Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Magnus Grimeland is the CEO and founder of Antler, 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, characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, and the process for building the infrastructure for founders to solve important problems in the world. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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