board rooms of each of his current seats that range across a university, a large family office, a public company, a government agency, and two early stage fintech companies. We touch on time allocation, governance structure, Board composition, adding value, the politics of Boards, and the motivation of Board members.   We also get an update on Steve’s family office, that he’s managing alongside his wife Lucy, a seasoned distressed debt investor, and we close with our brief, contrary outlook on the baseball season.   Steve’s perspective and insights on the real world of Boards is second to none, and this conversation is as full of gems as our first one.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:45 – Update on Narragansett Brewery             2:53 – How Passion Investors Helped Revive Narragansett Beer 4:28 – Narragansett in the White House 5:19 – With all of the boards that he serves on, how does he manage his time 7:34 – How much time do these boards assume Steven is investing in them 9:32 – Highest functioning board 11:46 – Maintaining stability between the board and investment team 16:29 – What Warren Buffet had to say about the Tufts endowment 17:45 – What are the board dynamics in a family office 22:22 – Overview of for-profit boards 26:12 – Is the familial relationships of board members another way an investment committee could construct a board 26:56– Could a university or foundation create a board like this with close familial ties amongst members 28:46 – Optimal board structure of a foundation 29:57 – Steve’s time in government serving on a board 32:52 – Board of startups and early stage companies 35:02 – A look at Steve’s family office 37:20 – What do the analytics of financial companies look like 5-10 years from now 38:35 – Looking at the quality of analytics he currently gets from his outsourced team compared to larger firms he has worked with 39:37 – What is Steve seeing in the markets 40:42 – What is the most interesting idea that’s come across Steve’s plate in the past year 44:32 – Politics of boards and what drives them 48:36 – Closing Questions

Chris Brockmeyer is the Director of Employee Bennefit Funds for the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry.  Chris serves as an employer-appointed trustee, in most cases as Co-Chair, on eleven multi-employer pension funds, seven health funds and four annuity/401(k) funds with approximately $7 billion in assets. For 11 years, Chris has artfully navigated delicate relationships across unions and employers and was honored for his great work by Institutional Investor magazine with the 2014 award for Taft-Hartley Plan of the Year.  Before arriving at the Broadway League in 2007, Chris worked on both sides of the table – first representing employees in eight years of work for performer’s unions and then seven years representing employers as Director of Labor Relations at Live Nation/Clear Channel Entertainment. Our conversation dives into the tricky governance dynamics of Taft-Hartley boards, including their challenging regulatory structure, keeping the peace among constituents, setting investment objectives, strengths and weaknesses of a slow-moving decision-making body, best and worst in relationships with investment consultants, and OCIOs as a governance solution. Those struggling with governance challenges will take a step back and admire Chris’ dexterity in working productively with an ostensibly untenable set of circumstances.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:08 – Chris’s background and how that led him to a job on Broadway. 4:59 – Key skills that make Chris effective at his job 5:44 – Current role at the Broadway League 7:10 – What makes an effective board and a less effective board 10:25 -  How do Chris and these various boards set out the investment objectives. 12:41 – What needs to change in Taft-Hartley plans 16:48 – The regulation of the Taft-Hartley Plan Boards 20:25 – Strengths and weaknesses of the consulting relationships 24:20 – How do discussions about increasing benefits translate into investment risk 27:17 – How wide is the range of asset allocation across all of the plans 29:05 – How do you explain expected rate of return assumptions in the current environment 31:15 – What are the strengths that Chris has seen in successful investment consultants 32:40 – Chris’s core investing beliefs and how much he can influence these boards with them 35:31 – Are there places where the governance of Taft-Hartley plans could be improved 39:31 – Switching to OCIOs 41:32 – Would they ever go back to a regular consultant from an OCIO 42:59 – Other areas that have similar governance struggles 45:06 – What happens when Chris comes up with an investment idea 46:30 – Any concern that Chris’s team is working with only average OCIO’s or consultants as they look to scale up and attract larger funds   48:59 – Closing Questions

Andy Redleaf is the Founding Partner of Whitebox Advisors, a $5.5 billion multi-strategy hedge fund launched in 1999 with primary offices in the metropolitan hubs of Minneapolis, Austin, and Sydney, Australia. Before founding Whitebox, Andy spent twenty years trading options, for two years at Gruntal & Comes mpany alongside Stevie Cohen, fourteen on the CBOE, and five as a Founding Partner at Deephaven Capital Management. He has an irrepressibly creative mind and, alongside his partners, writes one of my favorite manager letters.  Our conversation covers Andy's nuanced view of the evolution of trading markets and financial instruments over his forty-year career, including arbitrage trading in the 1970s and 80s, unintended consequences of the deregulation of trading commissions, segmentation of market participants, importance of liability management, growth of orphaned securities, and the pending shift from decentralized to centralized market systems over the coming years.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:52 – Andy’s background and the founding of Whitebox 5:34 – The math of options in the late 70’s, early 80s  13:44 - The decentralization of markets 16:34 -  Andy’s transition into trading other strategies 18:31 – The launch of Whitebox 20:08 – The meaning of the firm name Whitebox 23:38 – An example of a transitioning security from one group of investors to another 28:31 – Has it gotten harder to find arbitrage opportunities 32:29 – The driver of the financial crisis 32:44 – Gary Gorton, Misunderstanding Financial Crises: Why Don't We See Them Coming 34:28 – His purchase of a bank 38:17 – How he got involved in the structured credit markets 42:39 – What is that Whitebox does differently from others 47:14 – Principles that guide the investment activities he likes to take part in 50:03 – How will the financial system evolve over the next 10 years 55:29 – Closing questions

Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capital Allocators. If you like the subject matter, I’d encourage you to check out Khe’s podcast, entitled Rad Awakenings, available on iTunes or his website, radreads.co. Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:53 – Ted’s time with Dave Swensen 2:40 – How did Ted get the job not knowing about stocks 3:56 – The start of Ted’s time at Protégé 5:27 – How did Ted view the world as someone picking managers vs someone picking stocks 9:01 – Early days at Protégé 10:36 – Attributes that Ted tried to unpack about individuals 13:18 – Understanding a team’s intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations 15:03 – How much of investing is about true skill vs being on the right side of a market trend 17:06 – What did Ted learn about greed during the bull market run of the early 2000’s 20:00 – The ego, envy and entitlement of financial professionals 22:36 – The potential to hit a high-water mark and never feeling satisfied 28:20 – Loving what you do despite the financial windfall 32:50 – Would Ted have the same passion for the markets if he hit the proverbial lottery 34:36 – The feeling of financial survival and what would happen if Ted didn’t have it             37:24 – Citizen Schools 38:41 – How to stop caring about other people’s perception of you 40:46 – Most underrated attribute of Ted that he has discovered in his reinvention 41:53 – Times Ted’s resilience was tested             43:08 – Ted on Invest Like the Best Podcast             43:10 – Hero's Journey Foundation 45:02 – What does higher education and first jobs look like for the next generation given the digital changes in society 49:20 – Do millennials have less upward mobility then past generations             49:43 – The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial 52:09 – Follow and learn more about Ted at capitalallocatorspodcast.com 57:41 – Closing questions with special guest interviewers

Wayne Wicker is the Senior VP and CIO of ICMA Retirement Corporation, an asset manager that oversees $50B across more than a million retirement accounts of City and County public sector employees throughout the country. Before joining ICMA-RC in 2004, Wayne had a distinguished career as an allocator and manager, starting as an allocator at the corporate pension fund of Dayton Hudson (now Target Corporation) in the 1980s and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute endowment in the mid-1990s, after which he moved to direct investing in large cap growth equities for seven years at Cadence Capital Management in 1998. Our conversation covers Wayne’s career path, multi-asset investing, and the ins and outs of managing defined contribution plans as a fiduciary and as a business. We discuss asset allocation strategies, regulatory limitations, stable value products, retirement shortfall risks, active vs. passive on large pools of capital, and managing internal and external teams. This episode took place at a recent Institutional Investor conference for Corporate Funds and Insurance Portfolios, with the core discussion about ICMA-RC occurring in front of a live audience.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:01 – How Wayne first got into the investment business 3:58 – What he did after getting his MBA 7:25 – How he learned about the pension business as a staff of one 9:18 – Key investment lessons from his early career 11:08 – Decision to move on from Target/Dayton Hudson 12:44 – Key differences between overseeing a corporate pension vs a hospital endowment structure 14:25 – How much did the difference in the investing strategy come from the mission of the funds vs the boards overseeing them 15:50 – What could Wayne do on the margin at Howard Hughes 17:28 – Transition to CIO 22:40 – Live Show Begins 23:00 – Defining ICMA-RC 23:32 – How does Wayne think about setting investment objectives with such a diverse group of clients 25:02 – Is it frustrating to have a more finite universe of investing options compared to previous work at Howard Hughes and Dayton Hudson 26:08 – Views on active vs passive 27:50 – The manager selection process 28:49 – Managing risks with external managers vs an internal team 30:34 – How does the team at ICMA-RC put their best ideas forward without governance getting in the way 31:34 – What constraints are imposed on investment decisions by the various regulatory bodies that ICMA-RC faces 32:40 – Their outlook on the market 34:08 – How does ICMA-RC’s constituents respond to market performance             35:32 – Closer examination using 2008 stock performance 36:23 – How does Wayne educate investors 38:00 – Next steps for ICMA-RC 38:51 – Most challenging aspect of Wayne’s work life 39:41 – Is there a looming pension crisis 40:53 – How do the Financial Planners help the employees if things don’t work out 42:10 – How do they think about financial planning for clients when there’s a chance defined benefit plans could come up short in the future  45:06 – How does Wayne address manager selection differently today given some of the constraints that he faces 47:19 – What has led Wayne to want to exit manager relationships 49:46 – Is there a point where Wayne would decide the optimal strategy is to go passive 51:28 – How does Wayne think about technology and the way it will be disrupt the industry 52:58 – Balancing the internal/external dynamic when hiring people 54:30 – Wayne’s greatest success and failure over the last 14 years 55:50 – Where will the move into emerging markets come from  56:27 – What does Wayne think of the new products that can help younger constituents meet their retirement objectives 57:41 – Live Show Ends/Closing questions

Our exploration of the use of modern data analytics to enhance investment results continues this week with two of the leading providers of tools for portfolio managers.  My guests on today’s show are Clare Flynn Levy and Cameron Hight, both former investment managers who became entrepreneurs seeking to improve outcomes for other managers. Clare is the founder and CEO of Essentia Analytics, a behavioral data analytics service that enables fund managers to capture rich data about their own behavior and its context. Essentia analyzes trading history to help managers overcome common behavioral biases and optimize their trade entry and exit on positions.  Cameron is the Founder and CEO of Alpha Theory, a fintech company that helps investment managers optimize their position sizing process.  By creating a disciplined, real-time process based on a decision algorithm with roots in actuarial science, physics, and poker, Alpha Theory takes the guessing out of position sizing and allows managers to focus on what they do best - picking stocks.  Our conversations cover the founding of their respective businesses, the mistakes portfolio managers commonly make, the tools they employ to help managers improve, and the challenges they face in broader adoption of these modern tools.  The good news is the clients of Essentia and Alpha Theory have demonstrated improvement in their results after employing these techniques.  If you ask Clare and Cameron, you may come a whole new appreciation about the potential for active management going forward.  You can learn more about these two innovative companies at essentia-analytics.com and alphatheory.com.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes Clare (2:26) 2:29 – Clare’s path to founding Essentia  5:42 – What makes data science of investing revolutionary in the past five years  6:25 – The pitch for Essentia’s tools  7:57 – How do you use data to get into the behaviors that work and the ones that don’t             8:06 – Michael Mauboussin podcast episode             8:10 – Annie Duke podcast episode  11:03 – Specific tenants of behavioral finance  12:39 – Parts of the portfolio process that they explore  14:20 – How do you actually convince people to change behavior  16:17 – The nudges built into the system  21:26 – How much data is needed to be able to help improve performance  22:16 – Most interesting data set that a portfolio manager has tried to get to improve their performance  24:21 – Is there consistency in people’s patterns  27:08 -  The hardest part of convincing someone to become a client  29:16 – What other places does Essentia plan on expanding  30:42 – Given all of the data that Clare has seen, what’s her outlook on active management 32:39 - Closing questions for Clare  Cameron (37:58) 38:02 – Cameron’s background and the founding of Alpha Theory  38:35 – What problems does Alpha Theory looks to solve             38:49 – Psychology of Intelligence Analysis (Richard Shure)  40:13 – The mistakes he sees portfolio managers make  42:29 – What tool does Alpha theory is provide to portfolio managers  44:17 – What changes in the portfolio manager’s implementation  47:27 – What have been the outcomes when people implement Alpha Theory  51:58 -  Are there different firms or type of firms that are better at picking stocks  56:36 - The Concentration Manifesto  1:00:25 – How they calculate batting average of allocators 1:01:41 – Where else could this tool be applied 1:03:31 – What questions should allocators be asking of managers 1:05:09 – How much does the input of information impact the outcome 1:06:42 – What other research has Cameron been able to do based on this data 1:08:56 – Biggest challenge in running this business   1:11:23 – Closing questions for Cameron

Increased sophistication in manager assessment is an important trend in the search for alpha. My conversations with Michael Mauboussin and Annie Duke suggested frameworks to think about enhanced decision-making processes and prompted a deeper dive into the ways allocators and managers can improve their craft. This week and next explores some of the tools available to help make it happen. Basil Qunibi is the CEO of Novus Partners, a data analytics company whose mission is to help the world’s top investors generate higher returns. As big data pervades commerce across industries, Novus is the most well-known provider of tools to analyze investment manager performance, allowing allocators to play Moneyball by breaking down the attributes of manager skill. Novus’ 200 clients are split between allocators and hedge fund managers who collectively oversee approximately $3.5 trillion of assets.  You can learn more about the company and its service at novus.com Our conversation starts with Basil’s path to creating Novus and dives into the tools an allocator can use to improve their understanding of a manager’s skill, including the data sets available to allocators, the levers a manager employs in driving returns, the relationship between data and a manager’s process, a framework to analyze crowded names, and future horizons for data-driven assessments of managers. DONATE TO CYCLE FOR SURVIVAL, http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/ted.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes DONATE TO CYCLE FOR SURVIVAL, http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/ted. 2:46 – The founding of Novus 5:45 – What did the qualitative assessment of managers look like at first for Basil 6:50 – How did he start to quantify managers 09:47 – What he saw in the initial data 13:24 – The early days of Novus, going all the way back to the concept             14:05 – Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry             14:07 – Sam Walton: Made In America 16:27 – Novus’ first product 19:13 – Core components of measuring the skill of a manager             19:54 – Exposure management             22:10 – Capital allocation             23:27 – Idea selection             24:10 – Position sizing             25:11 – Tactical trading 25:45 – How should this data be used 28:08 – Why this data is useful for capital allocators 30:48 – How efficient is the market for talent 31:54 – What has happened to stocks that are crowded compared to those that aren’t 35:15 – How does Novus use conviction in their metrics 36:43 – Consensus and concentration 40:02 – How Novus went from servicing allocators to also helping managers themselves 42:22 – Overview of Novus’ clients and what they’ve been able to learn from all of this data 46:45 – What other markets could Novus be applicable to 48:56 – Most creative application of this data by a client 49:53 – Closing questions

Rick Selvala is the co-founder and CEO of Harvest Volatility, a ten-year old manager of a variety of volatility strategies that oversees $13 billion in assets. After starting his career in the Treasury department at General Motors in the mid 1980s, Rick has spent nearly three decades trading derivatives on the sell side and buy side. Rick has an uncanny ability to break down this complicated investment area and make it sound simple. Our conversation discusses the world of volatility, including intelligent uses of derivatives, overcoming headline risk, characteristics of successful traders, assessment of alpha, the current volatility environment, and strategies that capture returns.  His insights left me thinking twice about some of the assumptions my System 1 brain had formed about volatility. Time for System 2 to go to work. DONATE TO CYCLE FOR SURVIVAL, http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/ted. Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes DONATE TO CYCLE FOR SURVIVAL, http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/ted. 3:03 – Rick’s path to Harvest 5:17 – How should one think about volatility as an asset class 7:56 – Volatility as a path to enhance yield 11:07 – Is there a programmatic way to implement 12:55 – Volatility as a path for insurance 15:45 – Where do people go wrong with leverage 18:28 – What level of understanding of this space do clients really have 21:58 – How would someone express the idea that volatility is cheap in the market             22:04 – Bill Spitz podcast episode 24:24 – What strategies could managers take advantage of in a low volatility environment 26:01 – How does Rick asses if someone is a good trader 27:32 – How do you identify firms that are too bold 29:26 – Does the community have a good sense of whether traders are acting responsibly 30:08 – How do you determine if a manager is outperforming 32:11 – Is there a structural return from selling insurance to the market 34:13 – Have computer systems changed trading in the derivatives market 35:14 – Taking a look at the current environment 38:43 – Recent market turmoil 39:58 – Are quants impacting market volatility 41:26 – What’s next on the frontier for Harvest 45:02 – Closing questions

Ali Hamed is the co-founder of CoVenture and Managing Partner of the CoVenture VC Fund.  CoVenture is an innovative company that identifies and invests in novel assets formed by the intersection of technology and finance. The firm manages an early stage venture capital fund, direct lending fund, and crypto asset index fund, with each taking a creative twist on its market. Our conversation starts with Ali’s entrepreneurial path to the creation of CoVenture, and covers examples of previously unpriced investment opportunities, including produce receivables, employee payroll loans, AirBnB accounts, and loans against employee stock options. We walk through the world of crypto assets and the state of the venture capital industry. Ali’s fresh lens on the world offers a fascinating perspective on every aspect of early stage investing. If I didn’t say it in advance, you’ll be astounded to hear that Ali is only 26 years old.  He’s one to watch for the long-term.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:22 – Ali’s background 3:09 – How Ali got the bug for startups 4:06 – His time in NY without a home and where he gained the confidence to start in the entrepreneurial space 7:35 – Why their venture business is different from so many others in the space 9:12 – How Ali turned an idea into a business 11:33 – How does Ali describe CoVenture 12:10 – An example of an ideal CoVenture investment 14:53 – The transition into a specialty lending business 19:25 – How many niche opportunities has Ali identified as a place where he could create loans 22:04 – Examples of unpriced assets 24:23 – How does Ali find unique opportunities 27:40 – What’s next on the horizon for Ali and CoVenture 28:28 – Looking at cryptocurrency and the business that Ali has built for the space 29:33 – Why did they create a cryptoasset index that was cap weighted 30:39 – Why should someone have exposure to a cryptoasset 35:23 – How does someone in the financial world get comfortable with the idea of cryptoassets 38:59 – Why Ali doesn’t invest in ICO’s 40:42 – What would an institutional cryptoasset fund look like 45:50 – How should an allocator try to address the idea of first in money in the cryptospace 50:32 – Where can someone play in the spectrum of venture investing 52:30 – What is the time horizon for venture investments 56:24 – Closing questions

Annie Duke is a renown public speaker and decision strategist. For two decades, she was one of the top poker players in the world, including winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2 million winner-take-all WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her study of the science of smart decision-making began with a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which she used study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.  Among her charity work and television appearances, Annie was a runner-up to Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice, during which she raised $700,000 for Refugees International. She is a natural teacher and storyteller with an active mind that constantly searches for accurate truth. I highly recommend Annie’s new book, Thinking in Bets, which comes out this week. In her life after poker, she is a featured speaker, writes a newsletter and a blog, and advises companies on improving their decision-making process. Have a look at her website, annieduke.com, for more information. Our conversation discusses Annie’s path from an Ivy League education to professional poker, the nature of a bet, how we form beliefs, why we make bad decisions, and what we can do to improve our decision-making process. Towards the end, we also talk about bankroll management, poker faces, and advice she would give the President on how to make better decisions.   For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Join Ted’s mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Show Notes 2:30 – Annie’s path through the poker world  6:05 – Her transition into teaching and the lesson of tilt  11:57 – How do you apply the concepts of betting and gambling broadly to decision making  13:35 – What is it about the science of the brain that prevents us from making good decisions             14:17 – Stumbling on Happiness             14:19 – Dan Gilbert Ted Talk             15:44 – Kluge: The Haphazard Evolution of the Human Mind  18:50 – Motivated reasoning  21:10 – Is there anything we can do to fix our decision-making biases (wanna bet)  28:05 – Other devices to improve our decision-making  32:29 – Value of a decision group             33:16 – Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction 34:00 – Mertonian Norms, CUDOS  40:27 – Mental time travel (Marty McFly from Back to the Future)             42:55 – Jerry Seinfeld – Night Guy vs Morning Guy  44:55 – Applying these tools and the parallels between poker and investing  48:59 – Reading poker faces             49:21 – Joe Navarro books             49:34 – Joe Navarro Psychology Today  52:50 – What advice would Annie give President Trump in terms of improving his decision-making process  53:52 – Favorite sports moment  55:45 – What teaching from Annie’s parents has most stayed with her  56:08 – What information does Annie read that a lot of people might not know about that is valuable             56:18 – The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution             56:19 – Why Evolution Is True 56:58 – What life lesson does Annie wish she knew earlier in life 58:28 – Looking ahead, what advice would Annie give herself today from a ripe old age

Seth Masters recently retired from Alliance Bernstein, where he spent 26 years across six different careers.  He started as an analyst in emerging market equities and over the last decade and a half served separately as the Chief Investment Officer of Blend Strategies, Asset Allocation, Defined Contribution Strategies, and the Private Wealth Business. Seth is true polymath – articulate, thoughtful and wise on a wide range of topics.  Our conversation starts with a fascinating discussion of China 30 years ago and today and later covers contrarian career paths, the critical flaw of benchmark-based investing, structural issues with Investment Committees, potential causes of the next crisis, and his most recent project - angel investing in fintech. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Bill Spitz was the longtime head of Vanderbilt University’s endowment before retiring, for the first time, in 2007. He has received numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work and is one of the legends in the business.  After failing in his retirement, he joined Diversified Trust Company, a wealth manager with $6.5 billion in assets under management that he co-founded back in 1994. Our conversation discusses managing an endowment in the early years, implementing unconventional investments, creating an edge as an allocator, selecting managers and conducting due diligence, exiting managers, challenging current landscape, and working with families. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Show Notes 1:21 - (INTERVIEW STARTS) 1:30 – Early days at Vanderbilt and the landscape for university investment offices 3:17 – Career before working at Vanderbilt 3:59 – Transition from Wall Street to going back to his alma mater 4:48 – Pioneering Portfolio Management: An Unconventional Approach to Institutional Investment 5:23 – Out of the box ideas when he first got started 6:25 – Convincing the board to approve unconventional ideas 8:28 – Why Bill retired             9:28 – Diversified Trust White Papers 9:31 – What is the edge that allocators have when it comes to investing             9:33 – Paul Johnson and Paul Sonkin podcast episode             9:35 – Pitch the Perfect Investment: The Essential Guide to Winning on Wall Street             10:05 – Gaining an Edge in Investing  12:30 – Where can skill from an allocator perspective be applied 14:32 – Judging the skill of managers as an allocator 15:16 – Looking out to the future, how will the endowment model stack up against the traditional 60/40 portfolio  17: 47 -  How do you manage clients when your strategy may not be keeping up with the S&P 500 in the short term  19:15 – Thoughts on bitcoin  20:00 – How Bill was able to get involved with Diversified Trust while working at Vanderbilt  21:47 – Differences in managing endowments vs taxable pools of capital  23:22 – Stories that either derail an investment process or educate someone to stay the course  24:23 – Manager selection process and what Bill looks for when choosing the right one  28:01 – Bill’s view on exiting managers  29:55 – How do you measure the evolution of a manager’s investing strategy, especially as the market changes  31:41 – What is different today about investing vs when Bill first started  33:56 – Do alternative and emerging investment streams deliver the returns that many hope for  35:13 – Why don’t endowments, foundations, or pension funds feel comfortable with moving chunks of their portfolio to cash  37:00 – How does Bill think about the balance of investments with higher return potentials against their higher costs  38:13 – Any categories that really pique Bill’s interest  39:22 – What does the asset management industry look like in 10-20 years from now  41:56 – What should aspiring money managers think about as they move forward in this business 43:09 – What Bill is most proud of in his career 43:54 – Favorite sports moment 45:01 – What teaching from Bill’s parents has most stayed with him             45:14 – Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother             45:18 – The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America 46:10 – What information does Bill read that he gets a lot out of             46:20 – The Economist             46:33 – Wall Street Journal             46:34 – Bloomberg 46:45 – Life lesson that he wished he knew a lot earlier 47:29 – In his waning days, what advice would Bill give himself today

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager.  He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason.  Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia Business School for 24 years. Our conversation covers Michael’s early career, the paradox of skill, academic research more favorable to active management, decision-making, optimal size and composition of teams, unsettling features in the market, data analysis in sports, career risk, the Santa Fe Institute, and Michael’s new research on the horizon. Every time I speak to Michael I come away thinking better and feeling smarter, and this time was no exception. For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Join Ted’s mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com   Show Notes 1:48 - What was Michael like as a kid 2:26 – How Michael found his way to Wall Street 6:18 – His start as an analyst in consumer and packaged goods 7:52 – Why there are no .400 hitters in active management and the paradox of skill             8:15 – Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin 14:26 – Why have there been massive flows into index funds over the last 3-4 years 15:44 – Academic research supporting active management             16:09 – Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets             16:25 - On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets             22:52 - Indexing and Active Fund Management: International Evidence 23:12 – Do these trends also apply in global markets             24:01 - The Mutual Fund Industry Worldwide: Explicit and Closet Indexing, Fees, and Performance 25:22 – What has Michael discovered in his new role at Blue Mountain through his new credit lens             27:49 – Amazon, the world’s most remarkable firm, is just getting started 30:02 – What are some of the lenses that Michael uses when dealing with allocators 35:02 – How does Michael go about interviewing for a team while taking into account their biases             36:19 – The Rationality Quotient: Toward a Test of Rational Thinking 36:37 – Biggest risks in the markets today             37:31 – Banks to Funds: Have Some Leverage With That Deal 39:45 – Liquidity in the markets 41:26 – What’s most interesting to Michael about the merging of data and sports             41:34 – The Success Equation: Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing             43:42 – Big Data Baseball: Math, Miracles, and the End of a 20-Year Losing Streak             44:32 – Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences Behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won 45:57 – Psychological bias in sports  46:16 - Malcom Gladwell Podcast: The Big Man Can't Shoot 47:23 – Psychological bias in investment management             47:40 – Scott Malpass on Capital Allocators 48:44 – Michael’s work with the Santa Fe institute             53:08 – Scale: The Universal Laws of Growth, Innovation, Sustainability, and the Pace of Life in Organisms, Cities, Economies, and Companies 54:40 – Next big piece of research Michael is working on             57:53 – The End of Theory: Financial Crises, the Failure of Economics, and the Sweep of Human Interaction 57:59 – Should Michael be using his skills elsewhere in the context of a world where so many advocate for just indexing             1:01:36 – Charley Ellis on Capital Allocators 1:02:31 – CLOSING QUESTIONS

Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting.   Our conversation covers Margaret’s career path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring performance, and the tension between being the same and being different for clients. Margaret has the ear of almost everyone in our field, and brings incredible perspective to addressing the key issues allocators face. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, present and future. We subsequently recorded two other conversations.  For the first, I asked him to interview me about the Buffett Bet. You can find that conversation on Episode 5. In the second, Patrick interviewed me alongside our friend and star micro private equity investor, Brent Beshore. You can find that entertaining conversation at Invest Like the Best, Episode 30. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Chris Acito is the CEO and CIO of Gapstow Capital Partners, a credit-focused investment organization. Chris started his career as a management consultant and traversed to focus on asset management consulting around the founding of Casey, Quirk, and Acito. He switched to the buy side focusing on hedge funds in the years leading up to the financial crisis and started Gapstow in 2009. Our wide-ranging conversation starts with Chris’ background and moves to the formation of a credit focused firm in the thick of the financial crisis.  We discuss the credit landscape today, shift from legacy to new issue opportunities, existential crisis in investment grade paper, liquidity, ETFs, credit as an asset class, credit-specific due diligence, and the next distressed cycle. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson are investors, professors, and co-authors of Pitch the Perfect Investment.  Paul Sonkin is an analyst and portfolio manager at GAMCO Investors and has researched small, micro, and nanocap companies for a quarter century. He taught for 16 years at Columbia Business School. Paul Johnson runs advisory firm Nicusa Investment Advisors, and previously was a top-ranked sell side analyst, hedge fund manager, and an investment banker across 35 years.  He also taught 2,000 students across 40 classes at Columbia Business School and Fordham University, and has received a host of awards for his prowess in the classroom. Their recently released book is the first I’ve come across that reverse engineers a portfolio manager’s thought process. It starts with crystal clear first principles of business analysis and covers everything an analyst needs to know to identify a great stock. Then, Paul and Paul describe how portfolio managers assess ideas. Their framework is targeted for analysts starting their careers in the field, but seasoned portfolio managers and allocators both will also learn a lot about communication with their teams from the clear descriptions and colorful examples in the book. Our conversation covers the concept of the book, the wisdom of crowds, getting an ‘edge’, the four questions every portfolio manager needs to answer, and the role of creativity in investing. These gifted professors offer clear terminology for investment first principals and along the way offer a renewed appreciation for how difficult it is to beat the markets. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Meredith Jenkins is the Chief Investment Officer of Trinity Wall Street, where she oversees $5.5 billion of the church’s endowment and real estate assets.  Before taking the helm as Trinity’s first CIO, she was the co-CIO of Carnegie Corporation of New York, Andrew Carnegie’s foundation, from 2011 to 2016. She joined Carnegie in 1999 as its first investment associate and was an integral part of the build-out of the Corporation’s investment capability under its first CIO.  During the period, Meredith spent four years in Asia as the Corporation’s special representative focusing on opportunities in China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Meredith started her career at Goldman Sachs in investment banking, Sanford Bernstein in research, and Cambridge Associates in consulting before attending Harvard Business School. She currently sits on the Investment Committee of the Wenner Gren Foundation and the Board of Directors of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company. Our conversation starts with Meredith’s early career lessons and discusses alignment of interest, standing by managers in difficult times, markers of success, manager research in Asia, the co-CIO structure at Carnegie, and governance in her new challenge of starting an investment office from scratch. Fun loving and smart as a tack, Meredith offers pearls of wisdom through our conversation. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Larry Mestel is the Founder and Co-CEO of Primary Wave, one of the largest independent full-service entertainment companies. Primary Wave Publishing, the music division Larry oversees, acquires and develops the rights to iconic song titles and works with iconic artists.  He has bought assets that include big name hits from Kurt Cobain, Smokey Robinson, Steven Tyler, John Lennon, Def Leppard, Hall & Oates and CeeLo Green. Prior to founding Primary Wave in 2006, Larry spent twenty years in the music industry, serving as COO and GM of Virgin Records, EVP and GM at Arista Records, and COO of Island Entertainment Group. Our conversation discusses the business of investing in music publishing rights, including Primary Wave’s target market, due diligence practices, unique approach to growing revenue streams, and transactions. As you might imagine, the music business has plenty of great stories, and Larry shares a few of his gems. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive and Research Director of the Stanford University Global Projects Center. He is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford, a Senior Advisor to the Chief Investment Officer of the University of California, and the co-founder of Long Game. Ashby advises sovereign wealth funds and large pension funds, and is involved with a bunch of fin tech companies, all of which attempt to create innovative solutions to fixing the financial future for individuals, pensions and countries in the years ahead. Our conversation starts with Ashby’s early work experience and path through academia, and flows into an exploration of next generation, lower cost approaches to active management for large asset owners.  We touch on investing in public equity, private equity, venture capital, and hedge funds using examples from the Canadian and Australian pensions, New Zealand Super Fund, and University of California endowment. Lastly, we discuss Long Game, an innovative company seeking to improve personal savings in the U.S.  Ashby is a passion-driven, creative thinker who rightfully has the ear of some of the most important pools of capital in the world.  His ideas will change the way you think about allocating capital. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Jason Klein is the Senior Vice President and CIO at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he oversees the hospital’s $4.5 billion in long-term investment assets. Jason has spent the last decade and a half overseeing endowment pools – 9 at MSKCC and 5 at the Museum of Modern Art. Jason got his start in the investment business learning the tools of private equity, and had training as an investment banker, management consultant, and lawyer. Our conversation starts with the distinctive features that drive the investment structure for Memorial Sloan Kettering and flows through core beliefs, asset allocation frameworks and manager selection. Aspects of his due diligence process, including 30 questions and pre-mortem analysis, offer new arrows to an allocator’s quiver to those in previous conversations. Jason’s curiosity and eagerness to ask questions provides a terrific structure for applying capital allocation to a distinctive pool of capital. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides