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

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<

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 mont

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/

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 <a hre

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.

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 <a href= "

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 <a href= "https://capitalallocat

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</

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 <a href= "https://t

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 T

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 <a href= "https://capitalallocators.com/"

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 <a href="h

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 Twit

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 <a href= "https://capitala

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 he

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.

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

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. HC

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. <p class="MsoN

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 Foll

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 o

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   <span class="TextRun SCXW253156166 BCX0" lang="EN-US" xml:lang= "EN-US" data-contra

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</

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 <a href=

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 genera

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 <a href="https

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 mor

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 

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 fo

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

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 s

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.

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

"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 so

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 <a href= "ht

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   

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 liquidi

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

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

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. <p style= "color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: norm

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. <br

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 Andov

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 <a href

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    Inf

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 co

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    Milestone

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 pape

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 a

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,

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

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 | Backgrou

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 <p class="

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<br /

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 appe

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: <a href= "https:/

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 ink

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 a

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. Subscri

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: <span class="NormalTextRun SCXW211911217 BC

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 ques

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)   Fo

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

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.</sp

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, eme

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 (11:5

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. <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/private-equity-deals-with-capital-

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. Sh

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

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 <a href= "https://capitalallo

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’ pat

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

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 Podcas

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

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

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<br

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: <span class="Nor

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.   <a href= "https://go.alpha-sense.com/tr-stm-ssu-start-free-trial/?utm_source=spod_nameofpodcast&utm_medium=sponsored&utm_campaign=EMSP_DG_10-01-22-Capital-Allocator

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 provi

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. <a href= "https://go.alpha-sense.co

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

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

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 nervo

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

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 sou

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

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

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/t

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 <a href="ht

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 Eq

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 @tsei

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

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. <a href= "https://www.mfs.com/en-us/institutions-and-consultants/insights.html?keywords=*#asset_class:(%22Fixed%20Income%22)%20AND%20dat

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 initiati

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 gr

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 co

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 <a href= "https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbzQ

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

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 Poin

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 o

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<b

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 str

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

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. <a href= "https://go.alpha-sense.com/tr-stm-ssu-start-free-trial/?utm_source=spod_nameofpodcast&utm_medium=sponsored&utm_campaign=EMSP_DG_10-01-22-Capital-Alloc

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.<

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 <a

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. <a href= "https://go.alpha-sense.com/tr-stm-ssu-start-free-trial/?utm_source=spod_nameofpodca

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,

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 

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. <a href= "https://go.alpha-sense.com/tr-stm-ssu-start-free-trial/?utm_source=spod

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 <a href= "https://open.spotify.com/show/0sebfAmGcpda

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 <a h

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 <a href

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

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 <a href="ht

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 he

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 <a href= "https://twitter.com/ts

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

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 | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3q6PrjHVfRzpD2lN1g2

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 <a href= "https://capi

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 <a href=

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 f

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 <a href= "https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en"

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 t

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com

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

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,

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 Linke

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.</span

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

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseide

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 <a href= "ht

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 a

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 appe

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

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 Su

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 commun

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 <a href= "https://twitter.com/tseides?lang=en

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

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.co

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 Andrees

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 <a href= "https://twitter.co

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 <a href="https://w

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

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  <di

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</s

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 <a hre

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 <a href

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedsei

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 Me

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 Su

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.

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

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 <a href= "https:

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 

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,

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 <a href

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 a

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 approa

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 projec

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 <a

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 <a href= "https://

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 

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

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 t

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 

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 fo

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 <a href= "https://twit

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  <

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.

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 ma

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedseid

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

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

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<

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.   <di

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 <a href= "https://capitalallocators.co

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

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, prepa

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,

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 

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 <a

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.   <

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 <span

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 ow

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 Mo

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. <p class="

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 Prem

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. <br

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 Mor

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 Twi

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 <a href= "https://capital

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 ma

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 

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

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0

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 | 

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted

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. <span style="text-decoration: underlin

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RlZHNlaWRl

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 | <a href

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 <

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 | <a href="https://o

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 improvin

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 @ts

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 a

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

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators/id12237640

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: <a href= "https://p

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

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RlZHNlaWRlcy5saWJzeW

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 | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3q6PrjHVfRzpD2lN1g2

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 

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.co

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RlZHNlaWRlcy5saWJzeW4uY29t

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 doi

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 <a href= "http://cap

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

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-all

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 | <a href="https://open.spoti

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 structur

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</a

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

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 | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RlZHNlaWRlcy5saW

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

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 Re

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 CapitalAllocat

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 <a href= "https:

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 | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3q6PrjHVfRzp

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 exp

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 o

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 Subscr

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocato

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 | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/3q6Pr

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-

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 | <a href="https://o

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</

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allo

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 <a h

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 inve

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 Dou

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca

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 <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in

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 | <a hr

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 Fol

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

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. <p

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

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: <a href= "https:/

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. <

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 re

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 gr

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.. <p style= "caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: norma

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 descri

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 a

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,

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 res

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 D

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

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 |

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, a

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 | <a href= "https://open.spotify.com/show/3q6PrjHVfRzpD2lN1g2X

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 | <a href= "https://podcasts.googl

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

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 <a href= "http://a16z

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

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

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, a

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 <a href= "https://capitalallocatorspodcast.com/capitalallocatorspodca

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 exp

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 transcript

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 bo

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 j

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 | <a href= "https://podcas

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 | <a href= "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RlZHNlaWRlcy5saWJz

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

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators/id12237640

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 | <a href= "h

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.</p

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocato

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

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 perspec

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 thr

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-alloc

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 res

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators/id1223764

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: <a href= "https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podca

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 sec

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

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 elemen

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<

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodc

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

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

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

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<br

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 Re

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 conversatio

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodcas

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 <

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 <a href= "htt

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 Re

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 Subscr

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocato

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodcast.

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<br /

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<br /

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 structur

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 int

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 th

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

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.

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 o

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, <a href= "../../../con

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodc

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

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 provide

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators

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 thin

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 Diver

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 M

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 Leadershi

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

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 rat

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

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocators

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 Su

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.

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 Transc

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 i

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 <a href= "http://capit

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 Mont

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 implem

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

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 clima

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. <p style= "margin: 0.0px 0.0px

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 strate

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodcast.com/

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 pod

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

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 Subscri

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

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-a

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 <p style= "margin

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<b

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 ps

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 wa

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

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 t

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 o

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 <a href= "http://twitter.com/tse

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capita

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 curren

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 Monthl

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators-with-ted-seides/id1223764016

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<br

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 blac

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 <a href= "http://capitalalloca

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocat

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 Subsc

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<

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<

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 Alloca

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 <a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators-with-ted-seide

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 Mon

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 Month

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

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!<br

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

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, du

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

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

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 elemen

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, b

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 eval

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspodca

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, i

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 <a href=

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 <a href= "https://i

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

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 consumable

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

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</s

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 <a href= "http://capitalallocatorspod

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. <stron

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 mon

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

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.

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 fra

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 a