Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 other investments that touch nearly every segment of the travel and leisure industry globally. Our conversation covers KSL's beginning as a KKR portfolio company, formation of KSL Capital Partners after a successful exit, and the case for travel and leisure investments. We discuss sourcing targets, consumer experience, operations, competition, capital allocations, opportunities, and risks. We close discussing exit strategies and the future of KSL. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

Chris Sacca is one of the most accomplished venture investors of the last half century. He founded Lowercase Capital in 2010 and made seed stage investments in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Stripe. Lowercase's first fund famously became one of the highest returning venture funds in history and landed Chris at #2 on the Midas List in 2017. After retiring together with his wife Crystal that year, they came back to the business to found Lowercarbon Capital to fund "kickass companies that make money slashing carbon emissions." Lowercarbon manages in excess of $2 billion of outside capital, excluding its largest investor – Chris and Crystal. Our conversation covers Chris's humble upbringing, early entrepreneurial endeavors, and ups and downs in his early professional years. We cover his transition to Google, foundations of his investing philosophy at Lowercase, and work today at Lowercarbon. Along the way, Chris shares his sourcing of deals, evaluation of founders, and work with portfolio companies. He is a gifted storyteller and a walking case-study on grit. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Today's Sponsored Insight features Jim Falbe. Jim is the founder of Saguaro Capital Management, a newly launched value-oriented investment firm spun out of Vulcan Value Partners that blends traditional value investing with modern AI and data science inputs. Our conversation covers Jim's path to value investing, experience at Vulcan, introduction of AI automation into the investment process, and founding Saguaro. We discuss sourcing the best businesses in the world, researching investments, making decisions, constructing portfolios, and applying technology tools to value investing. We close discussing the foundation for long-term investing at Saguaro and an investment example. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Adam Shapiro is the Managing Partner of East Rock Capital, where he oversees $3 billion on behalf of a handful of families investing primarily in hedge funds and private deals alongside early-stage sponsors. Adam has recently begun sharing his insights on a LinkedIn newsletter entitled "From Star to Founder." Our conversation covers Adam's background, his investment objectives for families, and his process for achieving them. We discuss East Rock's assessment of managers, portfolio construction, and risk management from their carefully selected set of ideas. We close with Adam's thoughts on family offices and the future of East Rock. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

Today's episode is a true hedge fund master class. We convened a panel of three longstanding investors in the space - Craig Bergstrom, CIO and a Managing Partner of Corbin Capital Partners, Adam Blitz, CEO and CIO of Evanston Capital Management and a past guest on the show, and Dan Fagan, portfolio manager at GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund. All three have been in the space the better part of two decades and have both a wealth of experience and nuanced understanding to share. Our conversation covers their respective investment approaches, impact of the higher rate environment, managing liquidity, and the potential for contagion. From there, we canvass perspectives on platform hedge funds, long-short equity, credit, and macro strategies. We close discussing fees, the most interesting opportunities, and places to avoid going forward. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

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

Today's sponsored insight is another empty room, an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don't want to or can't participate. This time around, we'll discuss investing where capital is truly scarce - the frontier of the frontier markets. Kiyan Zandiyeh is the CIO of Sturgeon Capital, a +$300 million private investment firm that backs bold founders building the leading technology companies in countries early into their digital transition, including Bangladesh, Central Asia, Egypt, and Pakistan. Our conversation covers Kiyan's early entrepreneurial and investing experience, venture and operating experience building two businesses in Iran through 80% currency devaluations, and Sturgeon's venture strategy from there. We discuss Sturgeon's investment process across country selection, targets, founders, valuation, risks, and investment examples. We close touching on Kiyan's ambition in the coming years. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Amy Falls is the CIO at Northwestern University, where she oversees the school's $14.2 billion endowment that supports university operations and funds about a quarter of the University's annual revenue. She also serves on the Board of Harvard Management Company, the Ford Foundation, Phillips Academy, and the Pete Peterson Foundation. Our conversation covers Amy's background and path to Northwestern, frameworks she learned along the way, and different challenges she faced in three different CIO seats. We then turn to her thoughts on manager selection, liquidity, and across asset classes, covering fixed income, private credit, private equity, public equity, and China. We close with Amy's insights from her experience working with investment committees and parallels between her passion for farming and investing. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

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

Marc is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-founder of Avenue Capital Group, a global investment firm focused on distressed debt that he founded in 1995 with his sister, Sonia Gardner. Almost thirty years later, Avenue manages $12 billion in assets. Our conversation covers Marc's background and path to investing, the early days in distressed, inflection points in Avenue's history, including the decision to return half the capital in 2011 and to sell a minority stake to Morgan Stanley, and owning a stake in the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise over the last decade. We then turn to the investment environment, attractiveness across geographic regions, creating a competitive advantage, and opportunities in distressed lending, sports, and Asia. We close discussing Marc's involvement in politics and lessons from chess and poker. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Today's Sponsored Insight is from Richard Craib, the Founder and CEO of Numerai, a machine learning-based hedge fund launched in 2015 that crowdsources models from data scientists around the world to predict stock returns, incentivizes participation through cryptocurrency, and centralizes portfolio construction and risk management. Our conversation covers Richard's background, some basics of data science, and the Numerai thesis. We discuss the firm's idea generation, incentive system, quantitative modeling, portfolio construction, and team. We close with investors' reaction to the product and research and development on the horizon. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More​ Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn​ Subscribe to the mailing list​ Access Transcript with Premium Membership​

Tony Yoseloff is the Managing Partner of Davidson Kempner Capital Management, a forty-year-old, $40 billion multi-strategy investment management firm that specializes in opportunistic credit and event-driven investing. Tony joined DK twenty-five years ago out of business school and became its third Managing Partner in 2019. He also sits on the investment committees of Princeton University, Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, and New York Public Library. Our conversation covers the early days of Davidson Kempner, growth over the last quarter century, team, investment philosophy, investment strategy, risk management, and ownership. We discuss Tony's experience on investment committees, the role of opportunistic credit in institutional portfolios, and the future of Davidson Kempner over the next forty years. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Dr. Ashby Monk is the Executive & Research Director of the Stanford Research Initiative on Long-Term Investing. Ashby has studied and advised the largest asset owners in the world for more than twenty years with a particular interest in how to improve outcomes for their beneficiaries and the world. Ash also serves as the Head of Research at Addepar, a fintech company that helps investors make smarter decisions. He has twice appeared on the show – as the 29th guest back in 2017 and again two years ago – and those conversations are replayed in the feed. Our conversation starts with a recent paper Ashby published called Investor Identity: The Ultimate Driver of Returns. We discuss the descriptors of identity and enabling factors that determine each investor's fingerprint. From there, we dive into technology as an enabler and how technological innovation can improve returns. We then turn to ESG investing and another of Ashby's recent papers, Submergence = Drawdown + Recovery, that discusses the importance of considering the combined drawdown and recovery period in making investment decisions. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

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

My guest on today's sponsored insight is Aaron Sack, the head of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management's middle market private equity business. Our conversation covers Aaron's path to Morgan Stanly sixteen years ago, the strengths and weaknesses of investing under the umbrella of the bank, and his team's investment principles and approach across sourcing, due diligence, deal making, and operational improvements. We close discussing the current market dynamics, competitive positioning, and Aaron's favorite investment example. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

On today's show, we'll discuss a continuing empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don't want to or can't participate. We've shared conversations under the theme about investing in Venezuela, Africa, CLO equity, tax assets, and biotech. Among them, biotech is a room that just keeps getting emptier, so I thought it would be fun to pay it another visit. Rod Wong is the founder and Managing Partner of RTW Investments, a life sciences-focused investment and innovation firm of 80 professionals that manages $6 billion in assets. I had a chance to drop by Rod's office in NYC and discuss his background, case for life sciences, investment and business approach, investment process across sourcing ideas, research, probability assessment of binary outcomes, portfolio construction, competition, and outlook. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

Mario Giannini and John Toomey lead two of the largest private equity fund investors in the world. Mario is the CEO of Hamilton Lane, which manages over $100 billion and supervises another $700 billion in non-discretionary assets, and John is half of the Executive Management Committee of HarbourVest, which also manages in excess of $100 billion in the space. Both are past guests on the show, and we've replayed those conversations on the feed. Mario and John joined me to canvass private equity markets. Our conversation covers the health and valuation of underlying portfolio companies, new deals, secondary markets, dry powder, fund raising, portfolio construction, winners and losers, new sources of capital, private credit, co-investments, ESG, China, and geopolitical risks. For full show notes, visit the episode webpage here. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

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

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