Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry
Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert
Allocator and asset management expert, Ted Seides, conducts in-depth interviews with leaders in the institutional investing industry. Guests include Chief Investment Officers from leading allocators, asset managers, strategists, thought leaders, and many more. Our mission is to learn, share, and help implement the process of premier investors. Learn more and join our community at capitalallocators.com.
Brett Barth and Evan Roth – Stewarding Family Wealth at BBR
Brett Barth and Evan Roth are co-founders and Co-CEOs of BBR Partners, a multi-family office that oversees $32 billion on behalf of 180 families and is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Brett appeared on episode 3 of Capital Allocators eight years ago and is a regular contributor in our Friends Reunion shows. I’ve observed BBR’s growth since first meeting Brett and Evan twenty-four years ago and was excited to hear more about their journey. Our conversation covers BBR’s successes, mi
[REPLAY] - Brett Barth – Asset Allocation for Families (Capital Allocators)
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
WTT: Will Blackstone Become Private Equity's Millennium?
What are the implications of consolidation in the private markets? The leading firms, which are mostly public companies, raised an insane amount of money last year, while the rest of the industry mostly struggled. What will this mean for private markets going forward? Have a listen to find out. Read Ted’s blog here.
Michael Choe - Atomization of Private Equity Decisions at Charlesbank
Michael Choe is the CEO and Co-Head of Flagship private equity strategy at Charlesbank Capital Partners, a $22B manager of middle-market private equity, credit, and technology opportunities that spun out of the Harvard Management Company in 1998. Our conversation covers Mike’s path from science to finance, including an immigrant story and a draw to decision-making at a young age. We discuss Charlesbank’s history and aspiration to manufacture sound decision-making as a path to investment success
Ian Charles - Private Equity's New Rules (EP.431)
Ian Charles is a founding partner at Arctos Partners, a $10 billion private equity firm that strives to create valuable solutions to complex problems. In just five years, Arctos has become the leading institutional investor across the five major North American sports leagues. It also serves as a strategic partner to leading private market sponsors with bespoke capital and liquidity solutions. As part of its effort to support both ecosystems, Arctos publishes data-driven research and content unde
[REPLAY] Ian Charles & Doc O’Connor – Investing in Sports Teams at Arctos Sports Partners
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 N
Anthony Pompliano – Building Influence and Capital to Live an Extraordinary Life (EP.430)
Anthony Pompliano is an entrepreneur, media creator, and investor who has built one of the largest audiences of DIY investors. His following canvasses 1.6 million people on X, 560,000 on YouTube, and 260,000 on his daily The Pomp Letter. Anthony created Professional Capital Management, an investment company that builds and invests in early-stage companies by leveraging his audience. He’s not alone in his family in creating a following. Pomp’s wife Polina writes the popular blog, The Profile, an
Mitchell Green - Lead Edge of Harnessing Networks (EP.429)
Mitchell Green is the founder and managing partner of Lead Edge Capital, a growth equity firm with $5 billion in assets that invests in software, internet, and tech-enabled businesses. Lead Edge leverages its LPs, comprised of over 700 seasoned executives, entrepreneurs, deal makers, and celebrities to connect its portfolio companies with customers, partners, and talent. Unlike any other firm I’ve seen, the impressive list of LPs is publicly available on the firm’s website. Our conversation cov
WTT: When Will Private Markets Normalize?
Could 2025 be the year private equity fund flows return to normal? No. Not yet. Ted explains why in his latest post. Read Ted’s blog here.
Striking Oil – CrownRock by Lime Rock Capital
When you think of the greatest private equity deals of all time, names like Google, Facebook, Uber, Dell, and Hilton come to mind. After a recent episode of Private Equity Deals, you might also think about 3G’s acquisition of Burger King. But I’d bet you wouldn’t think about an oil and gas play called CrownRock. Lime Rock Capital created CrownRock alongside a management team with $96.5 million of cash and assets in 2007. Seventeen years later, sold the business to Occidental Petroleum for $12.5
Mark Sullivan and Roberto Isch – Hedge Fund Investing at Wellington (EP.427)
Mark Sullivan and Roberto Isch are Partners at Wellington Management, the $1.3 trillion privately owned firm. Mark is the Head of the Hedge Fund Group and Roberto is a Risk and Portfolio Manager. Wellington began its hedge fund strategies in the mid-1990s. Their activities started with a series of long-biased sector specialist strategies, added a multi-asset fund-of-funds, and most recently, built a market-neutral platform overseen by Mark and Roberto. Our conversation covers the history and cu
Donald Miller - Building a Story Brand (EP.426)
Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and author of ten books that have collectively spent more than a year on New York Times Bestseller lists. Don helps businesses clarify their message so customers will listen. His latest book, Building a Storybrand 2.0, is a revised edition of one of the most succinct, impactful, and actionable books I’ve come across on storytelling. Our conversation covers Don’s most important lessons in telling a story that resonates with customers, including the seven el
Ron Biscardi and Katie O'Reilly - Maximizing Value at Conferences
The beginning of a new year brings with it time for reflection and the renewal of rituals. We reflect on our personal and professional lives, set goals for the coming year, and start sprinting towards those goals – hopefully with enough time to calibrate our personal GPS. One part of the ritualistic sprint is conference season. Industry leaders gather at Davos for the World Economic Forum and Miami for iConnections Global Alts in January, in Beverly Hills for Milken in May, in Sun Valley for Al
Top 5 of 2024: #1: Scott Bessent - EP.415
We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. The top episode this year is perhaps the most timely of our 500 as well. It's Episode 415 with Scott Bessent, a brilliant macro thinker and the cabinet nominee for Secretary of Treasury. The position created by Alexander Hamilton. I was an investor in Scott's first hedge fund, a partner of his for four years, a friend for more than 20, and a huge fan. I'm excited for Scott and for our country about what his appointment might mean for our economi
Top 5 of 2024: #2: Michael Milken - EP.371
We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. Clocking in at number two is Mike Milken, Episode 3 71. Mike single-handedly developed the high yield market, which has fueled the growth of private equity ever since. When paired with the subsequent episode with his longtime attorney, Richard Sandler, the conversations offer a fresh perspective on Mike's legacy. Head of Business Development Job Posting Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing li
Top 5 of 2024: #3: Cliff Asness
We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. Coming in at number three is Episode 385 with the irrepressible Cliff Asness from AQR. Cliff is part brilliant quant and part standup comic. That combination always makes for an entertaining conversation, chockfull of research-backed insights. Head of Business Development Job Posting Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership
Top 5 of 2024: #4: Ricky Sandler
We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. Coming in at number four is Episode 414 with Ricky Sandler from Eminence Capital. Ricky discusses his 30 years in the business of investing long and short equities and the adjustments he's had to make to his investment and business strategies to continue to thrive in ever-changing conditions. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access
Year in Review 2024
For this year’s annual review, our CEO Hank Strmac and I sat down to discuss where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Our conversation covers the best blogs and podcasts of the year, my investment activity, what’s top of mind for allocators and managers, our upcoming podcasts, Summits, and CAU education courses in 2025, the team who makes it all happen, and a few closing questions. I hope you find the conversation engaging and informative. Wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year. He
Top 5 of 2024: #5: Alex Behring, Daniel Schwartz
We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. Coming in at number five is Episode 384 with Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz of 3G Capital, discussing their unique private equity organization and their wildly successful purchase of Burger King. Take Capital Allocator’s Audience Engagement Survey Learn More Follow Capital Allocators at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access transcript with Premium Membership
Training Grounds: Wellington Management – Jean Hynes (EP.423)
Today’s show is our third in the Training Grounds mini-series, following Carnegie Corporation and Bain Capital to better understand how certain organizations have developed industry leaders. Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest, privately held asset managers, managing over $1.3 trillion in assets with 875 investment professionals across 19 offices and a nearly 100 year history with an unusually low level of turnover along the way. Wellington has developed, recruited, and retained
Eric Peters - Paradigm Shifts and Solutions at One River (EP.422)
Eric Peters leads both One River Asset Management and Coinbase Asset Management and writes a widely dispersed blog called Wknd Notes, in which he shares macro insights. He’s twice been a guest on the show, discussing his bespoke macro investment strategy four years ago and the case for Bitcoin three years ago. Both conversations are replayed in the feed. Since then, many of One River’s strategies played out well during Covid, and Coinbase acquired One River Digital Asset Management in March 20
[REPLAY] Crypto for Institutions 1: Eric Peters – The Macro Case for Bitcoin (Capital Allocators, EP.180)
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 h
[REPLAY] Eric Peters – Trading and Evolution at One River (First Meeting, EP.18)
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
Asset Management Consolidation - Simon Krinsky, Hall Capital and Tim McCusker, NEPC (EP.421)
Consolidation in asset management is one of the industry's most important trends. When any industry enters a mature phase, consolidation brings the benefits of economies of scale, product depth, and broader services to meet client demands. We’ve seen a rising tide of merger activity in recent years, effecting both asset managers and allocators alike. My guests on today’s show are leaders of two organizations that announced mergers in October – Simon Krinsky, a Managing Partner at Hall Capital a
Chris Heller - Ten Years of Weird Alternatives (EP.420)
Chris Heller is the Co-Founder of Cordillera Investment Partners, a $1.6 billion manager of non-correlated, niche investments, or weird alternatives. Cordillera looks for investments ahead of the crowd that offer compelling returns and significant diversification. Chris came on the podcast two years ago in our Manager Meeting series interviewed by FEG’s Greg Dowling, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our follow-up covers lessons learned over ten years of focusing on off-the-run inv
[REPLAY] Chris Heller - Weird Alternatives at Cordillera Investment Partners (Manager Meetings, EP.28)
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 conve
Matt Bank - GEMs on Risk, Asset Allocation, and Manager Selection
Matt Bank is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at GEM, an OCIO that manages $12 billion for forty clients. GEM was founded in 2007 by investment leaders at The Duke Endowment and Duke University Investment Management Company. Our conversation covers Matt’s path to investing under recent guest David Salem and lessons learned about risk and governance while under his tutelage. We then turn to Matt’s move to GEM and its positioning in the OCIO industry. We cover GEM’s approach to asset allocatio
Jeff Glass - Home Equity Investment at Hometap (EP.418)
Jeff Glass is the Cofounder and CEO of Hometap Equity Partners, a novel platform with $1 billion of investments alongside a mission to allow homeowners to access their home equity without having to sell, stress, or borrow. Jeff started the business eight years ago after a series of successes as an entrepreneur followed by seven years investing at Bain Capital Ventures. Our conversation covers Jeff’s early lessons in sales, entrepreneurship, and investing that led to the founding of Hometap. We
John Glidden - Delta Airlines Pension Fund Turnaround
Jon Glidden is the CIO of Delta Air Lines, where he oversees the company’s $16 billion pension fund. Jon joined Delta in 2011, when the plan had $7.5 billion in assets, a $13 billion underfunded liability, and the highest actuarial expected rate of return (9%) of any company in the S&P 500. Despite funded status that threatened the solvency of the company thirteen years ago, investment performance combined with corporate contributions that offset plan payouts have improved Delta’s funding status
Chris and Rob Michalik - Twin Tackle of Private Equity at Kinderhook (EP.416)
Chris and Rob Michalik are twin brothers and co-founders of Kinderhook Industries, a middle-market private equity firm overseeing $8 billion focused on healthcare services, environmental services, and the automotive aftermarket. Chris and Rob joined me on Private Equity Deals to discuss one of their portfolio companies, Ironclad Environmental Services, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. This time around, we discuss their story attached at the hip. We cover their background and path
[REPLAY] Ironclad Environmental Services – Chris and Rob Michalik (Kinderhook Industries), (PE Deals, S3E8)
On episode eight of season three of Private Equity Deals, Chris and Rob Michalik discuss Kinderhook Industries’ investment in Ironclad Environmental Services. Chris and Rob are twin brothers and co-founders of Kinderhook, a twenty-year-old private equity firm that manages $5 billion specializing in middle-market businesses across healthcare services, environmental services, and automotive/light manufacturing. Ironclad Environmental Services is a leading provider of logistics-based solutions
Scott Bessent - Macro Maven (EP.415)
Scott Bessent is the CEO and CIO of Key Square Group and a renowned global macro investor. His 40-year investment career has included two stints at Soros Fund Management, the first for a decade under Stan Druckenmiller and the second for five as CIO. In between, Scott launched a hedge fund, retired, and joined me at Protégé Partners when he learned retirement wasn’t for him. Following his second tour at Soros, Scott started Key Square with $4.5 billion, one of the largest hedge fund launches i
Ricky Sandler - Evolution of Long-Short Equity Investing (EP.414)
Ricky Sandler is one of the OGs of fundamental long-short equity investing. Ricky started managing a hedge fund thirty years ago and founded Eminence Capital a few years later. Today, he is the CEO and CIO at Eminence, where he oversees $7 billion across long-short, long-only, and long-extension strategies. Our conversation covers Ricky’s path to launching Eminence in his twenties and the evolution of long-short investing in the decades since. We dive into Eminence's culture, adaptation in the
WTT: Tale Backs Emerging Managers… and Then What?
The Yale Investments Office will soon select its first round of Prospect Fellowship recipients. I’ve been thinking about why Yale launched the Fellowship and what might happen as it rolls out. Yale, emerging managers, and other allocators have opportunities and risks arising from the program, including some potential unintended consequences. Read Ted’s blog here.
Brad Briner - Family Office to Public Service (EP.413)
Brad Briner is the leading candidate for the Treasurer of North Carolina in the upcoming November election, a role that includes managing the state’s $115 billion pension fund. Brad put himself in the ring for the seat after twenty-five years of investment experience, serving most recently as Co-CIO of Willett Advisors, Michael Bloomberg’s family office. For more background on Willett, my conversation from 2019 with Chairman Steve Rattner is replayed in the feed. I don’t often get to talk about
[REPLAY] Steve Rattner – Overseeing Michael Bloomberg’s Family Office
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
Matt Miller – Crossing the Energy Divide at Grey Rock
Matt Miller is the Managing Director of Grey Rock Investment Partners. Matt co-founded Grey Rock as a traditional oil and gas manager in 2013. Today, the firm manages $1 billion across both natural resources and renewables by identifying attractive niches in each that do not tradeoff human interest for returns. Our conversation covers Matt’s path to the energy sector and founding of Grey Rock, the ongoing need for natural resources, and the identification of dislocations that create niche oppor
Kristof Gleich – Boutique Managers and Active ETFs at Harbor Capital (EP.411)
Kristof Gleich is the President and CIO of Harbor Capital Advisors. Harbor is a forty-year old firm that manages $62 billion by partnering with boutique active managers to roll out active ETFs, collective investment trusts, and historically, mutual funds. Kristof joined Harbor in 2018 and watched as the actively managed mutual fund company had $22 billion of outflows, or a third of its assets, in his first year on the job. He led a turnaround of the business to transition from a traditional mut
[REPLAY] Dan Ariely – The Human Capital Factor (Capital Allocators, EP.195)
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
Stephen Nesbitt – Innovation in Private Markets for RIAs
Stephen Nesbitt is the CEO and CIO of Cliffwater, an investment consultant and asset management firm specializing in alternative that oversees a combined $110 billion, including $30 billion in private market interval funds that begin just five years ago. Steve founded Cliffwater in 2004 to serve the burgeoning institutional market for alternative investments and bet the farm with a pivot to managing private credit assets for RIAs in 2019. That shift has been one of the most successful initiative
David Salem - Investment Wisdom from the Owner's Box (EP.409)
David Salem has been a pioneer, practitioner and student of institutional investing for the last forty years. David was the founding president and CIO of The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), which he led for nearly two decades until 2010. Since then, he has managed a multi-family office, worked and wrote alongside Ben Hunt at Epsilon Theory, and now serves as the Managing Director of Capital Allocation at Hedgeye Risk Management. Along the way, David worked closely with and distilled less
Rahul Moodgal – Master Fund Raiser Returns (EP.408)
Rahul Moodgal and I first met twenty years ago in his early days in the hedge fund business. We had been friends and professional acquaintances with mutual respect ever since, but an inflection in both our personal and professional relationships came after his appearance on the podcast five years ago. That conversation, sharing his incredible story from a teacher to a master fundraiser, is replayed in the feed. Rahul is a partner at Parvus Asset Management, a $10 billion European equity manager
[REPLAY] Rahul Moodgal - Master Fund Raiser (EP.87)
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
Toby Rodes - Unlocking Value in Japan (EP.407)
Toby Rodes is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Kaname Capital, a value- and quality-oriented manager of small-cap Japanese equities. Our conversation covers the case for Japan and why this time is different. We discuss Toby’s deep-rooted fascination with Japan, his education in Japanese culture, and his transition to investing on the sell side and at GMO. We turn to the past false starts of Japanese activism, recent changes in corporate governance, and Kaname’s process to take advantage o
Mike Maples Jr. - Identifying Startup Pattern Breakers (EP.406)
Mike Maples Jr. is a partner at Floodgate, a pre-seed and seed-stage venture capital firm he co-founded in 2006 with Anne Miuro-Ko. He has been on the Forbes Midas list eight times in the last decade and backed Twitter, Lyft, Twitch, Okta, and many others in their earliest stages. Attempting to understand if he had been lucky or skillful, Mike studied venture winners and created a framework to describe startup capitalism, which he writes about in his recently released book, Pattern Breakers: Why
David Breazzano - High Yields and Low Risk at Polen Capital (EP.405)
Dave Breazzano is the head of the Credit Team at Polen Capital, where he oversees $8 billion of the firm’s $65 billion in assets. Dave is one of the OGs in high yield, having started in the early 1980s and invested continuously through more than forty years since. Our conversation covers some history of the high-yield market alongside Dave’s involvement in it, the founding of his firm in 1996, Polen’s strategy to take advantage of myths in the market, the implementation of the strategy, and Da
Jase Auby - Risk, Size, and Talent at Texas Teachers (EP.404)
Jase Auby is the Chief Investment Officer of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, where he oversees the $200 billion pension fund that’s the fifth largest in the U.S. TRS manages assets that support the retirement security of over two million public education employees in Texas, and has long been known as a thought-leading steward of capital in the pension community, including engagement with emerging managers and innovation in fee structures. Our conversation covers Jase’s background and pa
WTT: The Power of Private Equity
My latest book, Private Equity Deals: Lessons in investing, dealmaking, and operations from private equity professionals, arrives next week. This post shares how this book came to be, a glimpse at what’s inside, and a rebuttal of common criticisms of private equity. Read Ted’s blog here.
David Eichhorn - Serving Clients and Reducing Risk at NISA (EP.403)
David Eichhorn is the CEO and Head of Investment Strategies at NISA, a $400 billion employee-owned asset manager of risk-controlled fixed income and derivative overlays that is widely respected for its highly collaborative client relationships. The firm is one of the largest derivative overlay managers in the world and the largest U.S. manager of LDI strategies. Our conversation dives into Dave’s twenty-five years at NISA, its client-centric focus, approach across fixed income and derivative st
Michael Mervosh - Invest in Yourself (EP.402)
Today’s show is quite different from our typical show. It’s an edited replay of a conversation from six years ago with Michael Mervosh, the Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation. Michael created HJF to provide experiential opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. A few weeks ago, I received a FaceTime call from Michael at the tail end of the annual HJF Men’s Journey in the mountains of West Virginia. He called alongsi
CIO Transition – Roz Hewsenian and Joshua Fenton, Helmsley Trust (EP.401)
Josh Fenton is the CIO of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, an $8 billion pool he began leading earlier this year upon the retirement of Roz Hewsenian, who served as CIO for the prior twelve years. Roz was a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation follows last week’s about succession, using the live example of a successful CIO transition. We discuss Roz’s plan for her retirement, steps to evaluate and train her successor, and ac
[REPLAY] Roz Hewsenian – Helmsley Trust’s Chief of People and Process (Capital Allocators, EP.63)
Roz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates. Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cov
Succession - Sarah Samuels on Generational Transitions (EP.400)
As the first generation of investment firm founders approaches retirement age, the issue of succession to the next generation is increasingly at hand. We’ve seen several successful transitions of firms, many that haven’t survived their founders, and an entire sub-industry arise to help facilitate generational transfers across GP stakes, public offerings, and structured transactions. With both managers and allocators thinking more about the inevitability of succession, I thought it would be help
[REPLAY] Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (EP.264)
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
Todd Simkin - Game of Trading at Susquehanna (EP.399)
Todd Simkin is an Associate Director at Susquehanna International Group, a global quantitative trading firm comprised solely of internal capital that is known for its rigorous analytical approach to decision-making. Todd is also the CEO of Susquehanna Re, his latest role in a 27-year tenure at SIG that has spanned trading, strategic initiatives, and trader education. Our conversation covers the history of SIG alongside Todd’s roles, trader development, the art and science of trading, risk manag
Jeff Assaf - Protecting Clients and Assets at ICG (EP.398)
Jeff Assaf is the founder and CIO of ICG Advisors, which oversees $7B in assets for a highly curated group of 80 client families. While Jeff keeps his client names confidential, ICG manages money for a roster of successful athletes, entertainers, and business professionals with a combination of tailored investment solutions and white-glove service, many of whom he has served for decades. Our conversation covers Jeff’s path to investment allocation through Oppenheimer, Bear Stearns, and eventual
Rob Small and Anil Seetharam - Public Equity Adjacent to Private Equity at Stockbridge (EP.397)
Rob Small and Anil Seetharam are Managing Directors and founding members of the Stockbridge team at Berkshire Partners, a $5B concentrated public equity manager that sits inside the $20B private equity firm. Unlike many public equity strategies at private equity firms, Stockbridge works closely and collaboratively with Berkshire’s private equity team on its investment research and has attracted an enviable client roster of some of the most respected allocators in the world. Our conversation cov
Jennifer Prosek – Nailing the Narrative (EP.396)
Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading marketing and communications firm that for 30 years has helped the world’s top brands navigate what comes next. In asset management, Prosek’s clients oversee $60 trillion and comprise a who’s who in private and public markets. Jen is a popular past guest on this show from her first appearance five years ago and second when she shared her thoughts on navigating the pandemic. Our conversation updates Jen’s thoughts on the emergi
[REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81)
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 th
Training Grounds: Bain Capital, John Connaughton (EP.395)
Today’s show is the second in an ongoing mini-series discussing Training Grounds, organizations that have developed industry leaders. The first episode discussed Carnegie Corporation, where over a dozen years 8 of the 17 investment professionals that came through the doors became CIOs at Carnegie or other institutions. Bain Capital is one of the world’s largest private alternative investment firms. The firm was founded 40 years ago with a half dozen team members managing a $37 million growth eq
Charles Duhigg- Secrets of Communication (EP.394)
Charles Duhigg is a celebrated writer for The New Yorker and author of bestseller "The Power of Habit." His latest book, "Supercommunicators," describes how to effectively communicate in conversation. Our conversation covers Charles’ path to writing business stories and personal books and turn to his latest tour du force. We discuss the science behind connection, three types of conversations, methods to become a better communicator, and tools to navigate challenging conversations. Charles’ book
Ben Hunt - The Stories that Drive Markets (EP.393)
Ben Hunt is the creator of Epsilon Theory and co-founder of Second Foundation Partners, where he writes and invests through the lens of narratives, or in his words “If a price moves, it is because a human told themselves a story.” Before turning to investing twenty years ago, Ben was a tenured political science professor and founder of two technology companies. He has been studying trends using what we now call big data ever since his first book about predicting international conflict in 1997.
WTT: Reducing Fees: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
I’ve been thinking about what it takes for allocators to lower the fee burden charged by managers on the path to increasing net returns. Read Ted’s blog here.
Yann Robard - Liquidity Solutions for Private Capital at Dawson (EP.392)
Yann Robard is the founder of Dawson Partners, a leading global alternative asset manager overseeing $20 billion that provides innovative structured solutions to the private markets. Formed initially as Whitehorse Liquidity Partners and rebranded as Dawson, both names are inspired by Yann’s 1,000 km bicycle journey in the Canadian Arctic that led to his becoming a trailblazer in the market. Our conversation covers Yann's entrepreneurial career path, including fourteen years in the formative sta
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: CAU for IR/BD Professionals
Please join us for our first Capital Allocators University for Investor Relations and Business Development Professionals. Learn more and sign up here.
Graham Weaver – People-Driven Private Equity at Alpine (EP.391)
Graham Weaver is the managing partner of Alpine Investors, a $17 billion people-driven private equity firm that invests in software and services businesses. Graham founded Alpine on the belief that exceptional people create exceptional businesses. Alpine’s PeopleFirst approach includes hiring, training, and placing an army of CEOs in its portfolio companies. The strategy has led Alpine to be recognized by Prequin as the most consistent top-performing private equity fund manager. Our conversatio
Mo Haghbin - Customizing Solutions from the Top Down at Invesco (EP.390)
Mo Haghbin is the Head of Multi-Asset Solutions at Invesco, where he develops and manages asset allocation strategies and portfolio solutions for $88 billion of client assets within the $1.7 trillion juggernaut. Our conversation covers Mo's journey to finance and his path to a leadership role at Invesco. We discuss Invesco’s solutions-based approach that canvasses every type of asset pool and structure and focuses first on top-down strategic asset allocation and tactical positioning, and only l
Anne-Marie Fink - Cutting Edge Pension Investing at SWIB (EP.389)
Anne-Marie Fink is the Head of Private Markets and Funds Alpha at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board or SWIB, which manages $140 billion of pension funds in the state. SWIB is not your typical U.S. pension fund manager. It invests with outstanding governance, alignment with beneficiaries, delegated authority, a competitively compensated team, and cutting-edge strategies, all of which have contributed to a fully funded plan. Anne-Marie joined SWIB to lead its external manager efforts four ye
WTT: The Investment Manager Playbook - What Allocators Don't See
My last post, The Investment Office Playbook: What Managers Don’t See, discussed part of what happens inside an investment office that managers don’t see but that significantly influences the cadence of capital deployed to managers. Of course, there are two sides to every coin. This post discusses what allocators don’t see when a manager chooses to grow. Read Ted’s blog here.
Alexis Ohanian – From Reddit to 776, a Technology Company that Deploys Venture Capital (EP.388)
Alexis Ohanian is the General Partner and Founder of Seven Seven Six, an early-stage venture capital firm with $1 billion under management that he describes as a technology company that deploys venture capital. Alexis was the co-founder of Reddit, one of the most popular online forums in the world, which he sold 18 months after its 2005 launch for $10 million and returned as Executive Chair in 2014 to help lead the turnaround of the business. In between and since, he has invested in early-stage
Dan Tennebaum - The Case for India at India Capital (EP.387)
Dan Tennebaum is the Managing Director at India Capital, a thirty-year-old investment firm focusing on public equities in India. Dan moved to the country twenty-five years ago and spent time in the start-up world and venture capital before pivoting to the public markets in 2007. Our conversation covers Dan's path from a U.S. Midwesterner to India, the challenges of venture capital investing in the country, and the case for public equities. We turn to India Capital’s perspective on sourcing, res
Brett Barakett - Digging for the Puck at Tremblant Capital (EP.386)
Brett Barakett is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Tremblant Capital, a 23-year-old long-short equity and long-only firm focused on deep fundamental stock research with a senior team that has been together for at least sixteen years. Brett has invested through rising and falling tides in the industry, ups and downs in fund flows, and alongside friends and peers who have since retired. Yet he keeps skating to where the puck is going. Our conversation covers Brett’s path to launching
Cliff Asness - Simple Investing is Hard (EP.385)
Cliff Asness is the Founder and CIO at AQR, an investment management firm at the intersection of financial theory and practice that oversees $100 billion in assets. He is famously intelligent, comical, and irreverent, all wrapped into one. Our conversation covers Cliff's journey from studying market efficiency under Eugene Fama to capitalizing on market inefficiencies at AQR. We discuss regime changes in factors, difficult periods for performance and AQR’s business, research innovation, machine
Classic Deal - Burger King by 3G Capital (EP.384)
3G Capital’s buyout of Burger King may be the most successful private equity deal you’ve never heard about. Over the last fourteen years, or the length of a typical private equity fund, 3G turned a $1 billion investment into $28 billion in value. The annual dividends from the investment accruing to 3G today are around 70% of its invested capital. The deal is one of the highest earning buyouts ever. 3G is an organization with a storied history. Founded by Jorge Paolo Lemann, Carlos Alberto Sicup
Alex Abell - Lower Middle Market Buyout Investing at RCP (EP.383)
Alex Abell is a Managing Partner at RCP Advisors, which at $14 billion of committed capital, is one of the largest firms focused exclusively on lower-middle market buyouts. Alex has spent twenty-three years in the business, starting on the LP side, building Atlas Diligence – a research and advisory platform focused on advanced analytics, and then merging Atlas with RCP a decade ago. Today, he helps manage RCP’s research efforts, its customized solutions, and advisory services. Our conversation
Letitia Johnson - Concentrated and Long-Term at Amherst College (EP.382)
Letitia Johnson is the CIO of Amherst College, where she manages the school's $4 billion endowment. After thirteen years working with twenty-five clients and attending over 1,000 Investment Committee meetings at Cambridge Associates, Letitia developed a view about investing that differs from many similar pools of capital and has applied that view over the last five years. Our conversation covers the subtleties of managing an endowment with a concentrated, bottom-up manager-selected approach for
David Morehead – Top Down Allocation at Baylor (EP.381)
David Morehead is the CIO at Baylor University, where he oversees the $2.2 billion endowment. David came to Baylor thirteen years ago after an eighteen-year investment career that spanned every aspect of public markets investing. He created an approach to investing at Baylor that is quite different from others in the seat. David recently started sharing his insightful perspectives on the craft on Twitter/X under the handle @CIO_Baylor. Our conversation covers David’s background and path to Bay
Chris Dixon - Empty Rooms: Web3 After the Fall (EP.380)
On today’s show, we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. We’ve shared conversations under this theme about a range of forgotten opportunities from specific emerging markets to biotech. Previous episodes are available under the mini-series or topic search at capitalallocators.com. This time around, we discuss a room that was overflowing two years ago, has been abandoned since, and might be coming back once
[REPLAY] Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
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
[REPLAY] Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
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
Shiloh Bates – CLO Investing at Flat Rock Global (EP.379)
Shiloh Bates is the Chief Investment Officer at Flat Rock Global, an alternative credit manager specializing in the junior tranches of CLOs. Last year, Shiloh published CLO Investing, a comprehensive review of the structure, payoff rules, and historical performance of CLOs. Our conversation covers Shiloh's twenty-five years spent in and around the space, an overview of the market, the characteristics of CLOs, the attractiveness of CLO equity relative to other credit opportunities, and Flat Rock
Nigel Dawn - Secondaries in Private Markets (EP.378)
Nigel Dawn is the global head of Private Capital Advisory at Evercore, where he leads the secondaries business he started a decade ago. Under Nigel's leadership, Evercore had become the market leader in transaction volume and is involved in approximately 30-40% of all secondaries market activity . Our conversation covers Nigel's observations on the growing secondaries market, including its history, rationale for LPs and GPs, incentives, critiques, other liquidity options, and advice for both sel
WTT: The Investment Office Playbook - What Managers Don’t See
I've been thinking about the investment office playbook and what managers don't see when they meet with allocators. Read Ted’s blog here.
Training Grounds – Carnegie Corporation of New York (EP.377)
Today’s show is the first in an ongoing mini-series discussing Training Grounds, organizations that have developed and spawned future industry leaders. We’ll cover both allocators and managers to see what we can learn about developing talent. In the first episode of the mini-series, we discuss Carnegie Corporation of New York. Ellen Shuman became Carnegie’s first CIO in 1999 after working for David Swensen at Yale. Over her dozen year tenure and that of Meredith Jenkins and Kim Lew for the next
Blythe Masters - Fintech Innovation at Motive Partners (EP.376)
Blythe Masters a Founding Partner of Motive Partners, a $6 billion specialist private equity platform that builds, backs, and buys technology companies that enable the financial services industry. Blythe spent 27 years at JP Morgan, starting as a teenager and rising to the firmwide Executive Committee. Her path included roles as the head of global commodities, head of corporate and investment bank regulatory affairs, CFO of the investment bank, head of the global credit portfolio and credit poli
Jonathan Tepper - Buying Monopolies at Prevatt Capital
Jonathan Tepper is the CIO of Prevatt Capital, a $450 million long only firm he founded in 2020 that takes a quality and value approach to own a concentrated portfolio of global monopolies. He is also the author of The Myth of Capitalism, a book we discussed alongside his career path on the show five years ago. That conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation this time around bookends our prior discussion, covering Jonathan’s unique upbringing and education on one end and his creatio
[REPLAY] Jonathan Tepper - Variant Perception of Capitalism (Capital Allocators, EP.110)
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, learn
Mike Freno – Confident Humility at Barings (EP.374)
Mike Freno is the Chairman & CEO of Barings, a $400 billion global manager that invests across public and private fixed income, real assets, and capital solutions on behalf of its insurance company parent MassMutual and other institutions. Barings emerged from a combination of four investment brands in 2016 and has expanded its capabilities by acquiring partners with complementary skills that fit into its culture. Our conversation covers Mike's path to the CEO seat, the creation of the modern B
Michael Leffell – Opening Doors to Niche Private Opportunities at 10 East (EP.373)
Michael Leffell is the Managing Member of Portage Partners, Chairman of Canoe Intelligence, and Founder and Chairman of 10 East, an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets by co-investing alongside Michael. Michael was former Deputy Executive Managing Member of Davidson Kempner, where he spent twenty-one years before retiring in 2010. He formed a family office shortly thereafter and developed Portage, Canoe, and 10 East out of his investing activities. Our conv
Richard Sandler – The Prosecution of Michael Milken (EP.372)
A long time ago, 33 years to be exact, Mike Milken pled guilty to 6 counts of violations of securities laws, went to jail for 2 years, and received a lifetime ban from the securities industry. He was at the time the most successful and powerful man on Wall Street and remains one of the smartest and most successful backers of talent in finance, cancer research and education. Most of us have formed beliefs about Mike based on accounts in the media or books written like Den of Thieves. We might t
Michael Milken – Innovations in Finance, Medicine, and Education (EP.371)
Michael Milken is a legendary financier and philanthropist. Mike is best known for his role in creating the high yield bond market in the 1970s and 1980s at Drexel Burnham Lambert, his guilty plea, and his remarkable philanthropic efforts over fifty years supporting medical research, education, and public health. Under Mike’s leadership, upstart Drexel became the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, enabled capital to become available for the 99% of companies that could not previously
Michael Mauboussin - Pattern Recognition and Public Markets (EP.370)
Michael Mauboussin is the Head of Consilient Research at Counterpoint Global, a $70 billion equity manager. Michael is renowned for his ability to articulate important investment concepts backed by academic research. His first of three prior conversations on the show is replayed in the feed. You can find the rest at capitalallocators.com. Our conversation explores Michael’s most recent piece on pattern recognition, including when it works and when it doesn’t. We then transition to discussing th
[REPLAY] Michael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team Dynamics (Capital Allocators, EP.36)
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, ac
Magnus Grimeland – Day Zero Investing at Antler (EP.369)
Magnus Grimeland is the CEO and founder of Antler, one of the world’s largest day zero investor. Antler’s pre-seed strategy canvasses 27 countries, 1,000 portfolio companies, 8,000+ founders, and over 120,000 annual applications for 2,000 spots in its residency programs. Magnus founded Antler in 2017 after serving as the co-founder of Zalora, a tech-enable fashion brand in Asia. Our conversation covers Magnus’ journey from growing up in rural Norway to developing a global startup platform, char
Brad Jacobs – Masterclass on Leadership and Management (EP.368)
Brad Jacobs is a career CEO and the founder of Jacobs Private Equity (his family office). Brad created and grew three platforms using a roll-up strategy that resulted in seven multibillion-dollar publicly traded companies. He and his teams have raised $30 billion of capital, completed 500 acquisitions, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, and generated annual returns to shareholders in excess of 50%. Brad shares his playbook in his aptly named book, How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. In Decemb
Ron Biscardi – Inside iConnections Global Alts (EP.367)
Ron Biscardi, the CEO of iConnections, whose Global Alts conference in Miami is the largest capital introduction gathering in the industry. In addition to the annual event, iConnections hosts an annual charity cap intro event and provides its technology platform to connect the industry year-round. Last week, I joined 6,000 industry peers in Miami at Global Alts. The main event at the conference were an incredible 15,000 one-on-one meetings between allocators and managers. As a side show, I gra
Sanjay Ayer – Think Different and Get Better at WCM (EP.366)
Sanjay Ayer is a portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, the Laguna-based $80 billion equity manager profiled on three popular past episodes with CEO Paul Black, President Mike Trigg, and emerging market portfolio manager Mike Tian. Sanjay joined WCM in 2007, and alongside Mike Trigg, leads the firm’s research process that follows the mantra: think different and get better. Our conversation is a fascinating exploration of the differentiated mindset at WCM. We discuss topics, including s
[REPLAY] Paul Black and Mike Trigg – How to Build a $100B Money Manager (Capital Allocators, EP.227)
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
[REPLAY] - Mike Trigg – Defying the Fade at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.162)
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 stra
[REPLAY] Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)
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 a
Raphael Arndt – The Death of Traditional Portfolio Construction? (EP.365)
Raphael Arndt is the CEO of the Future Fund, Australia’s 200 billion AUZ ($135B) sovereign wealth fund that his team manages alongside 55 billion AUZ of other sovereign pools of capital. Raphael assumed the CEO seat in 2020 after serving as Chief Investment Officer for six years. Our conversation from five years ago about the Fund’s total portfolio approach is replayed in the feed. Our conversation focuses on the significant changes in the Future Fund over the last few years. Raphael and his te
[REPLAY] Raphael Arndt – Australia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund CIO (EP.70)
Raff Arndt is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s AUZ$145 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Future Fund. He trained as an engineer and dove into infrastructure policy at the beginning of Australia’s privatizations in the late 1990s. After investing in the space for six year, he joined the Future Fund in 2008 to head the infrastructure team. Six years later, Raff became CIO. Our conversation spans all aspects of the management of a next generation institutional portfolio, including a on
Chad Summe and Mike Veith – Corridor of Commerce at eGateway Capital (EP.364)
Today's Sponsored Insight features Chad Summe and Mike Veith, Partners at eGateway Capital, a Cincinnati based, thesis-driven firm that focuses on growth stage, enablement technologies that drive the future of digital supply chains, marketing, and commerce. Our conversation covers their path to creating eGateway, their investment strategy and process. Chad and Mike highlight the firm’s regional and relationship-based sourcing and value add opportunities that benefit from the importance of the M
Tilly Franklin – Endowment Model at Cambridge University (EP.363)
Tilly Franklin is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer at University of Cambridge Investment Management, where she oversees the £4.0B Cambridge University Endowment Fund. UCIM applies an endowment model approach primarily investing in managers and with an overall emphasis on sustainability. We discuss Tilly’s background that canvasses operating roles, direct private equity, at Apex, investing at Yale cub Alta Advisors, and the perspectives she brought to Cambridge four years ago. We cover her w
George Michelakis – Chess Master’s Approach to Long-Short Equity at Gladstone (EP.362)
George Michelakis is the Chief Investment Officer of Gladstone Management, a $2 billion long/short equity hedge fund based in London. George founded Gladstone in 2006 with seed capital from, well me at Protégé Partners, and six years later bought back the stake when still managing less than $100 million. In the dozen years since Gladstone has won awards for European Hedge Fund of the Year and the top performing five-year fund for three years in a row. Long before that, George became an Interna
WTT: The Next Alpha Frontier
How will we generate returns to meet important spending needs in an increasingly unforgiving world? One answer is “Internal Alpha’ – making fewer mistakes alongside making great investments. Generating internal alpha is rarely taught in the investment field, which is why we created Capital Allocators University. Read Ted’s blog here.
Brian Christiansen – High-Conviction Growth Investing at Sands Capital (EP.361)
Brian Christiansen is Executive Managing Director and Senior Portfolio Manager at Sands Capital, a growth-focused public and private equity manager that oversees $50 billion in assets. Our conversation covers Brian’s journey to Sands Capital, the firm's investment philosophy and approach to growth investing, six key investment criteria, portfolio construction, competitive advantage, and investment examples. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing li
Ana Marshall – The Climb to Investment Excellence (EP.360)
Ana Marshall is the CIO for the $14 billion William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a two-time past guest on the show. This time around, we discuss Ana’s recently published book, The Climb to Investment Excellence. It is an outstanding, thorough guide for any leader overseeing a pool of institutional capital. But don’t take my word for it – the book jacket has praise from perhaps the best list of investment luminaries to ever adorn a cover: Seth Klarman from Baupost, Sir Christoper Hohn from TC
[REPLAY] Ana Marshall – Preparing for the New Environment at Hewlett (Capital Allocators, EP. 288)
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
[REPLAY] Ana Marshall – Applied Direct Investing at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.111)
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 st
Morgan Housel – Same as Ever (EP.359)
Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund, blogger about behavior and money, and author of The Psychology of Money. The book has sold 4.5 million copies since its release three and a half years ago and already ranks in the top five best-selling books about finance. Morgan recently published his second book, Same As Ever: A Guide to What Never Changes. Our conversation starts with what happened since his last appearance on the show just before the release of The Psychology of Money. We t
[REPLAY] Morgan Housel – The Psychology of Money (Capital Allocators, EP.155)
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 t
2023 Top Episode #1: Seth Klarman – Timeless Value Investing, EP.328
We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. The number one episode of the year, and the number one episode of all time, Seth Klarman – Timeless Value Investing. Seth’s uncommon wisdom and sole podcast appearance combined to make this year’s chart topper one for the ages. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
2023 Top Episode #2: Dmitry Balyasny – Multi-Strategy Platform at BAM, EP.341
We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Number three covered private credit and number two covers the other most topical strategy of the year – multi-manager platform hedge funds. Weighing in at number two is Dmitry Balyasny and his discussion of multi-strategy platforms at BAM. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
2023 Top Episode #3: Kipp deVeer – The World of Private Credit at Ares, EP.329
We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. At number three, Kip DeVeer and the world of private credit at Ares. The subject of private credit was top of mind for investors, and Kipp shared his experience and wisdom in this tour of the space. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
2023 Top Episode #4: Stan Miranda – Modern Endowment Model at Partners Capital, EP.334
We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Coming in at number four is Stan Miranda, the modern endowment model at Partners Capital. Stan’s original insights shine in this story of the powerhouse OCIO he founded with Paul Dimitruk 20 years ago. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
Year in Review 2023 (EP.358)
It's that time of year when I share my annual letter and a rundown of the top episodes of 2023. Like last year, we’ll be counting down the top 5 episodes each day this week. Tune in throughout the week to find out which episodes were played more than any other from last Thanksgiving to this one. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
2023 Top Episode #5: Gregg Lemkau – The Evolution of MSD, EP.291
We’re counting down the top 5 episodes of 2023. Kicking us off at number five, is Greg Lemkau, the evolution of MSD, episode 291. I can’t say I’m surprised by this one. Greg is beloved far and wide in the industry and all kinds of people came out of the woodwork when this release. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership
Gary Sernovitz - Inside the CIO Seat (EP.357)
Gary Sernovitz is Managing Director at Lime Rock Partners, an oil and gas-focused private equity firm that manages $10 billion, where he runs the firm’s investor relations and business development efforts. He is also the author of The Counting House, a fictional story about a CIO who oversees a $6 billion college endowment. After twenty years of observing CIOs, Gary brings his pointed, witty writing with a nuanced understanding of someone sitting in the CIO seat. Our conversation discusses the
Thomas Haugaard - Hard Currency Emerging Markets Debt at JHI (EP.356)
Today's Sponsored Insight features, Thomas Haugaard, a portfolio manager on the Emerging Markets Debt Hard Currency team at Janus Henderson Investors where he helps manage $1.3 billion just one year into the team’s tenure at JHI. Thomas spent the last decade in the strategy with the same team, a prior decade in emerging markets research, and a decade before that in academia studying emerging markets. Our conversation covers Thomas’ path to investing, the opportunity set and misconceptions of ha
[REPLAY] Andy Acker - Empty Rooms: Investing in Biotech at Janus Henderson (Capital Allocators, EP.274)
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 sig
[REPLAY] Daniel Graña – Janus Henderson Investors Emerging Markets Equity (Manager Meetings, EP.13)
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 c
Marcia Page – Corn Capitalist with a Velvet Hammer at Värde and MPowered (EP.355)
Marcia Page is the Co-Founder and Executive Chair of Värde Partners and Founder and CEO of MPowered Capital. Värde is a thirty-year-old $13 billion leading global alternatives firm specializing in credit. MPowered came out of Marcia’s personal investing and focuses on accelerating equity for best-in-class female and underrepresented talent through capital, commitment, and connections. Marcia is one of the few women to have founded and scaled an alternatives firm over three decades. Our conversa
Nicolai Tangen – Overseeing the Largest Sovereign Wealth Fund (EP.354)
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 wa
Michael Levy – Crow Family Real Estate Empire (EP.353)
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
Ted Seides – Unlocking Investment Wisdom (EP.352)
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 Ti
Chad Hutchinson – Professional Athlete to Professional Investor in Sports (EP.351)
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 a
Rick Heitzmann – New York Venture Investing at FirstMark Capital (EP.350)
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
Ted Martell – Empty Rooms: Commercial Real Estate Non-Performing Loans in NYC at Maverick Real Estate (EP.349)
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
Allison Thacker – Different Perspectives and Different Assets at Rice University (EP.348)
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 mana
Bruce Ou – Private Market Investing at GroveStreet (EP.347)
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 growth equity investing, opportunities in China, and co-investments. Learn More Follow Ted on Twit
Tim Lyne – Three Decades of Private Credit at Antares (EP.346)
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
Raelan Lambert, John Jackson, and Erik Sebusch – Inside Mercer Consulting (EP.345)
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 V
Isaac Corre – Event-Driven Investing at Governors Lane (EP.344)
Isaac Corre is the founder, CEO, and Portfolio Manager of Governors Lane, a hedge fund he launched in 2015 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
WTT - NAV Loans: Canary or the Gold Mine?
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.
Finny Kuruvilla – The Fourth Source of Alpha at Eventide (EP.343)
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
Sonya Sawtell-Rickson – Total Portfolio Approach at Australian Superannuation HESTA (EP.342)
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
Dmitry Balyasny – Multi-Strategy Platform at BAM (EP.341)
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
Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)
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,
Muthu Muthiah - Inefficiency and Innovation at CHOA (EP. 339)
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 billi
Adam Karr – Extreme Alignment at Orbis (EP.338)
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 approa
Marlene Puffer – Canadian Pension Model at AIMCo (EP.337)
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
WTT: The Real Yale Model
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.
Jenn Birmingham – Organizational Alpha at PRINCO (EP. 336)
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 co
[REPLAY] Andrew Golden – Beyond the Long Term (Capital Allocators, EP.13)
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
Classic Deal: HCA – Chris Gordon, Bain Capital (EP.335)
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
Stan Miranda – Modern Endowment Model at Partners Capital (EP.334)
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 t
Kimberly Sargent – Passion and Mission at the Packard Foundation (EP.333)
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,
Michael Carmen – Late-Stage Private Investing at Wellington (EP.332)
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 c
Sachin Khajuria and Brendan Ballou – Private Equity: Profit or Plunder? (EP.331)
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
[REPLAY] Sachin Khajuria – Two and Twenty, An Insider’s Take on Private Equity (Capital Allocators, EP.285)
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 democrati
WTT: Active Management Today is a Single Decision
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.
Ted Seides – The Art of the Interview (EP.330)
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
Kipp deVeer – The World of Private Credit at Ares (EP.329)
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.
Seth Klarman – Timeless Value Investing (EP.328)
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 Ba
Ravi Viswanathan – Venture Secondaries and Growth Capital at NewView (EP.327)
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
James Aitken – Opportunities and Risks from Monetary Policy (EP.326)
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 th
[REPLAY] James Aitken – Market Implications of the Situation in Ukraine (Capital Allocators, EP.239)
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
[REPLAY] James Aitken – Macro Strategist Extraordinaire (Capital Allocators, EP.58)
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
Porter Collins and Vincent Daniel - Big Shorts and Big Longs (Capital Allocators, EP.325)
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
Investment Management Operations Podcast
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
Don Mullen –Single-Family Rentals at Pretium (Capital Allocators, EP.324)
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 short
Matt Breitfelder – Optimizing Investment Performance through Human Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.323)
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 hig
WTT – The Impermanence of Permanent Capital
"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.
Eric Resnick – Ski, Golf, and Vacation Investing at KSL (EP.322)
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 and businesses that inspire joy and awe. The firm manages $21 billion, including investments in Alterra Mountain Company, the second-largest ski company in the world and the creator of the Ikon Pass, Under Canvas, Baillie Lodges, and Outrigger Hotels & Resorts. The firm’s portfolio includes many ot
Breitling on Private Equity Deals
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 – Hustling to Save the Planet at Lowercarbon (Capital Allocators, EP.321)
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 compa
Jim Falbe – Modern Value Investing at Saguaro (Capital Allocators, EP.320)
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, maki
Adam Shapiro – Post-Breeding Grounds for Rising Stars and Families (Capital Allocators, EP.319)
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,
Mavis Tire Express Services on Private Equity Deals
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 att
Hedge Fund Master Class – Craig Bergstrom, Adam Blitz, and Dan Fagan (Capital Allocators, EP.318)
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 convers
[REPLAY] Adam Blitz – Inside Hedge Fund Allocation (Capital Allocators, EP.17)
Adam Blitz is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Evanston Capital Management, a $4.5 billion hedge fund of funds manager with a decade and a half of experience managing hedge fund portfolios. Adam joined Evanston at its inception in 2002 and leads investment research and portfolio management. Previously, he worked in the Prime Brokerage area and Asset Management Division of Goldman Sachs and served as head trader at AQR. Adam earned a B.S. in Economics at the Wharton School. Our conversa
WTT - I Don’t Know
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.
Kiyan Zandiyeh – Empty Rooms: Venture Capital on the Emerging Frontier at Sturgeon Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.317)
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, E
Amy Falls – From Bonds to Boards to Leading Northwestern (Capital Allocators, EP.316)
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
Sam Zell – A Tribute to a Legend (REPLAY – EP.253)
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.
Selective Search on Private Equity Deals
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.
Marc Lasry – Avenues of Opportunity (Capital Allocators, EP.315)
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
Richard Craib – Crowdsourcing Data Science for Returns at Numerai (Capital Allocators, EP.314)
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, quantitat
Tony Yoseloff – Forty Years of Davidson Kempner (Capital Allocators, EP.313)
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 Davi
Ashby Monk – Investor Identity, Navigation, and Resilience (Capital Allocators, EP.312)
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 year
[REPLAY] - Ashby Monk – Innovation in Institutional Portfolios (Capital Allocators, EP.196)
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 fo
[REPLAY] - Ashby Monk – Asset Giant Futurist (Capital Allocators, EP.29)
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
Aaron Sack – Branded Middle Market Investing at Morgan Stanley (Capital Allocators, EP.311)
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, co
Rod Wong – Empty Rooms: Innovation in Biotech at RTW (Capital Allocators, EP. 310)
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 innov
Yahoo on Private Equity Deals
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 longstandin
Mario Giannini & John Toomey – Private Equity Panel (Capital Allocators EP.309)
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 m
[REPLAY] Mario Giannini – View from the Top of Private Equity at Hamilton Lane (Capital Allocators, EP.262)
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 a
[REPLAY] Private Equity Masters 1: John Toomey – HarbourVest Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.200)
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
Thoma Bravo's Behind the Deal Podcast (Capital Allocators, EP.308)
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 d
Coach Paul Assaiante – Leading People to Greatness (Capital Allocators, EP.307)
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 care
WTT – Playing for Tomorrow
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 mail
Yellowstone Club on Private Equity Deals
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
Tom Joy – Divine Diversification and Responsibility at Church Commissioners (Capital Allocators, EP.306)
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, in
Andy Lee – Empty Rooms: Investing in Tax Assets at Parallaxes Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.305)
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. For full show notes, visit the episod
Adam Rodman – The Case for Nuclear (Climate Solutions EP.4, Capital Allocators EP.304)
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 provi
WTT - Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Pain, Part 2
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 Transcr
David Abrams – Sports Ecosystem Investing at Velocity (Capital Allocators, EP. 303)
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 formatio
Colin Campbell – The Case for Environmental Markets (Climate Solutions EP.3, Capital Allocators EP.302)
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 transit
TaylorMade on Private Equity Deals
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
William Orum – Mission-Aligned Allocation at Capricorn (Climate Solutions EP.2, Capital Allocators EP.301)
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 missi
Tom Steyer – Investing to Save Humanity (Climate Solutions EP.1, Capital Allocators EP. 300)
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 o
JUST RELEASED: Blue Triton Brands on Private Equity Deals
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 th
Venture Capital Panel – Beezer Clarkson, Chris Douvos, and Joelle Kayden (Capital Allocators, EP.299)
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. Ou
[REPLAY] Joelle Kayden – Canvassing the Landscape at Accolade Partners, Venture is Eating the Investment World 7 (Capital Allocators, EP.235)
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
[REPLAY] Beezer Clarkson – Sapphire Gem of Early Stage Venture (Capital Allocators, EP.120)
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
[REPLAY] Chris Douvos – Venture Capital’s Super LP (Capital Allocators, EP.14)
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 prog
Dan Ivascyn – Fixed Income in the Limelight Again (Capital Allocators, EP.298)
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 o
JUST RELEASED: Fenway Sports Group on Private Equity Deals (Season 2)
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 i
José E. Feliciano – Flexible Private Market Investing at Clearlake (Capital Allocators, EP. 297)
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, owner
Brian Philpot – Financing Farmers at AgAmerica (Capital Allocators, EP. 296)
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 focusin
Marshall Boyd – Meat and Potatoes Multi-Family Real Estate at IEC (Capital Allocators, EP.295)
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 boutiq
John-Austin Saviano – Emerging Managers and IC Governance (Capital Allocators, EP.294)
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
Shundrawn Thomas - From Large Money Manager CEO to Social Impact Entrepreneur (Capital Allocators, EP. 293)
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
[REPLAY] Shundrawn Thomas – Leading the Way (Capital Allocators, EP.153)
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 Exe
Anthony Scaramucci – Another Winter and Another Rebirth (Capital Allocators, EP.292)
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
[REPLAY] Anthony Scaramucci – It’s Called a Mooch (Capital Allocators, EP.60)
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 tenu
WTT - You Won't Detect the Next Fraud
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 - The Evolution of MSD (Capital Allocators, EP.291)
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 succ
Neal Foard – The Art of Storytelling (Capital Allocators, EP.290)
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
2022 Top Episode #1: Sam Zell – Common Sense and Uncommon Profits, EP. 253
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, ener
2022 Top Episode #2: Todd Boehly – The Next Berkshire Hathaway at Eldridge, EP. 223
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,
2022 Top Episode #3: Paul Enright – Inside Long-Short Equity Investing, EP. 264
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 eq
2022 Top Episode #4: Rob Citrone – Emerging Markets, Hedge Funds, and Staying in the Game, EP. 261
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 i
2022 Top Episode #5: Annie Duke – The Power of Quitting, EP.273
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 instinc
Year in Review 2022 (Capital Allocators, EP. 289)
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,
JUST RELEASED: CD&R on Private Equity Deals
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’
Ana Marshall – Preparing for the New Environment at Hewlett (Capital Allocators, EP. 288)
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 c
[REPLAY] - Ana Marshall – Applied Direct Investing at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.111)
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
Carol Geremia - Creating Long-Term Value for (almost) 100 Years at MFS (Capital Allocators, EP. 287)
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 convers
Charley Ellis - Figuring Out Investing and Vanguard (Capital Allocators, EP.286)
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 chara
[REPLAY] Charley Ellis – The Magic of David Swensen (Capital Allocators, EP.197)
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 a
[REPLAY] Charley Ellis – Multiple Ways to Win (Capital Allocators, EP.08)
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 Rev
JUST RELEASED: Advent International on Private Equity Deals
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 Sub
Sachin Khajuria – Two and Twenty, An Insider’s Take on Private Equity (Capital Allocators, EP.285)
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 democrati
Thomas Majewski – Empty Rooms: Masterclass on CLOs at Eagle Point Credit Management (Capital Allocators, EP. 284)
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
Charles Van Vleet – Thinking Differently with Pensions at Textron (Capital Allocators, EP. 283)
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 implementati
JUST RELEASED: Bain Capital on Private Equity Deals
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
Frank Brosens – Culture and Partnership at Taconic Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.282)
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-
Melanie Pickett – Modern Technology in the Investment Office at Northern Trust (Capital Allocators, EP.281)
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 Execu
Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280)
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 governan
JUST RELEASED: EQT on Private Equity Deals
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,
Colin Smith and Farouk Miah - Empty Rooms: Investing in Africa (Capital Allocators, EP. 279)
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 mak
Michael Rees – Inside GP Stakes at Dyal Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.278)
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.
JUST RELEASED: Berkshire Partners on Private Equity Deals
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 – In the Room Where Private Equity Happens at Kirkland & Ellis (Capital Allocators, EP.277)
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
Jack Sommers – Core Fixed Income at IR+M (Manager Meetings, EP.39)
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
Reade Griffith – Managing Assets and Partnerships at Tetragon (Capital Allocators, EP.276)
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 co
JUST RELEASED: Stone Point Capital on Private Equity Deals, EP.03
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 Po
Louis-Vincent Gave – The Case for Emerging Markets (Capital Allocators, EP.275)
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
[REPLAY] Louis-Vincent Gave – Macro Consequences of Government Sanctions (Capital Allocators, EP.247)
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
Andy Acker - Empty Rooms: Investing in Biotech at Janus Henderson (Capital Allocators, EP.274)
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 sig
Annie Duke – The Power of Quitting (Capital Allocators, EP.273)
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 instinc
[REPLAY] Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39]
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-u
JUST RELEASED: Thoma Bravo on Private Equity Deals, EP.02
Our second episode of Private Equity Deals released this morning. I’m joined by Scott Crabill, a long-time partner at Thoma Bravo, to discuss their take private purchase of RealPage. Search for Private Equity Deals on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe. Listen to Thoma Bravo on Private Equity Deals Subscribe to Private Equity Deals Subscribe on Apple Podcast Subscribe on Spotify Subscribe on YouTube Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailin
Matt Brown – Tidal Wave of Capital for Alternatives from Retail (Capital Allocators, EP.272)
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’ inaugu
[REPLAY] Matt Brown – Democratization of Alternatives at CAIS (Capital Allocators, EP.214)
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
Adam Wyden - ADW Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.37)
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
Friends Reunion 2 – Five Allocators Riff on Investing with Meredith Jenkins, Casey Whalen, Brett Barth, Jon Harris, and Ted Seides (Capital Allocators, EP.271)
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 l
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Private Equity Deals Podcast
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.
Greg Lippmann – The Big Short and Structured Credit at LibreMax (Capital Allocators, EP.270)
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
Ted Seides – Insights on investing and podcasting (Capital Allocators, EP.269)
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 inst
Allan Jean-Baptiste and Marco DeMeireles – Under-covered Venture Markets and Teams at Ansa Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.36)
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. Thei
Rodrigo Bitar – Empty Rooms: Investing in Venezuela (Capital Allocators, EP.268)
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 Vene
Carla Harris – Pearls of Career Wisdom (Capital Allocators, EP.267)
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 Pe
Howard Smith – Japanese Equities at Indus Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.35)
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 So
Paul Enright – Inside Long-Short Equity Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.266)
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 th
Brent Montgomery – The Disney Flywheel at Wheelhouse (Capital Allocators, EP.265)
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 IT
Avichal Garg – Programmer-Centric Crypto Investing at Electric (Manager Meetings, EP.34)
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
Sarah Samuels – Framework and Rigor at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.264)
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
Josh Friedman – Master Class in Credit Investing at Canyon (Capital Allocators, EP.263)
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
Mario Giannini – View from the Top of Private Equity at Hamilton Lane (Capital Allocators, EP.262)
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 a
Rob Citrone – Emerging Markets, Hedge Funds, and Staying in the Game (Capital Allocators, EP.261)
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
Regan Bozman – Defensible Moats in Crypto at Lattice Capital (Manager Meetings, 34)
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 sub
Ashvin Chhabra – The Aspirational Investor (Capital Allocators, EP.260)
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 di
Diogo Monica – Securing Crypto at Anchorage Digital (EP.259, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.06)
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, partners
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – Decision Making Bootcamp, July 20th @ 11am
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 Allocato
Chris Dixon – Frameworks and Investing at Scale (EP.258, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.05)
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 e
[REPLAY] Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
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,
Olaf Carlson-Wee – The Future of Crypto (EP.257, Crypto for Institutions 2 – EP.04)
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
Ben Forman – Opportunities in DeFi (EP.256, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.03)
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
Stephen McKeon – NFTs and the Consumer in Web3 (EP.255, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.02)
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,
[REPLAY] Stephen McKeon – Professor of Crypto Security Tokens (Capital Allocators, EP.69)
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 s
Marcos Veremis – Allocator’s Perspective on Blockchain (EP.254, Crypto for Institutions 2, EP.01)
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
Sam Zell – Common Sense and Uncommon Profits (Capital Allocators, EP.253)
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 go
Leigh Drogen – Quantamental Approach to Crypto at Starkiller Capital (Manager Meeting, EP.32)
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
Chris Voss – Listening, Human Nature, and Negotiations (Capital Allocators, EP.252)
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 e
SPECIAL REPLAY: Matt Spielman – Inflection Points
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 Twit
Billy Libby – Disruptive Venture Funding at Upper90 (Capital Allocators, EP.251)
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 toget
John Barber – The Art of Co-Investing at Cohesive Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.31)
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 discu
Larry Kochard – From Endowment Professor to OCIO Chief at Makena Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.250)
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 c
[REPLAY] - Larry Kochard – Endowment Professor (Capital Allocators, EP.11)
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
Sahil Bloom – Creativity, Investing, and Engineered Serendipity (Capital Allocators, EP.249)
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 cove
Steve Drobny – Where the World is Going at Clocktower Group (Manager Meeting, 30)
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 capi
Greg Dowling – Mid-Market Institutional Consulting at FEG (Capital Allocators, EP.248)
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 un
Louis-Vincent Gave – Macro Consequences of Government Sanctions (Capital Allocators, EP.247)
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
Andrew Milgram – Mid-Market Distressed Investing at Marblegate (Manager Meetings EP.29)
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 Andre
Tom Lenehan – Taking the Helm at the Wallace Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.246)
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
[REPLAY] Tom Lenehan – Perpetual Thinking at Rockefeller University (Capital Allocators, EP.04)
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 Transcrip
Sebastian Mallaby – The Making of the New Future in Venture, Venture is Eating the Investment World 14 (Capital Allocators, EP.245)
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 an
Steve Papa – Entrepreneur’s Perspective on Venture, Venture is Eating the Investment World 13 (Capital Allocators, EP.244)
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
Kathy Xu – Venture in China at Capital Today, Venture is Eating the Investment World 12 (Capital Allocators, EP.243)
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 entrepr
Chris Heller - Weird Alternatives at Cordillera Investment Partners (Manager Meetings, EP.28)
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 conve
Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek – Renegade Spin-Out in the Supercritical Stage, Venture is Eating the Investment World 11 (Capital Allocators, EP. 242)
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
Kelsey Chase – Analyzing Venture Transactions at Aumni (Capital Allocators, EP.241)
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-
Arjun Sethi – A Technology Company that Deploys Capital at Tribe, Venture is Eating the Investment World 10 (Capital Allocators, EP. 240)
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 loo
James Aitken – Market Implications of the Situation in Ukraine (Capital Allocators, EP.239)
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
[REPLAY] James Aitken – Macro Strategist Extraordinaire (Capital Allocators, EP.58)
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
Annie Lamont – A Lifetime in Venture, Venture is Eating the Investment World 9 (Capital Allocators, EP. 238)
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
Marko Papic – Geopolitical Shock in a Multi-Polar World (Capital Allocators, EP.237)
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 implica
[REPLAY] Marko Papic – Geopolitical Alpha at Clocktower Group (Capital Allocators, EP.161)
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 polit
Josh Wolfe – Caution and Innovation at Lux Capital, Venture is Eating the Investment World 8 (Capital Allocators, EP.236)
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 “directiona
[REPLAY] Josh Wolfe – Seeing the Lux (Capital Allocators, EP.65)
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, cond
Joelle Kayden – Canvassing the Landscape at Accolade Partners, Venture is Eating the Investment World 7 (Capital Allocators, EP.235)
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
Aydin Senkut – Tenacious Sourcing and Founder Support at Felicis, Venture is Eating the Investment World 6 (Capital Allocators, EP.234)
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 Feli
Ali Hamed – Novel Venture Investing at CoVenture, Venture is Eating the Investment World 5 (Capital Allocators, EP.233)
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 dynam
[REPLAY] Ali Hamed - Novel Asset Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.40)
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 unpri
Fabrice Grinda – Canvassing Seed Stage Marketplaces at FJ Labs, Venture is Eating the Investment World 4 (Capital Allocators, EP.232)
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 e
Florian Bartunek – Equities in Brazil at Constellation Asset Management (Manager Meetings, EP.27)
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 Pin
Sean O’Sullivan – Start-up Development at SOSV, Venture is Eating the Investment World 3 (Capital Allocators, EP.231)
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 inte
Chris Douvos – The LP’s Perspective from Ahoy Capital, Venture is Eating the Investment World 2 (Capital Allocators, EP.230)
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 Fo
[REPLAY] - Chris Douvos – Venture Capital’s Super LP (Capital Allocators, EP.14)
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 progra
David Rosenthal and Ben Gilbert – Acquiring an Industry. Venture is Eating the Investment World 1 (Capital Allocators, EP.229)
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 te
Jamie Montgomery – March Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.26)
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 fir
Year in Review 2021, (Capital Allocators, EP.228)
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
#1: Chamath Palihapitiya – The Social Capital Flywheel, EP.167
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 se
#2: Barry Sternlicht – Masterclass in Real Estate in a Post-Covid World, EP.216
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
#3: Katy Milkman – How to Change, EP..199
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 identi
#4: Yen Liow – The Quest for the Right Tail at Aravt Global, EP.188
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
#5: John Toomey – Private Equity Masters Ep.01, HarborVest Partners, EP.200
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
Justin Fishner- Wolfson - 137 Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.25)
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.
Paul Black and Mike Trigg – How to Build a $100B Money Manager (Capital Allocators, EP.227)
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
[REPLAY] - Mike Trigg – Defying the Fade at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.162)
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 stra
[REPLAY] Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)
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
Jarrid Tingle and Henri Pierre-Jacques – Harlem Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.24)
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
Christopher Zook – Thematic Investing and Raving Fans at CAZ Investments (Capital Allocators, EP.226)
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
Bill Trenchard - First Round Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.23)
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 discover
Ian Charles & Doc O’Connor – Investing in Sports Teams at Arctos Sports Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.225)
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 N
Will Cook - Sunriver Management (Manager Meetings, EP.22)
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
Chas Cocke - From Allocator to Manager (Capital Allocators, EP.224)
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
Brian Higgins - King Street Capital (Manager Meeting, EP. 21)
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 o
Todd Boehly - The Next Berkshire Hathaway at Eldridge (Capital Allocators, EP. 223)
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 Berkshir
Kyle Samani and Tushar Jain - Multicoin Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.20)
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
Richard Tedlow - Charismatic Business Leadership (Capital Allocators, EP.222)
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 t
Himanshu Gulati – Antara Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.19)
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 manag
Jordi Visser – Analytics and AQ at Weiss (Capital Allocators, EP.221)
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 o
[REPLAY] - Jordi Visser – Next Generation of Manager Allocation (Capital Allocators, EP.92)
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
Satya Patel – Homebrew (Manager Meetings, EP.18)
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 i
Savneet Singh – The Operator/Investor whose Software is Feeding the World (Capital Allocators, EP.220)
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 b
Rashmi Kwatra – Sixteenth Street Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.17)
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 growin
Paula Volent – Star Endowment Manager’s Next Act at Rockefeller University (Capital Allocators, EP.219)
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
Stefan Kaluzny – Sycamore Partners [Manager Meetings, EP.16]
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 und
Erik Serrano Berntsen – Backing Alternative Founders at Stable Asset Management (Capital Allocators, EP.218)
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 probab
Hamish Corlett – TDM Growth Partners (Manager Meetings, EP.15)
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
Matt Brown – Democratization of Alternatives at CAIS (Capital Allocators, EP.214)
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
Jonathan Brolin – Edenbrook Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.14)
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 c
Barry Sternlicht – Masterclass in Real Estate in a Post-COVID World (Capital Allocators, EP.216)
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
Daniel Graña – Janus Henderson Investors Emerging Markets Equity (Manager Meetings, EP.13)
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 c
Friends Reunion – Five Allocators Riff on Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.215)
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 colleagu
[REPLAY] - Jon Harris – Investing in People at AIM (Capital Allocators, EP.105)
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 moti
[REPLAY] - Meredith Jenkins – A Path to Trinity (Capital Allocators, EP.31)
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, Mer
[REPLAY] - Brett Barth – Asset Allocation for Families (Capital Allocators, EP.03)
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
Mike Smith and Nikhil Basu Trivedi – Footwork Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.12)
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 stag
Luke Ellis – The Man Behind The Man Group (Capital Allocators, EP.214)
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 busines
[REPLAY] Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien – Best Practices in Alternatives (Capital Allocators, EP.158)
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
Ryan Batchelor – Clifford Capital Partners (Manager Meetings, EP.11)
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 interes
Katie Hall – Hall Capital Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.213)
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 a
Leda Braga – Systematica Investments (Manager Meetings, EP.10)
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 asset
Mike Tian – Moat Trajectories and Investing in China at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.212)
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 competi
[REPLAY] - Mike Trigg – Defying the Fade at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.162)
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 stra
[REPLAY] - Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)
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
Jan Garfinkle – Arboretum Ventures (Manager Meetings, EP.09)
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,
Jennifer Heller – Beginner’s Mind with Professional Wisdom at Brandywine (Capital Allocators, EP.211)
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 begi
[REPLAY] - Jennifer Heller – Thinking it Through (Capital Allocators, EP.07)
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
Rick Rieder – BlackRock (Manager Meetings, EP.08)
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 div
Matt Spielman – Executive Coaching in Asset Management (Capital Allocators, EP.210)
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
Bruce Martin – Still Lake Capital [Manager Meetings, EP.7)
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 alongsid
Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap –Inside the Sausage Factory of the Caesar’s Restructuring (Capital Allocators, EP.209)
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 Apol
Wylie Fernyhough – Private Equity Stakes (Capital Allocators, EP.208)
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 ma
Greg Jensen – Bridgewater Associates (Manager Meetings, EP.06)
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 u
Private Equity Masters 8 – Chuck Davis – Stone Point Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.207)
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 conversati
Jonathan Lewinsohn – Diameter Capital Partners (Manager Meetings, EP.05)
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
Private Equity Masters 7: Orlando Bravo – Thoma Bravo (Capital Allocators, EP.206)
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 portfo
Julia Bonafede – Rosetta Analytics (Manager Meetings, EP.04)
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
Private Equity Masters 6 – Doug Ostrover – Blue Owl Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.205)
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, an
Bill Ford – General Atlantic (Manager Meetings, EP.03)
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 t
Private Equity Masters 5: Virginie Morgon – Eurazeo (Capital Allocators, EP. 204)
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, a
Eli Casdin – Casdin Capital (Manager Meetings, EP.02)
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, pr
Private Equity Masters 4: David Rubenstein – Carlyle Group (Capital Allocators, EP.203)
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’
Jeremy Grantham – GMO (Manager Meetings, EP.01)
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 insid
Special Announcement: Manager Meetings with Capital Allocators
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
Private Equity Masters 3: Robert F. Smith – Vista Equity Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.202)
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 l
Private Equity Master 2: John Connaughton – Bain Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.201)
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 environme
Private Equity Masters 1: John Toomey – HarbourVest Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.200)
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
Katy Milkman – How to Change (Capital Allocators, EP.199)
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 identi
Alex Rodriguez – Business after Baseball (Capital Allocators, EP.198)
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 Tim
Charley Ellis – The Magic of David Swensen (Capital Allocators, EP.197)
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 a
[REPLAY] Charley Ellis - Indexing and Its Alternatives (EP.62)
Investment luminary Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of 16 books, and one of the most sought-after industry advisors worldwide. He also believes deeply in the paradox of skill and his latest book, The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now, presents a compelling case for indexing for most investors.. Charley was an early guest on the show and we reconvened to talk through the full case of indexing for individuals and some of its constraints for institut
[REPLAY] Charley Ellis – Multiple Ways to Win (Capital Allocators, EP.08)
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 Rev
Ashby Monk – Innovation in Institutional Portfolios (Capital Allocators, EP.196)
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 fo
[REPLAY] - Ashby Monk – Asset Giant Futurist (Capital Allocators, EP.29)
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
Dan Ariely – The Human Capital Factor (Capital Allocators, EP.195)
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
[REPLAY] Dan Ariely – Investing in Irrationality (Capital Allocators, EP.93)
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
Innovation in Private Markets 3: Sulaiman Alderbas – A Massive Restart at PIFSS (Capital Allocators, EP.194)
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
Innovation in Private Markets 2: Mark Johnson – New Leaders in Private Equity at Astra (Capital Allocators, EP.193)
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
Innovation in Private Markets 1: Steve Moseley – The Space in Between GPs and LPs at Alaska Permanent Fund (Capital Allocators, EP.192)
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 con
[REPLAY] Daniel Adamson – Innovation from Asset Giants at Capital Constellation (EP.136)
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
Brian Bares – Qualitative Concentration at BCM
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 s
Cade Massey – People Analytics in Investing and the NFL (Capital Allocators, EP.190)
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
a16z Podcast with Linda Xie and Jesse Walden - All About NFTS (Capital Allocators, EP.189)
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
Yen Liow - The Quest for the Right Tail at Aravt Global (Capital Allocators, EP.188)
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
Dominic Garcia – Risk-based Investing at New Mexico PERA (Capital Allocators, EP.187)
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, cha
Jeff Housenbold – Inside Softbank Vision Fund (Capital Allocators, EP.186)
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, includ
Ted with Jenny Heller – Compounding Knowledge and Relationships (Capital Allocators, EP.185)
As we finish up book launch week, I thought I’d share this interview conducted by Jenny Heller, my friend, the 7th guest on the show, and the President and CIO of Brandywine Group Advisors. We discuss the business of Capital Allocators, entrepreneurship, effectiveness, and investing – including a brief description of my most recent private equity fund investment. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List R
[REPLAY] - Jennifer Heller – Thinking it Through (Capital Allocators, EP.07)
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
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Launch of capitalallocators.com
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
Ted with Patrick O'Shaughnessy – Lessons from the World’s Elite Money Managers (Capital Allocators, EP.184)
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, an
Crypto for Institutions 4: Ari Paul – Exploiting Inefficiencies in Crypto Trading (Capital Allocators, EP.183)
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 conve
Crypto for Institutions 3: Seth Ginns – Investing Beyond Bitcoin (Capital Allocators, EP.182)
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 la
Crypto for Institutions 2 – Michael Sonnenshein – A Path to Entry (Capital Allocators, EP.181)
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 proc
Crypto for Institutions 1: Eric Peters – The Macro Case for Bitcoin (Capital Allocators, EP.180)
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 h
[REPLAY] - Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
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,
Alex Shahidi and Damien Bisserier – Uncorrelated Return and Balanced Risk at Evoke-ARIS (Capital Allocators, EP.179)
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 dis
Acting Chairman Rostin Behnam – CFTC Regulatory Perspectives on Crypto and Climate (Capital Allocators, EP.178)
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 CFT
Jennifer Prosek – Business Development and Leadership in a Virtual World (Capital Allocators, EP.177)
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 i
[REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81)
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
David Baran and Kazuhiko Shibata – Friendly Activism in Japan at Symphony (Capital Allocators, EP.176)
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
BONUS – Michael Mauboussin on the Decision Education Podcast
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 Maubouss
Private Equity Masters: Paul Salem – Providence Equity Partners (Capital Allocators, EP.175)
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 Provid
Collette Chilton – Humility and Loyalty at Williams College (Capital Allocators, EP.174)
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 car
Fran Kinniry – The Comfort of Paradox at Vanguard Group (Capital Allocators, EP.173)
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,
Chris Dixon – The Future of Blockchain at a16z (Capital Allocators, EP.172)
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,
James Clear – Mastering Habits (Capital Allocators, EP.171)
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
Ted Seides - Capital Allocators Year in Review (Capital Allocators, EP.170)
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
[REPLAY] Rahul Moodgal - Master Fund Raiser (Capital Allocators, EP.87)
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
[REPLAY] Dan Rasmussen – Private Equity Risk and Public Equity Opportunity at Verdad Advisers (First Meeting, EP.15)
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 marke
[REPLAY] Gregory Zuckerman – Decoding Renaissance Medallion (Capital Allocators, EP.119)
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
[REPLAY] James Aitken – Systemic Risk in a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.126)
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 Mail
[REPLAY] Morgan Housel – The Psychology of Money (Capital Allocators, EP.155)
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 tw
[REPLAY] Annie Duke – How to Decide (Capital Allocators, EP.156)
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 t
André Perold – Pockets of Inefficiency at HighVista Strategies (Capital Allocators, EP.169)
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
[REPLAY] André Perold – Academic Practitioner (Capital Allocators, EP.02)
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 Bank
Diversity Equity & Inclusion 5: Daryn Dodson – Training and Action at Illumen Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.168)
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
Chamath Palihapitiya – The Social Capital Flywheel (Capital Allocators, EP.167)
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 se
Ben Reiter – Over the Edge with the Houston Astros (Capital Allocators, EP.166)
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
Joel Greenblatt – Common Sense for Value at Gotham Capital (Capital Allocators, EP.165)
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. W
Shane Parrish – Learning to Learn at Farnam Street (Capital Allocators, EP.164)
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 applic
Karyn Williams – Measuring Risk Practically at Hightree Advisors (Capital Allocators, EP.163)
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 As
Mike Trigg – Defying the Fade at WCM (Capital Allocators, EP.162)
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 stra
[REPLAY] Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)
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
Marko Papic – Geopolitical Alpha at Clocktower Group (Capital Allocators, EP.161)
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 polit
Carrie Thome – Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained at WARF and beyond (Capital Allocators, EP.160)
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, technol
Mathieu Chabran – Good Deals Have No Wheels at Tikehau Capital (First Meeting, EP.23)
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
Scott Wilson – Concentrated Investing at Washington University-St. Louis (Capital Allocators, EP. 159)
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, transitionin
Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien – Best Practices in Alternatives (Capital Allocators, EP.158)
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
[REPLAY] Mario Therrien – The Canadian Pension Model (Capital Allocators, EP.12)
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 man
Paul Marshall – 10 ½ Lessons from 23 years at Marshall Wace (Capital Allocators, EP.157)
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
Annie Duke – How to Decide (Capital Allocators, EP.156)
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 t
[REPLAY] Gary Klein with Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson – Conducting Pre-Mortem Analysis (Capital Allocators, EP.109)
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,
[REPLAY] Annie Duke – Thinking More in Bets (Capital Allocators, EP.76)
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
[REPLAY] Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39]
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
Morgan Housel – The Psychology of Money (Capital Allocators, EP.155)
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 tw
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 4: Joel Wittenberg – A Prescription for the Future (Capital Allocators, EP.154)
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
SPECIAL EPISODE – Introducing Invisible Forces Podcast
Today’s show is an episode of another podcast called Invisible Forces. It’s hosted by insiders at Jefferies, Shannon Murphy and Erin Shea, who dive into unseen influences that are dramatically changing the global economy. Season 2 looks five years into the future to understand where we’ll live, how we’ll live, and what we’ll buy. What follows is the first episode of Season Two. I hope you enjoy this show, and I suspect you will. If you like what you hear, search for Invisible Forces anywhere y
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 3: Shundrawn Thomas – Leading the Way (Capital Allocators, EP.153)
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 Exe
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 2: Kim Lew – The Opportunity and Challenge (Capital Allocators, EP.152)
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 p
[REPLAY] Kim Lew – The Carnegie Way (Capital Allocators, EP.52)
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 Networ
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 1: Jacob Walthour – A Blueprint for Diversity (Capital Allocators, EP.151)
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 In
Matthew Granade – Inside Data Science at Point72 (First Meeting, EP.22)
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
Randall Stutman - Admired Leadership (Capital Allocators, EP.150)
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, Morga
Taimur Hyat – After the Great Lockdown (Capital Allocators, EP.149)
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 aca
Adam Fisher – Blending Global Macro and Real Estate at Commonwealth Asset Management (First Meeting, EP.21)
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 stu
Sustainable Investing 10: Hiro Mizuno – Changing the Game (Capital Allocators, EP.148)
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 wit
Sustainable Investing 9: Reuben Munger – Private Capital Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.147)
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
Sustainable Investing 8: Lauren Taylor Wolfe – Activist Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.146)
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 i
Sustainable Investing 7: Tony Davis – Hedge Fund Perspective at Inherent Group (Capital Allocators, EP.145)
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 philanthr
Sustainable Investing 6: Richard Lawrence - ESG Integration at Overlook (Capital Allocators, EP.144)
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 e
[REPLAY] Richard Lawrence – Compounding in Asia (Capital Allocators, EP.21)
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 wo
Sustainable Investing 5: David Blood - Pioneering a Generation (Capital Allocators, EP.143)
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
Sustainable Investing 4: Emanuel Citron – Sourcing Sustainable Managers
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 an
Sustainable Investing 3: Bob Litterman – Pricing Climate Risk (Capital Allocators, EP.141)
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 b
Sustainable Investing 2: Liqian Ma – Allocator Perspective (Capital Allocators, EP.140)
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
Sustainable Investing 1: Wendy Cromwell – The $170 Trillion Opportunity (Capital Allocators, EP.139)
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
[REPLAY] Jean Hynes – Inside Wellington Management (Capital Allocators, EP.82)
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 e
Clarke Futch – Healthcare Royalty Partners (First Meeting, EP.20)
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 earl
Brett Jefferson – Inefficiencies in Structured Credit at Hildene Capital Management (First Meeting, EP.19)
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
[REPLAY] Paul Rabil - Lacrosse and Entrepreneurship (Capital Allocators, EP.95)
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.
Daylian Cain – Master Class in Negotiations
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, a
Laurence Siegel – Current Myths and Long-Term Optimism (Capital Allocators, EP.137)
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 w
Daniel Adamson – Innovation from Asset Giants at Capital Constellation (EP.136)
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
Tim McCusker – Advising Through a Crisis at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP.135)
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 virtu
[REPLAY] Tim McCusker – Consistency and Creativity as CIO at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP. 80)
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 capit
Michael Mervosh - Investing in Yourself During a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.134)
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
[REPLAY] Michael Mervosh – Invest in Yourself (Capital Allocators, EP.68)
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 provi
Andrew Golden – Navigating Princeton’s Endowment Through (Another) Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.133)
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 @t
[REPLAY] Andrew Golden - Princeton University's Chief Investing Tiger (Capital Allocators, EP.13)
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 t
Annie Duke – Decision Making in a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.132)
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 M
[REPLAY] Brian Portnoy – From Complex to Simple (Capital Allocators, EP.57)
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 Invest
[REPLAY] Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39]
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
[REPLAY] Annie Duke – Thinking More in Bets (Capital Allocators, EP.76)
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
Sandra Robertson – Calibrating Oxford’s Portfolio in a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.131)
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 Wr
Sandra Robertson – Oxford’s Queen of Endowment Management (Capital Allocators, EP.130)
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 market
Steve Nelson – Assisting Private Equity Allocators Through Turbulent Times at ILPA (Capital Allocators, EP.129)
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, ad
Eric Peters – Trading and Evolution at One River (First Meeting, EP.18)
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
Mark Baumgartner – Allocating in a Crisis at IAS (Capital Allocators, EP.128)
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 ac
[REPLAY] Mark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty as CIO for the Institute for Advanced Study (Capital Allocators, EP.77)
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 th
[REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81)
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 foi
Ben Inker – Value Investing at GMO (First Meeting, EP.17)
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, inclu
Michael Mauboussin – Consilient Observations in a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.127)
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 deto
[REPLAY] Michael Mauboussin – Who’s on the Other Side (Capital Allocators, EP.99)
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, t
[REPLAY] Michael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team Dynamics (Capital Allocators, EP.36)
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, ac
James Aitken – Systemic Risk in a Crisis (Capital Allocators, EP.126)
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 Mail
Greg Fleming – Building and Running Rockefeller Capital Management (Capital Allocators, EP.125)
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
Christie Hamilton – Tweeting on Allocation at Children’s Health (Capital Allocators, EP.124)
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 li
Mike Mauzé - Escape Velocity for CPG Brands at VMG Partners (First Meeting, EP.16)
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 investm
Doug Phillips – Middle of the Fairway at the University of Rochester (Capital Allocators, EP.123)
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 sour
Dan Rasmussen – Private Equity Risk and Public Equity Opportunity at Verdad Advisers (First Meeting, EP.15)
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 marke
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT – CAPITAL ALLOCATORS LIVE!
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 fut
James Aitken – Tour Around the World from a Small Island (Capital Allocators, EP.122)
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
Peter Kraus - Widening the Aperture on Alpha (First Meeting, EP.14)
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-
Ted Seides – A Rational Reminder (Capital Allocators, EP.121)
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
Beezer Clarkson – Sapphire Gem of Early Stage Venture (Capital Allocators, EP.120)
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
Gregory Zuckerman – Decoding Renaissance Medallion (Capital Allocators, EP.119)
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
The Best of 2019 (Capital Allocators, EP.118)
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 – Conducting Brain Surgery (Capital Allocators, EP.117)
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 o
Neal Triplett and Kim Lew – Issues of Management at Duke and Carnegie (Capital Allocators, EP.116)
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
Kip McDaniel – How to Get an Allocator’s Attention (Capital Allocators, EP.115)
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,
[REPLAY] Kip McDaniel – CIO Whisperer (Capital Allocators, EP.20)
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 Cana
Anne Martin - Pulling the Oars as CIO of Wesleyan University (Capital Allocators, EP.114)
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
Drew Dickson – Blending Behavior and Fundamentals at Albert Bridge Capital (First Meeting, EP.13)
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 beh
Steve Rattner – Overseeing Michael Bloomberg’s Family Office (Capital Allocators, EP.113)
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
Jason Karp – From Hedge Funds to Health and Wellness at HumanCo (First Meeting, EP.12)
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
Dawn Fitzpatrick – Multi-Faceted Investing at Soros Fund Management (Capital Allocators, EP.112)
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 na
Ash Fontana – Investing in Artificial Intelligence at Zetta Ventures (First Meeting, EP.11)
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 alo
Ana Marshall – Applied Direct Investing at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.111)
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 st
Jay Girotto – Farmland Opportunity (First Meeting, EP.10)
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
Jonathan Tepper - Variant Perception of Capitalism (Capital Allocators, EP.110)
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, learn
Joe Lonsdale – Entrepreneurship and 8VC (First Meeting, EP.09)
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 op
Gary Klein with Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson – Conducting Pre-Mortem Analysis (Capital Allocators, EP.109)
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,
[REPLAY] Paul Johnson and Paul Sonkin – The Perfect Investment (Capital Allocators, EP.32)
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 stu
Michael Schwimer - Sports Betting at JAMBOS (First Meeting, EP.08)
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 strate
[REPLAY] Michael Schwimer – Moneyball as an Investment Strategy (Capital Allocators, EP.72)
Michael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings. Before founding BLA, Michael was a professional baseball player, working his way through the minors and reaching the majors as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. A shoulder injury left him pondering what to do next, which led to the creation of BLA. Our conversation discusses Michael’s career as a player,
Matt Whineray – Leading New Zealand Super Fund (Capital Allocators, EP.108)
Matt Whineray is the CEO of New Zealand Superannuation Fund or Super Fund, one of the highest performing, most innovative and well-regarded large-scale investment allocators in the world. The New Zealand government created the Super Fund in 2001 to help defray the costs of retirees in the country in the decades to come. Matt joined the organization in 2008 and became the CEO in 2018 and oversees NZ$42 billion. Our conversation starts with Matt’s background and the creation and objectives of the
Scott Kupor - Andreessen Horowitz (First Meeting EP.07)
Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z for the 16 letters between the A in Andreessen and the z in Horowitz. Scott is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He joined Andreessen at its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees and $300 million under management to 150 employees managing in excess of $10 billion. Scott has served on a number of industry-related Boards, including as Chairman of the Board of
Eric Ries – Lean Start-Ups and the Long-Term Stock Exchange (Capital Allocators, EP.107)
Eric Ries is the founder and CEO of LTSE, the company that is affiliated with the SEC-approved Long-Term Stock Exchange, which seeks to build a new relationship between companies that are built to last and the stakeholders who believe in them. Eric is an entrepreneur who created the Lean Startup methodology and wrote the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup. He was named by Fortune to its 2018 "40 Under 40." Our conversation covers Eric’s early startup experience, the core principles of a
David Druley – Structure into Action at Cambridge Associates (Capital Allocators, EP. 106)
David Druley is the CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm that works with premier institutional investors and family offices to manage custom investment portfolios that aim to generate outperformance so they can maximize their impact on the world. David works with Cambridge’s leaders to set and execute the firm’s strategy, enhance its capabilities, and evolve its processes. David brings a quarter-century of investment experience to the role, including a 16-year tenure at Cambridg
REPLAY - Margaret Chen – Leadership and Outsourcing the Investment Office (Capital Allocators, EP.35)
Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting. Our conversation covers Margaret’s career path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring per
Michael Novogratz – Galaxy Digital (First Meeting, EP.06)
Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital, a merchant bank with a balance sheet to invest that seeks to serve as the bridge between the crypto and institutional investment worlds. Mike is well-known speculator who started his career at Goldman Sachs and later managed Fortress’ multi-billion dollar hedge fund, the Drawbridge Global Macro Fund. He’s notably made and lost a few fortunes in his career, most recently riding bitcoin up starting in 2013, almost all the way down in 2017, and back up a
Paul Black - WCM Investment Management (First Meeting, EP.05)
My guest on today’s first meeting is Paul Black of WCM Investment Management. This show is a replay of our conversation on Capital Allocators last year, and has been one of the most listened to conversations with a manager on the show. At the time, WCM managed $26 billion and since then they’ve continued to perform and grow. Today, WCM oversees $40 billion and earlier this year announced the sale of a minority stake in their business to Natixis Investment Managers. Paul Black is portfolio man
Jon Harris – Investing in People at AIM (Capital Allocators, EP.105)
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 moti
André Bourbonnais – Blackrock Long-Term Private Capital (First Meeting, EP.04)
André Bourbonnais is a Managing Director at Blackrock and Global Head of its newly launched Long-Term Private Capital business, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital private equity fund. André brought thirty years of private market transaction and management experience to the role, most recently as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of PSP Investments, the $110 billion Montreal-based Canadian pension fund. He previously served as Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Private Investments
Richard Lawrence – Overlook Investments Group (First Meeting, EP.03)
My guest on today’s First Meeting is Richard Lawrence of Overlook Investments Group, one of the top managers of Asian equities. The conversation that follows is a replay of an early episode on Capital Allocators and one of the inspirations for the First Meeting concept. Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and i
Ash Williams – Florida SBA’s Reigning Chief (Capital Allocator, EP.104)
Ash Williams is the Executive Director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration, where he oversees $200 billion in assets for the State of Florida including one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S. He is as highly regarded as they come, and among other accolades, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CIO Magazine in 2017. Ash began his career serving the State of Florida as a staff assistant to two House speakers, as Chief of Staff to a former Governor and Comptrolle
Sam Sicilia – Seizing on a Long Time Horizon at HostPlus (EP.103)
Sam Sicilia is the Chief Investment Officer of HostPlus, Australia’s AUZ 37 billion ($25B USD) Superannuation Fund. Sam joined HostPlus in 2008 after a storied career in academia and the finance industry stretching back to the early 1990s. During that time, he held senior roles, both in Australia and internationally, consulting at Russell Investments, managing assets at Bank of Ireland, and consulting with Frontier Investment Consulting and Towers Perrin. Our conversation starts with Sam’s math
Martin Whittaker – JUST Capital (First Meeting, EP.02)
Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital, a non-profit created by a group of concerned, influential leaders, including Deepak Chopra and Paul Tudor Jones. JUST Capital is an independent research organization thanks ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most, with a mission to build a more just marketplace that better reflects the true priorities of the American people. Last year, it launched the JUST ETF in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Our conversati
Jon Wertheim – Sports and… (Capital Allocators, EP. 102)
Jon Wertheim is a sports journalist and author who has a passion for psychology and economics. He is the Executive Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has been a full-time staff member since 1996. Jon also is a contributing correspondent on 60 Minutes and an analyst for the Tennis Channel at the four Majors. He is the author of ten books including Stokes of Genius about the Federer-Nadal rivalry, the New York Times bestsellerScorecasting, and more recently, This Is Your Brain on Sports. Ou
Capital Allocators Presents: First Meeting with Ted Seides
I'm excited to announce the launch of a spinoff of capital allocators called first meeting. First meeting episodes will be conversations with leading investment managers across asset classes. First meeting will seek to catalyze a step change improvement in the due diligence process by sharing conversations that replicate a first meeting and allocator might have with the manager. We’ll help both managers and allocators save time from repeating the same meeting over and over again, create scale
Patrick O’Shaughnessy – O'Shaughnessy Asset Management (First Meeting, EP.01)
Patrick O’Shaughnessy is the CEO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, the host of the Invest Like the Best podcast, and a great friend. Patrick’s podcast and widely read monthly mailing list of books, available at investorfieldguide.com, have made him a celebrity of sorts in the investing world. Those familiar with his voice will already know how wide his curious mind travels, but I image far fewer know much about his daily investing activities. Our conversation begins with Patrick’s early start
Khe Hy – Radical Shift from Investing to Purpose (Capital Allocators, EP.101)
Khe Hy rose to be one of the youngest Managing Directors at Blackrock’s hedge fund of funds business. In his 30s he left the industry to explore what would come next. His path led to creating the RadReads blog and coaching about facing fears and insecurities attached to the relationship of psychology and money. Khe has since been dubbed the “Oprah for Millenials” by CNN and “Wall Street Guru” by Bloomberg. Our conversation starts with Khe’s career on Wall Street evaluating mortgage derivative
REPLAY - Thomas DeLong – Authentic Leadership (Capital Allocators, EP.18)
Tom DeLong is a renown expert in organizational behavior, leadership, and human development of high performance professionals, the so called “soft skills” often dismissed in the asset management business. After starting an academic career under the wing of Stephen Covey, Tom found himself recruited by John Mack to work alongside him to develop a positive culture at Morgan Stanley. After eight years in the trenches, he returned to academia as a professor at Harvard Business School, where he has r
REPLAY - David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10)
David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanam
Tim Recker - Concentration at the James Irvine Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.100)
Tim Recker is the CIO of the $2.4 billion James Irvine Foundation. He joined the foundation in 2016 after spending a decade in private equity and real assets for the University of California Regents, four years overseeing Alternatives at the Michigan Retirement System, and his early years at GE Asset Management Our conversation covers Tim’s career path, the culture and structure at GE and Michigan Retirement, and co-investments at UC Regents. We then turn to the intricacies of managing a high
Michael Mauboussin – Who’s on the Other Side (Capital Allocators, EP.99)
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,
REPLAY - Michael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team Dynamics (Capital Allocators, EP.36)
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,
Jon Hirtle – The Pioneer of OCIO (Capital Allocators, EP.98)
Jon Hirtle is the Executive Chairman at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., a $20 billion Outsourced CIO business he founded in 1988. Hirtle Callaghan retains the distinction of initiating the OCIO model that is flourishing in the market today. Our conversation covers leadership lessons from Jon’s experience in the Marines and at Goldman Sachs, the genesis of the idea to create Hirtle Callaghan, the structure, culture, philosophy and execution of their investing, Jon’s outlook on emerging markets, the eco
Matt Levine – Money Stuff (Capital Allocators, EP.97)
Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. His column discusses current events in corporate finance and markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit. As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger. If you receive my monthly email, you’ll already know that I’m a huge fan of Matt’s and that Money Stuff has become my go
REPLAY - Michael Mervosh – Invest in Yourself (Capital Allocators, EP.68)
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 provi
David Zorub - The Path to a Hedge Fund Launch (Capital Allocators, EP.96)
David Zorub is the founder of Parsifal Capital, a new hedge fund he is launching later this year. Before founding Parsifal, Dave spent fifteen years in research and portfolio management at hedge funds and another few in investment banking and private equity. I interviewed David recently at Columbia University’s Student Investment Management Conference and that conversation follows. We cover his career path and his insights into the philosophy and structure of a hedge fund business and investme
Paul Rabil - Lacrosse and Entrepreneurship (Capital Allocators, EP.95)
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.
Ted Seides – Interviewing and Manager Meetings (Capital Allocators, EP.94)
A few months ago, Marcel van de Hoef interviewed me on his podcast, The Meeting Strategist. He created Meeting Strategist to help senior professionals across industries think more strategically about business conversations and improve their listening, questioning and meeting skills. With his permission, I’ve shared that discussion on this week’s show. You can learn more about his work at meetingstrategist.org. Our conversation starts with my background and covers my communications with Warren
REPLAY - Ted Seides - Deep Dive into Hedge Funds (Capital Allocators, EP.34)
I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, pr
REPLAY - Ted Seides - It’s Not About the Money (EP.45)
Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to all
Dan Ariely – Investing in Irrationality (Capital Allocators, EP.93)
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
Jordi Visser – Next Generation of Manager Allocation (Capital Allocators, EP.92)
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
Manny Friedman – EJF on Economic Opportunity Zones (EP.91)
Manny Friedman is the founder of EJF Capital. Manny discussed his background and his nuanced take on markets last July in Episode 61 of the podcast. In that conversation, he mentioned a new regulation in the U.S. that created an area of investing called Economic Opportunity Zones. I started learning about Economic Opportunity Zones from Manny and dove in for my day job. Since then, more and more eyes are viewing investments in Opportunity Zones, and I asked Manny to sit down with me to share
REPLAY - Manny Friedman – Non-Linear Financial Systems (Capital Allocators, EP.61)
Manny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic o
Thomas Russo – All About Google (Capital Allocators, EP.90)
Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Garnder Russo & Gardner. Last week, Tom talked in detail about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway. This week, we continue the conversation with his new holding in Google. Our conversation covers buying Google now, comparing the company to Facebook, future growth opportunities starting from a large base, competition from Amazon, Google X’s long-term moonshots, and related stories in Tom’s portfolio companies Philip Morris and Nestle. Learn More Discuss sho
Thomas Russo – All About Berkshire Hathaway (Capital Allocators, EP.89)
Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner. Tom and I sat down in Episode 16 to discuss his background and investment strategy in what was one of the most popular episodes on the show. He oversees $13B in a global value strategy focused on family-operated public companies. Our second conversation is a two-part episode for this week and next. First, we talk solely about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway, a stock he first bought 38 years ago. The conversation covers Tom’s initi
REPLAY (EP.16) Thomas Russo – Buy and Hold...and Then What
Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first p
Matt Botein – Flexible Investing and Institutional Challenges (Capital Allocators, EP.88)
Matt Botein is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Gallatin Point Capital, a $1.5 billion private investment company he founded after departing from BlackRock, where he had served as the Chief Investment Officer and Co-Head of the firm’s $160 billion Alternatives business. Before sitting atop that lofty perch, Matt formed a bank after the financial crisis, was a Managing Director at hedge fund Highfields Capital and a private equity Principal at Blackstone. Our conversation starts with Mat
Rahul Moodgal - Master Fund Raiser (Capital Allocators, EP.87)
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
Chris Ailman – CalSTRS’ Venerable CIO (Capital Allocators, EP.86)
Chris Ailman is the chief investment officer of the $220 billion pool for California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). He joined CalSTRS back in 2000 after 4 years as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and 11 years as CIO of the Sacramento Country Employees Retirement System. Chris is a legend in the business and the list of accolades for his work is longer that the list of my podcast episodes. Our conversation dives in with the flawed business model of government running a
Steve Kuhn – Life After Hedge Funds (Capital Allocators, EP.85)
Steve Kuhn is a retired hedge fund manager. He spent two decades in the industry, specializing in mortgage-backed securities at Cargill, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Pine River. In his last stint in the business until his retirement in 2016, Steve was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at then $14 billion Pine River Capital Management and was one of the hedge fund industry’s most widely known fixed income traders. Our conversation covers parlaying a passion for playing games into a two-decade Wall
Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84)
Donna Snider is a Managing Director at the $4 billion Kresge Foundation, where she has worked for ten years as one of three senior team members under Chief Investment Officer Rob Manilla. Last summer, Institutional Investor named Donna the number one ranked Most Wanted CIO of the future. Our conversation starts with Donna sharing the cross fertilization of bringing her sell side trading experience to a Foundation and on the flip side learning manager selection from her very first data point. We
Ron Biscardi – Putting Hedge Funds in Context (Capital Allocators, EP.83)
Ron Biscardi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Context Capital Partners and a Partner and Board Member of Context Summits. Ron sits at the intersection of buyers and sellers for small funds, and actively invests as a provider of acceleration capital. Our conversation covers Ron’s path from an engineer to an asset management entrepreneur, the challenges and opportunities of investing in small hedge funds, the disconnect with the perception of hedge funds in the media and the reality that occurs a
Jean Hynes – Inside Wellington Management (Capital Allocators, EP.82)
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 e
Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81)
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
Top 10 Episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018
Please enjoy this countdown of the top 10 most downloaded episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018 (and top 5 most downloaded episodes featuring CIOs). If you have any ideas and can make introductions to guests who might crack next year's top 10, please send the my way. Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.
Tim McCusker – Consistency and Creativity as CIO at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP. 80)
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 capit
Brent Beshore - Micro Buyout Adventur.es (Capital Allocators, EP.79)
Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es, an investment firm that buys small family-owned businesses with the intention of holding them indefinitely. After launching a few businesses out of college, Brent developed a distinct investment strategy and style. Earlier this year, he raised outside capital for the first time in a permanent capital vehicle, and I am a happy investor in the fund. Brent regularly shares his insights on business and investing through his widely distributed l
Tom Bushey – Launching a Hedge Fund (Capital Allocators EP.78)
Tom Bushey is the founder of Sunderland Capital, a Boston-based hedge fund he started in 2016. Tom graduated from the Wharton School as an undergraduate, and worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, private equity analyst at Thayer Capital, hedge fund analyst at Millenium and Mayo Capital, and portfolio manager at Blackrock before trying his hand on his own. Even with that stellar resume, the road to success running an asset management business has plenty of obstacles alon
Mark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty at the Institute for Advanced Study (Capital Allocators, EP.77)
Mark Baumgartner is the CIO of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he oversees a $1 billion portfolio that seeks to achieve just median returns but with significantly less risk. Prior to joining IAS, Mark had stints at the Ford Foundation overseeing risk, at Morgan Stanley’s Alternative Investment Partners, at both quantitative and qualitative hedge funds, and as a management consultant. Oh, and he studied to be a rocket scientist before that. Our conversation covers Mark’s path to IAS a
Annie Duke – Thinking More in Bets (Capital Allocators, EP.76)
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
Michael Lombardi – Leadership Through Football (Capital Allocators, EP.75)
Michael Lombardi is a thirty-year veteran of professional football, including as a General Manager and a three-time Super Bowl winning executive. He is the author of the fantastic recently released bookGridiron Genius, A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL. The book is a tour de force of applied leadership through his learnings working alongside football greats Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick. Since stepping aside from the front office to write his
Jeffrey Solomon - Grief and Goodness in Squirrel Hill (SPECIAL EPISODE)
Last week, the senseless and tragic events at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh left me and many others asking questions about our world today. This one hit a little closer to home for me than the many other equally terrible events that have occurred because my mother grew up in Squirrel Hill. Our family is a generation removed and not closely connected to the town anymore, but my friends Andy Fisher and Jeff Solomon very much are. Andy is the President of CIM Investment Management in
REPLAY - Jeffrey Solomon – Vision, Tenacity, and Empathy (Capital Allocators, EP.09)
Jeffrey Solomon is the President of publicly listed Cowen Group (TK: COWN), a financial services company focused on supporting and providing active management to the marketplace. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, Jeff deferred an acting career with a brief respite on Wall Street, but he hasn’t looked back since. In 1994, he joined Peter Cohen, then the former head of investment bank Shearson Lehman Brothers, to form money management firm Ramius Advisors. Ramius grew t
Karl Scheer – Competing Sensibly as CIO of the University of Cincinnati (EP.74)
Karl Scheer is the Chief Investment Officer of the University of Cincinnati’s billion-dollar endowment. Before taking the helm at Cincinnati in 2011, he co-ran a family office and spent eight years in the venture capital industry. Our conversation covers Karl’s background, running a family office in the teeth of the Global Financial Crisis, high-functioning governance, avoiding the worst managers, taking the hard road, conducting due diligence with popular managers and without checklists, and
Andrew Tsai – Catching a Theme on the Chalkstream (EP.73)
Andrew Tsai is the Chief Investment Officer of Chalkstream Capital Group, which he founded in 2003 to manage the assets of quant guru Peter Muller. Andrew’s fascinating background started on the Lehman arbitrage desk in the early 1990s, after which he formed a quantitative hedge fund in 1997, built a dot.comlogistics business in 1999, and led the turnaround of a private equity-backed business thereafter. He combined his wide range of skills to focus on investing at Chalkstream. Our conversatio
Michael Schwimer – Moneyball as an Investment Strategy (Capital Allocators, EP.72)
Michael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings. Before founding BLA, Michael was a professional baseball player, working his way through the minors and reaching the majors as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. A shoulder injury left him pondering what to do next, which led to the creation of BLA. Our conversation discusses Michael’s career as a player,
Michael Batnick - The Best Investors and Their Biggest Mistakes (Capital Allocators, EP.71)
Michael Batnick is the Director of Research at Ritholz Wealth Management, author of theIrrelevant Investor blog, co-host of the Animal Spirits podcast, and recently, author of his first book, Big Mistakes: The Best Investors and Their Worst Investments. Our conversation starts with Michael’s atypical career path, his arrival at Ritholz, and his blog. We then turn to stories from his book about Ben Graham, Jesse Livermore, Jack Bogle, Stan Druckenmiller, John Maynard Keynes, Charlie Munger, and
REPLAY Andrew Golden - Princeton University's Chief Investing Tiger (EP.13)
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 t
Raphael Arndt – Australia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund CIO (Capital Allocators, Episode 70)
Raff Arndt is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s AUZ$145 billion Sovereign Wealth Fund, the Future Fund. He trained as an engineer and dove into infrastructure policy at the beginning of Australia’s privatizations in the late 1990s. After investing in the space for six year, he joined the Future Fund in 2008 to head the infrastructure team. Six years later, Raff became CIO. Our conversation spans all aspects of the management of a next generation institutional portfolio, including a
Stephen McKeon – Professor of Crypto Security Tokens (Capital Allocators, EP.69)
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 s
Michael Mervosh – Invest in Yourself (Capital Allocators, EP.68)
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 provi
Sarah Williamson – Focusing Capital on the Long-Term (Capital Allocators, EP.67)
Sarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal, a non-profit consortium of large asset managers, allocators, and corporations dedicated to encouraging long-term behavior in business and investment decision-making. FCLTGlobal conducts research, convenes business leaders, develops actionable tools, and generates broad awareness of ways in which a longer-term focus can increase innovation, economic growth, and future savings. Prior to joining FCLTGlobal in 2016, Sarah spent 21 years at Wellington Manage
Kristian Fok – Australia’s CBUS Superannuation CIO (Capital Allocators, EP.66)
Kristian Fok is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s A46B ($35B USD) Construction & Building Industry Superannuation Fund, or CBUS. Prior to joining CBUS in 2012, Kristian spent 14 years consulting to Australian Super Funds at Frontier Advisors. Australia’s Superannuation program mandates that employers contribute 9.5% of its employee salaries into a Super Fund, which is owned by the employee, like a 401k in the U.S., and grows with investment returns until retirement. The employees, in
Josh Wolfe – Seeing the Lux (Capital Allocators, EP.65)
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, conduc
Ben Reiter – Moneyball 2.0 (Capital Allocators, EP.64)
Ben Reiter is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and the author of Astroball: The New Way to Win It All. He joined SI in 2004 a few years out of college and has written for them ever since. In 2014 Ben wrote a cover story for SI entitled YOUR 2017 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS featuring the then sorry Astros who were the laughingstock of baseball at the time. Three years later, his prediction came true. His book chronicling the journey has been dubbed Moneyball 2.0. Our conversation blew me away in
Roz Hewsenian –Helmsley Trust’s Chief of People and Process (Capital Allocators, EP.63)
Roz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates. Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cove
Charley Ellis - Indexing and Its Alternatives (EP.62)
Investment luminary Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of 16 books, and one of the most sought-after industry advisors worldwide. He also believes deeply in the paradox of skill and his latest book, The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now, presents a compelling case for indexing for most investors.. Charley was an early guest on the show and we reconvened to talk through the full case of indexing for individuals and some of its constraints for institut
Manny Friedman – Non-Linear Financial Systems (Capital Allocators, EP.61)
Manny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic o
REPLAY - Scott Malpass – The Fighting Irish’s Twelfth Man (Capital Allocators, EP.25)
This replay is the one of the most downloaded shows from last year, and one that new listeners may have missed. Regular listeners no doubt might pick up a new insight listening again. Scott Malpass is the esteemed Vice President and CIO of Notre Dame University, where he oversees the school's $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees at Notre Dame, and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 year
Anthony Scaramucci – It’s Called a Mooch (Capital Allocators, EP.60)
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 tenu
Peter Troob – Monkey Business in High Yield (Capital Allocators, EP.59)
Peter Troob is the co-Founder and CIO of Troob Capital Management, an opportunistic investor and family office with particular expertise in distressed situations. Prior to starting TCM in 2002, Peter spent six years focusing on distressed debt investing at Contrarian Capital and Everest Capital. He started his career as an investment banker, and after his tenure in self-proclaimed purgatory, he co-authored the entertaining book ‘Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle.” Our con
James Aitken – Macro Strategist Extraordinaire (Capital Allocators, EP.58)
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
Brian Portnoy – From Complex to Simple (Capital Allocators, EP.57)
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 Invest
Tom Lydon – ETF Trends (Capital Allocators, EP.56)
Tom Lydon is one of the leading experts in the ETF and mutual fund industries. He is the founder and CEO of ETF Trends, a business he created in 2004 whose website, etftrends.com, is filled with news, analysis, and webcasts about the world of ETFs. Before creating ETF Trends, Tom ran a financial advisory and publication business that followed the mutual fund industry. Our conversation covers the evolution of mutual funds in the 80s and 90s and the rise of ETFs in the 2000s. We discuss the compos
Tali Sharot – Optimism, Decisions, and Mistakes (Capital Allocators, EP.55)
Tali Sharot is a leading expert on human decision-making, optimism and emotion. A neuroscientist by trade, Tali combines research in psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions, beliefs and inaccurate expectations of the future. She is currently a visiting professor at MIT, and is also an associate professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London where she directs the Affective Brain Lab. Tali is the author of The Influential Mi
John Pfeffer - Crypto for Institutions
John Pfeffer is an entrepreneur, investor and author of “An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets.” He is currently Partner of Pfeffer Capital. In the 2000s, John was a Member at private equity firm KKR, and in the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of leading French IT company Groupe Allium S.A. Before that, he advised on turnarounds while with McKinsey in Europe and Latin America. Our conversation jumps in the thought process and structure behind John’s family office por
Ross Israel - Stable, Predictable Cash Flows (EP.53)
Ross Israel is the Head of Global Infrastructure Investments for QIC, Queensland, Australia’s 82B AUZ ($62B USD) investment fund. The Queensland government formed QIC in 1991 to oversee its Superannuation Fund, and the business has since evolved into a Global Diversified Alternative Asset Manager. Ross joined QIC in 2006 to create the Global Infrastructure effort and also serves as a member of QIC’s Executive Committee. He has a quarter century’s worth of experience in corporate finance and inf
Kim Lew – The Carnegie Way (Capital Allocators, EP.52)
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 Networ
Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)
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
James Williams – Curating The Getty’s Assets (Capital Allocators, EP.50)
Jim Williams is the Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Treasurer of the Getty Trust, where he oversees a $7 billion portfolio for the Getty Museum. Before joining the Getty in 2002, Jim spent three years as the President of Harbor Capital Advisors and prior to that, was manager of the Ford Motor Company pension department. Our rich conversation covers all aspects of managing a significant pool of non-profit assets including modeling liquidity, creating a specialist team structure, sou
Michael Cembalest – Eye on the Market (Capital Allocators, EP.49)
Michael Cembalest is the Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, a global industry leader with $2 trillion of client assets under management. Michael is also a member of the Investment Committee for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management and the Investment Committee for the J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan that covers the firm’s 250,000 employees. Before taking on his current seat in 2012, he spent eight years as Chief Investment Officer of J.P. Morgan’s p
Steven Galbraith – In the Boardroom (Capital Allocators, EP.48)
One common refrain across my conversations has been the importance and subtleties of effective governance in making optimal investment decisions. Alongside Steven Galbraith’s incredible career as an analyst, strategist, portfolio manager, and entrepreneur in the asset management business, he has served on as many Boards as anyone I know. I imagine many of you have heard Steve’s story, but if not, you may want to have a listen to the very first episode of Capital Allocators before diving in here
Chris Brockmeyer – On Broadway (Capital Allocators, EP.47)
Chris Brockmeyer is the Director of Employee Bennefit Funds for the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry. Chris serves as an employer-appointed trustee, in most cases as Co-Chair, on eleven multi-employer pension funds, seven health funds and four annuity/401(k) funds with approximately $7 billion in assets. For 11 years, Chris has artfully navigated delicate relationships across unions and employers and was honored for his great work by Institutiona
Andy Redleaf - Evolution of Markets (Capital Allocators, EP.46)
Andy Redleaf is the Founding Partner of Whitebox Advisors, a $5.5 billion multi-strategy hedge fund launched in 1999 with primary offices in the metropolitan hubs of Minneapolis, Austin, and Sydney, Australia. Before founding Whitebox, Andy spent twenty years trading options, for two years at Gruntal & Comes mpany alongside Stevie Cohen, fourteen on the CBOE, and five as a Founding Partner at Deephaven Capital Management. He has an irrepressibly creative mind and, alongside his partners, writes
It's Not About the Money (Capital Allocators, EP.45)
Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow
Wayne Wicker - Managing for Millions who Matter (Capital Allocators, EP.44)
Wayne Wicker is the Senior VP and CIO of ICMA Retirement Corporation, an asset manager that oversees $50B across more than a million retirement accounts of City and County public sector employees throughout the country. Before joining ICMA-RC in 2004, Wayne had a distinguished career as an allocator and manager, starting as an allocator at the corporate pension fund of Dayton Hudson (now Target Corporation) in the 1980s and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute endowment in the mid-1990s, after wh
Clare Flynn Levy and Cameron Hight - Moneyball for Managers (Capital Allocators, EP.43)
Our exploration of the use of modern data analytics to enhance investment results continues this week with two of the leading providers of tools for portfolio managers. My guests on today’s show are Clare Flynn Levy and Cameron Hight, both former investment managers who became entrepreneurs seeking to improve outcomes for other managers. Clare is the founder and CEO of Essentia Analytics, a behavioral data analytics service that enables fund managers to capture rich data about their own behavio
Basil Qunibi - Moneyball for Allocators (Capital Allocators, EP.42)
Increased sophistication in manager assessment is an important trend in the search for alpha. My conversations with Michael Mauboussin and Annie Duke suggested frameworks to think about enhanced decision-making processes and prompted a deeper dive into the ways allocators and managers can improve their craft. This week and next explores some of the tools available to help make it happen. Basil Qunibi is the CEO of Novus Partners, a data analytics company whose mission is to help the world’s top
Rick Selvala - Harvesting Volatility (Capital Allocators, EP.41)
Rick Selvala is the co-founder and CEO of Harvest Volatility, a ten-year old manager of a variety of volatility strategies that oversees $13 billion in assets. After starting his career in the Treasury department at General Motors in the mid 1980s, Rick has spent nearly three decades trading derivatives on the sell side and buy side. Rick has an uncanny ability to break down this complicated investment area and make it sound simple. Our conversation discusses the world of volatility, including i
Ali Hamed - Novel Asset Investing (Capital Allocators, EP.40)
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 unpri
Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39]
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
Seth Masters – Investment Polymath (Capital Allocators, EP.38)
Seth Masters recently retired from Alliance Bernstein, where he spent 26 years across six different careers. He started as an analyst in emerging market equities and over the last decade and a half served separately as the Chief Investment Officer of Blend Strategies, Asset Allocation, Defined Contribution Strategies, and the Private Wealth Business. Seth is true polymath – articulate, thoughtful and wise on a wide range of topics. Our conversation starts with a fascinating discussion of Chi
Bill Spitz – Seasoned Commodore (Capital Allocators, EP.37)
Bill Spitz was the longtime head of Vanderbilt University’s endowment before retiring, for the first time, in 2007. He has received numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work and is one of the legends in the business. After failing in his retirement, he joined Diversified Trust Company, a wealth manager with $6.5 billion in assets under management that he co-founded back in 1994. Our conversation discusses managing an endowment in the early years, implementing unconventional investments,
Michael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team Dynamics (Capital Allocators, EP.36)
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,
Margaret Chen – Leadership and Outsourcing the Investment Office (Capital Allocators, EP.35)
Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates’ $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting. Our conversation covers Margaret’s career path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring
Deep Dive into Hedge Funds (Capital Allocators, EP.34)
I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, pr
Chris Acito – Credit Where Credit is Due (Capital Allocators, EP.33)
Chris Acito is the CEO and CIO of Gapstow Capital Partners, a credit-focused investment organization. Chris started his career as a management consultant and traversed to focus on asset management consulting around the founding of Casey, Quirk, and Acito. He switched to the buy side focusing on hedge funds in the years leading up to the financial crisis and started Gapstow in 2009. Our wide-ranging conversation starts with Chris’ background and moves to the formation of a credit focused firm in
Paul Johnson and Paul Sonkin – The Perfect Investment (Capital Allocators, EP.32)
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 stu
Meredith Jenkins – A Path to Trinity (Capital Allocators, EP.31)
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, Mer
Larry Mestel – Making Music Royalties Sing (Capital Allocators, EP.30)
Larry Mestel is the Founder and Co-CEO of Primary Wave, one of the largest independent full-service entertainment companies. Primary Wave Publishing, the music division Larry oversees, acquires and develops the rights to iconic song titles and works with iconic artists. He has bought assets that include big name hits from Kurt Cobain, Smokey Robinson, Steven Tyler, John Lennon, Def Leppard, Hall & Oates and CeeLo Green. Prior to founding Primary Wave in 2006, Larry spent twenty years in the mus
Ashby Monk – Asset Giant Futurist (Capital Allocators, EP.29)
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
Jason Klein – Investing to Cure Cancer (Capital Allocators, EP.28)
Jason Klein is the Senior Vice President and CIO at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, where he oversees the hospital’s $4.5 billion in long-term investment assets. Jason has spent the last decade and a half overseeing endowment pools – 9 at MSKCC and 5 at the Museum of Modern Art. Jason got his start in the investment business learning the tools of private equity, and had training as an investment banker, management consultant, and lawyer. Our conversation starts with the distinctive featu
Ellen Ellison – Playing to Your Strengths (Capital Allocators, EP.27)
Ellen Ellison is the Chief Investment Officer of the University of Illinois Foundation, which she joined in 2013 as its first leader of the now $1.7 billion pool of assets. Ellen restarted a program and a portfolio from scratch at a time when longer-established University investment offices already had their chips carefully placed in the markets. Yet with a small team, she built a clever portfolio and is starting to reap its rewards. Prior to joining Illinois, Ellen was the Executive Director of
David Barrett – Searching for Leaders
David Barrett is the founder of David Barrett Partners, a leading executive search firm focused exclusively on buy-side asset management. Prior to founding DBP in 2005, he spent 19 years in the search business, including long stints at Russell Reynolds Associates and Heidrick and Struggles. He began his career as a self-professed failed equity research analyst in the early 1980s. David is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University Business School. In just the last two years, David’s
Scott Malpass – The Fighting Irish’s Twelfth Man (Capital Allocators, EP.25)
Scott Malpass is the esteemed Vice President and CIO of Notre Dame, where he oversees the University’s $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees at Notre Dame, and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 years, as defined by both performance and impact, place him indisputably in rare company at the very top of the field. Among his many accolades, Scott received Institutional Investor’s Endowment Man
Jim Dunn – Protect, Perform, Provide
Jim Dunn is the CEO and CIO of Verger Capital Management, an Outsourced CIO business whose anchor client is Wake Forest University. Prior to forming Verger, he served as CIO of Wake Forest for five years. That transition from a sole client to an OCIO business, is a fascinating part of our conversation. Before joining Wake, Jim traveled the world as CIO of Wilshire Associates, where among other things he experienced the best story of a manager getting their foot in the door that I’ve ever heard.
Dan Egan – Better Investment Outcomes (Capital Allocators, EP.23)
Dan Egan is the Director of Behavioral Finance and Investing at Betterment, the market leading robo-advisor overseeing $10 billion in assets. Dan has spent his career applying behavioral finance principals to help individuals make better financial and investment decisions. Prior to joining Betterment in its early years, Dan spent six years as a Behavioral Finance Specialist for Barclays Wealth Management. He is a graduate of Boston University and the London School of Economics and lectures at Ne
Chatri Sityodtong – Warrior Spirit (Capital Allocators, EP.22)
Chatri Sityodtong is the Founder and Chairman of ONE Championship, Asia’s largest sports media property. Chatri started his career as many listening to this show have: he graduated from Tufts University, worked at Fidelity Investments and Bain Consulting, attended Harvard Business School, took a run at a technology start-up, and then spent a decade working at hedge funds, culminating in launching his own fund, Izara Capital, that grew to $500 million in assets. But Chatri’s story is vastly diffe
Richard Lawrence – Compounding in Asia
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 wo
Kip McDaniel – CIO Whisperer (Capital Allocators, EP.20)
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 Cana
Dan Schorr – Death, Ice Cream, and Entrepreneurship (Capital Allocators, EP.19)
Dan Schorr is the founder of Vice Cream, an early stage company that is bringing back unapologetic indulgence to the ice cream industry. After graduating from Tufts University, Dan turned his passion for running into a career working with consumer brands, including Power Bar, Saucony, and PepsiCo. Following two unexpected life events, he turned his focus towards developing a brand of his own. Our conversation tracks Dan’s path and walks through his start-up story. His energy is infectious and
Thomas DeLong – Authentic Leadership
Tom DeLong is a renown expert in organizational behavior, leadership, and human development of high performance professionals, the so called “soft skills” often dismissed in the asset management business. After starting an academic career under the wing of Stephen Covey, Tom found himself recruited by John Mack to work alongside him to develop a positive culture at Morgan Stanley. After eight years in the trenches, he returned to academia as a professor at Harvard Business School, where he has
Adam Blitz – Inside Hedge Fund Allocation
Adam Blitz is the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Evanston Capital Management, a $4.5 billion hedge fund of funds manager with a decade and a half of experience managing hedge fund portfolios. Adam joined Evanston at its inception in 2002 and leads investment research and portfolio management. Previously, he worked in the Prime Brokerage area and Asset Management Division of Goldman Sachs and served as head trader at AQR. Adam earned a B.S. in Economics at the Wharton School. Our conversa
Thomas Russo – Buy and Hold...and Then What (Capital Allocators, EP.16)
Tom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first p
Reflections – Hardly a Waste of Time
A few months ago an idea came to me to share some conversations with great capital allocators that I’ve been fortunate to know from my time in the business. I lined up my first three guests, and didn’t know what would happen from there. Taking this journey without goals or expectations was new for me, and it’s been a ton of fun. My first unexpected surprise in podcasting came from the answers to one of my closing questions. That question is : what is your favorite thing to do that’s a complete
Chris Douvos – Venture Capital’s Super LP (Capital Allocators, EP.14)
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
Andrew Golden – Beyond the Long Term (Capital Allocators, EP.13)
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
Mario Therrien – The Canadian Pension Model (Capital Allocators, EP.12)
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 man
Larry Kochard – Endowment Professor (Capital Allocators, EP.11)
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
David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10)
David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanam
Jeffrey Solomon – Vision, Tenacity, and Empathy (Capital Allocators, EP.09)
Jeffrey Solomon is the President of publicly listed Cowen Group (TK: COWN), a financial services company focused on supporting and providing active management to the marketplace. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, Jeff deferred an acting career with a brief respite on Wall Street, but he hasn’t looked back since. In 1994, he joined Peter Cohen, then the former head of investment bank Shearson Lehman Brothers, to form money management firm Ramius Advisors. Ramius grew t
Charley Ellis – Multiple Ways to Win (Capital Allocators, EP.08)
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 Rev
Jennifer Heller – Thinking it Through
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
Josh Brown – When Witchcraft Failed (Capital Allocators, EP.06)
Josh Brown is the CEO of Ritholz Wealth Management, a NYC based financial advisor that helps people align their investments with their financial goals. He is well known in social media financial circles for his decade-long, insightful blog, The Reformed Broker, his Twitter handle, Downtown Josh Brown, and his regular appearances on CNBC’s Halftime Report. Josh has written two books on personal finance and has been published in every major financial newspaper and periodical. Josh’s personal sto
The Bet with Buffett (Capital Allocators, EP.05)
Today’s show is a little different from my ongoing series of conversations with Capital Allocators. As you probably know, about 9½ years ago I made a bet with a certain Oracle, in Omaha, that pitted the performance of a group of five hedge fund of funds against the S&P 500. In this year’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Warren wrote extensively about his views. You can find that letter at www.berkshirehathway.com/letters. Now I haven’t said a lot about the bet, although fai
Tom Lenehan – Perpetual Thinking at Rockefeller University (Capital Allocators, EP.04)
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. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides
Brett Barth – Asset Allocation for Families (Capital Allocators, EP.03)
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
André Perold – Academic Practitioner
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 Bank
Steven Galbraith – Five Tool Player (Capital Allocators, EP.01)
My first guest on Capital Allocators is Steve Galbraith, an investment manager, brilliant writer, engaging thinker and one of the most well-liked men on Wall Street. Steve’s career has touched every aspect of investment management – he has worked as a research analyst, portfolio manager, investment strategist, business leader, entrepreneur, and Board member at an endowment and a large family office. After getting started as an equity and credit analyst, Steve was recruited by Morgan Stanley to
Capital Allocators Trailer
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