Shows
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryWTT: When Will Private Markets Normalize?Could 2025 be the year private equity fund flows return to normal? No. Not yet. Ted explains why in his latest post. Read Ted’s blog here.2025-01-2203 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides – Unlocking Investment WisdomHappy Thanksgiving to everyone. For a little turkey treat, today’s show has me on the other side of the mike. Sarah Samuels, the head of manager research at powerhouse consultant NEPC and a past guest on the show, is also the Board Chair of the CFA Society in Boston. She’s created a podcast series for the Society called “Pull Up a Chair,” and I was honored to be her inaugural guest. We recorded live at Wellington Management’s headquarters earlier this month in front of a crowd that included Tim McCusker, the CIO at...2023-11-2335 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Martell – Empty Rooms: Commercial Real Estate Non-Performing Loans in NYC at Maverick Real Estate (EP.349)On today’s sponsored insight, we’ll discuss another empty room – an opportunity ignored by most investors because they either don’t want to or can’t participate. It’s real estate Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in New York City, a niche opportunity requiring a high degree of specialized expertise. Ted Martell is the Co-Founder of Maverick Real Estate Partners, the leading investor in commercial real estate NPLs and distressed loans in the New York City market. Maverick manages $500 million focusing on the specialty since its launch in 2010. Our conversation covers Ted and David Aviram’s pat...2023-11-0947 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides – The Art of the InterviewAfter 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.2023-07-311h 01Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryWTT - You Won't Detect the Next FraudIn a new feature on the podcast, we will share an audio version of Ted’s blog, called What Ted’s Thinking (or WTT). His latest discusses frauds and why you're not likely to detect the next one. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership 2023-01-1410 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryFriends Reunion 2 – Five Allocators Riff on Investing with Meredith Jenkins, Casey Whalen, Brett Barth, Jon Harris, and Ted Seides (Capital Allocators, EP.271)Last year, four of my oldest friends in the business and I got together to banter about a range of investment topics. Now admittedly, I pretty much had to pull their teeth to make it happen that first time, but after having so much fun with it, our old gang didn’t hesitate to do it again. Our dinner crew - Meredith Jenkins from Trinity Wall Street, Casey Whalen from Truvvo Partners, Brett Barth from BBR Partners, Jon Harris from Alternative Investment Management and I - gathered and riffed on long/short hedge funds, private markets, Africa an...2022-09-1954 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides – Insights on investing and podcastingEvery so often, I share my thoughts on investing on the other side of the mic. And occasionally, those ideas are different from what I’ve shared in the past. Recently, I appeared on the Opto Sessions Interviews with Extraordinary Investors podcast hosted by Haydn Brain. Opto identifies key themes and ideas to help investors get exposure to structural growth trends through a daily newsletter, magazine, and podcast. Hadyn asked me some great questions that cover the difference in retail and institutional investing, aspects of my professional experience, insights from my conversations with Sam Zell, Joel Gr...2022-09-0556 min
Private Equity Deals with Capital AllocatorsWelcome to Private Equity Deals with Capital AllocatorsHello, I’m Ted Seides, the host of the Capital Allocators podcast, and it’s my pleasure to bring you Private Equity Deals.This show dives into deals in the private markets through conversations with private equity managers. Much like Capital Allocators, we’ll share conversations that previously occurred behind closed doors between private equity managers and their investors. In each episode, we discuss an individual deal to learn about the companies, deal dynamics, and ownership that make private equity a force in institutional portfolios and the global economy.You can...2022-08-1500 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] - Paul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth Stocks (Capital Allocators, EP.51)Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989. With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to com...2021-09-0655 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Dan Ariely – Investing in Irrationality (Capital Allocators, EP.93)Dan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between comp...2021-05-171h 09Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed with Jenny Heller – Compounding Knowledge and RelationshipsAs we finish up book launch week, I thought I’d share this interview conducted by Jenny Heller, my friend, the 7th guest on the show, and the President and CIO of Brandywine Group Advisors. We discuss the business of Capital Allocators, entrepreneurship, effectiveness, and investing – including a brief description of my most recent private equity fund investment. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript 2021-03-2540 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed with Patrick O'Shaughnessy – Lessons from the World’s Elite Money ManagersMy new book – Capital Allocators: How the world’s elite money managers lead and invest – releases tomorrow. I’ve been on a bit of a podcast tour the last few weeks, appearing on some of my favorite shows. I thought it would be fun to share an interview about the book here, so I asked Patrick O’Shaughnessy to interview me for the show. Our conversation covers the journey of the podcast itself and lessons from the book about interviewing, leadership and investing. Pick up a copy at Amazon, and if you like what you read, there’s more behind the podcast and...2021-03-2254 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryPrivate Equity Masters: Paul Salem – Providence Equity PartnersToday’s show is a preview of a mini-series coming in a few months, where I’ll be speaking with some of the preeminent leaders in private equity to learn more about what the continuing insatiable interest in the asset class is all about. Paul Salem is a Senior Managing Director Emeritus at Providence Equity. Providence is a premier private equity and asset management firm focused on media, communications, education, software and services with $49 billion in asset commitments. Paul joined Providence when it was a $171 million media focused boutique in 1992 and became an integral part of the firm’s growth and suc...2021-02-0156 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides - Capital Allocators Year in ReviewWith a big thank you for your enthusiastic engagement with the show, Ted offers a year in review of the podcast and the business behind the podcast. He closes with a countdown of the top episodes of 2020. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or Monthly Mailing List Don't Subscribe, but Let Us Know Who You Are Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides Review past episodes of the Podcast 2020-12-2816 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryDiversity, Equity & Inclusion 2: Kim Lew – The Opportunity and ChallengeKim Lew is the highly regarded Chief Investment Officer of Carnegie Corporation and a two-time former guest on the show. Our conversation starts with Kim’s childhood and early career experience with conscious and subconscious bias. We then turn to her career as an allocator and cover the challenges and opportunities afforded by diversity across investment teams, manager selection, and running a fund. We close with a discussion of organizations supporting diversity and the challenges of making progress in a mature industry. Learn More Read the Transcript Subscribe to the Capital Allocators Blog or M...2020-08-1751 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Kim Lew – The Carnegie Way (Capital Allocators, EP.52)Kim Lew is the Vice President and CIO of Carnegie Corporation, where she is responsible for the investment and oversight of the Corporation’s $3.5 billion Foundation. Kim joined Carnegie in 2007 after spending a dozen years at the Ford Foundation. She is also a Trustee of Ariel Investments, the Board Chair of the Stevens Cooperative Schools, and a member of the investment committees of the Girl Scouts of America and the ACLU, and the steering committee of the Private Equity Women Investor Network. Last year, Institutional Investor awarded her Endowment & Foundation CIO of the year. Our con...2020-08-171h 10Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryDiversity, Equity & Inclusion 1: Jacob Walthour – A Blueprint for DiversityJake Walthour is the Co-Founder and CEO of Blueprint Capital Advisors, an alternative investment manager that advises, sources, and oversees portfolios of managers on behalf of institutional clients. Jake launched Blueprint after two decades of experience on Wall Street, including senior roles at investment consultants Aksia and Cliffwater, and at investment managers Cowen, Citadel, Moore Capital, and Morgan Stanley Asset Management. Black Enterprise Magazine recognized him as one of the Most Influence Blacks on Wall Street. Our conversation discusses Jake’s path through investment banking to investment management, lessons from top alternative managers, and the business at Bl...2020-08-101h 07
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMatthew Granade – Inside Data Science at Point72 (First Meeting, EP.22)Matthew Granade is Chief Market Intelligence Officer at Point72 and the Managing Partner of Point72 Ventures. Matthew oversees all proprietary research and data efforts at the firm, manages several of the internal systematic strategies, leads early stage venture investing, and recently launched Hyperscale, a new strategy that invests in AI-driven startups and connects them with operating companies to build model-driven businesses. Before joining Point72, Matthew started his investment career at Bridgewater and later was a co-founder of Domino Data Lab, a business that develops systems-of-record for enterprise data science teams across industries. Our conversation covers Matthew’s wo...2020-08-0347 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryRandall Stutman - Admired LeadershipRandall Stutman is founder and co-head of the Leadership Practice at CRA. and the Admired Leadership Institute. Randall is probably the top executive coach that you’ve never heard of before. He’s spent 30 years coaching and learning about the behaviors and routines of extraordinary leaders. To give you a sense, he was worked in the White House and the Olympics, with something like 2,000 senior executives and 400 CEOs, and in our world, the most senior executives at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Blackstone. Randall is also well known among the titans in the hedge fund community, where he’s work...2020-07-271h 04Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTaimur Hyat – After the Great LockdownTaimur Hyat is the Chief Operating Officer at PGIM, a $1.3 trillion asset manager across public equity and fixed income, private credit, real estate and alternative strategies. Alongside President and CEO, David Hunt, Taimur distills insights from across PGIM’s portfolio teams and shares long-term views on the investment implications of global megatrends annually. Their most recent Megatrends piece, After the Great Lockdown, is the subject of our conversation. We cover Taimur’s lessons from academic research in economics, management consulting, and Lehman Brothers through the financial crisis, PGIM’s business, and the Megatrends series. We then turn to the...2020-07-2059 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAdam Fisher – Blending Global Macro and Real Estate at Commonwealth Asset Management (First Meeting, EP.21)Adam Fisher is the CIO of Commonwealth Asset Management, which he founded as Commonwealth Opportunity Capital in 2008 and re-launched in 2019 after a two-year interlude Soros Fund Management. Commonwealth manages both a global macro hedge fund and private real estate assets with a thematic bent. In getting there, Adam traded his bar mitzvah money, attended law school, and started real estate investment companies in the U.S. and Asia. Our conversation covers Adam’s self-taught trading, early stumbles in private equity, and a one-off encounter with Richard Rainwater that led to his creating his first business. From there, we...2020-07-1359 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustrySustainable Investing 10: Hiro Mizuno – Changing the GameHiro Mizuno is the recently departed Executive Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer of GPIF, Japan’s $1.5 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund, which is the largest pool of institutional capital in the world. In taking the seat five years ago, Hiro sought to change how large asset owners go about investing capital. Our conversation covers his differentiated thought process across drivers of return, the home country bias, implementation of investing, and structural alignment with active managers. We then talk about the Universal Ownership concept, stewardship of passively managed assets, evaluation of manager effectiveness, ESG integration in fixed in...2020-07-091h 00Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Jean Hynes – Inside Wellington Management (Capital Allocators, EP.82)Jean Hynes is a Managing Partner at Wellington Management, where she one of three people responsible for the governance of Wellington’s storied partnership. Jean also is the sector leader of the firm’s healthcare team that manages the Vanguard Healthcare Fund, three global healthcare hedge funds, and global healthcare sector portfolios. She joined Wellington after graduating from college in 1991 and has been at the firm ever since. Our conversation covers Wellington’s humanistic culture, its evolution from a U.S. value shop to a global federation of boutiques, talent recruitment, the successful merit-based partnership structure, and the Well...2020-06-0852 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Tim McCusker – Consistency and Creativity as CIO at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP. 80)Tim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, an investment consultant that advises on $1 trillion in assets on behalf of 400 institutional clients. Tim oversees NEPC’s 50-person investment research team and leads investment strategy for the firm. In each of 2014, 2015, and 2016, CIO Magazine recognized Tim as one of the world’s most influential consultants. Our conversation covers NEPC’s client centric model, meeting the needs of a range of client types, forming and implementing capital market views, researching managers, sourcing in public and private assets, allocating to scarce capacity managers, and forming and leaning into the megatren...2020-04-3057 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Michael Mervosh – Invest in Yourself (Capital Allocators, EP.68)Both times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He h...2020-04-271h 12
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAndrew Golden – Navigating Princeton’s Endowment Through (Another) CrisisAndy Golden is the President of PRINCO, where he has overseen the management of Princeton University’s $25 billion endowment since 1995. He was an early guest on the show and came back to discuss steering the ship in this tricky time. Our conversation covers communicating remotely, adding value incrementally in volatile markets, managing time, considering liquidity, and playing offense. Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast2020-04-2331 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39]Annie Duke is a renown public speaker and decision strategist. For two decades, she was one of the top poker players in the world, including winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2 million winner-take-all WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her study of the science of smart decision-making began with a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which she used study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Among her charity work and television appearances, Annie was a runner-up to Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice, during which she raised $700,000 for Refugees International. She is a natural teacher and storyteller with an a...2020-04-2000 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry[REPLAY] Annie Duke – Thinking More in Bets (Capital Allocators, EP.76)My guest on today’s show once again is Annie Duke, decision-making expert, former world-famous poker player, and author of the best seller, Thinking in Bets. I had a chance to interview Annie at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the live interview follows. Special thanks to Andrea Szigethy and Donna Holly, founders of the Institute, for having Annie and me down for their terrific event. Our conversation covers the challenge of separating signal from noise in making decisions, the formation and confirmation of beliefs, forming decision groups, communicating with teams, and m...2020-04-2046 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides – A Rational ReminderLast year, I appeared on the Rational Reminder podcast, a show hosted by Cameron Passmore and Ben Felix of PWL Capital, a terrific Ottawa, Canada-based wealth manager that focuses on low cost, passive investing. We discussed the depth of the institutional investment research process, hedge funds, alternatives for individuals, index fund investing around the world, lessons from the big Bet, and a few other fun topics. Cameron and Ben are thoughtful investors and offer high-quality content through their podcast. I’d encourage you to have a listen. Please enjoy Cameron and Ben’s inter...2020-01-2743 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAsh Williams – Florida SBA’s Reigning ChiefAsh Williams is the Executive Director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration, where he oversees $200 billion in assets for the State of Florida including one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S. He is as highly regarded as they come, and among other accolades, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CIO Magazine in 2017. Ash began his career serving the State of Florida as a staff assistant to two House speakers, as Chief of Staff to a former Governor and Comptroller of the State, and as Executive Director of the SBA. He l...2019-07-081h 16
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustrySam Sicilia – Seizing on a Long Time Horizon at HostPlusSam Sicilia is the Chief Investment Officer of HostPlus, Australia’s AUZ 37 billion ($25B USD) Superannuation Fund. Sam joined HostPlus in 2008 after a storied career in academia and the finance industry stretching back to the early 1990s. During that time, he held senior roles, both in Australia and internationally, consulting at Russell Investments, managing assets at Bank of Ireland, and consulting with Frontier Investment Consulting and Towers Perrin. Our conversation starts with Sam’s mathematics training and turns to his work over the last decade at HostPlus, covering the Fund’s long time horizon, his strategy to take ad...2019-07-011h 17
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMartin Whittaker – JUST Capital (First Meeting, EP.02)Martin Whittaker is the founding CEO of JUST Capital, a non-profit created by a group of concerned, influential leaders, including Deepak Chopra and Paul Tudor Jones. JUST Capital is an independent research organization thanks ranks companies on the issues Americans care about most, with a mission to build a more just marketplace that better reflects the true priorities of the American people. Last year, it launched the JUST ETF in partnership with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Our conversation covers with Martin’s history of following the money that ultimately led to his position at JUST, defining a “just...2019-06-2446 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJon Wertheim – Sports and…Jon Wertheim is a sports journalist and author who has a passion for psychology and economics. He is the Executive Editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has been a full-time staff member since 1996. Jon also is a contributing correspondent on 60 Minutes and an analyst for the Tennis Channel at the four Majors. He is the author of ten books including Stokes of Genius about the Federer-Nadal rivalry, the New York Times bestsellerScorecasting, and more recently, This Is Your Brain on Sports. Our conversation spans across sports, behavior and decision making, discussing Jon’s path to a career in sp...2019-06-1740 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryCapital Allocators Presents: First Meeting with Ted Seides I'm excited to announce the launch of a spinoff of capital allocators called first meeting. First meeting episodes will be conversations with leading investment managers across asset classes. First meeting will seek to catalyze a step change improvement in the due diligence process by sharing conversations that replicate a first meeting and allocator might have with the manager. We’ll help both managers and allocators save time from repeating the same meeting over and over again, create scale in transparency, and increase the efficiency of communication. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Te...2019-06-1001 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryPatrick O’Shaughnessy – O'Shaughnessy Asset Management (First Meeting, EP.01)Patrick O’Shaughnessy is the CEO of O’Shaughnessy Asset Management, the host of the Invest Like the Best podcast, and a great friend. Patrick’s podcast and widely read monthly mailing list of books, available at investorfieldguide.com, have made him a celebrity of sorts in the investing world. Those familiar with his voice will already know how wide his curious mind travels, but I image far fewer know much about his daily investing activities. Our conversation begins with Patrick’s early start in the business and discovered passion for research. We turn to investing at OSAM, cov...2019-06-101h 13
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Thomas DeLong – Authentic Leadership (EP.18)Tom DeLong is a renown expert in organizational behavior, leadership, and human development of high performance professionals, the so called “soft skills” often dismissed in the asset management business. After starting an academic career under the wing of Stephen Covey, Tom found himself recruited by John Mack to work alongside him to develop a positive culture at Morgan Stanley. After eight years in the trenches, he returned to academia as a professor at Harvard Business School, where he has remained the past twenty years. Unlike most of us, Tom’s resume and achievements are unusually difficult to locate...2019-06-0355 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the MarinesDavid Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He left active duty to earn his MBA at Harvard in 2000, where he was Co-President of his class. ...2019-05-271h 13
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTim Recker - Concentration at the James Irvine Foundation Tim Recker is the CIO of the $2.4 billion James Irvine Foundation. He joined the foundation in 2016 after spending a decade in private equity and real assets for the University of California Regents, four years overseeing Alternatives at the Michigan Retirement System, and his early years at GE Asset Management Our conversation covers Tim’s career path, the culture and structure at GE and Michigan Retirement, and co-investments at UC Regents. We then turn to the intricacies of managing a highly concentrated portfolio of managers at Irvine, including effective governance. flexibility, team structure, due diligence, and decision making. We...2019-05-201h 03
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Mauboussin – Who’s on the Other SideMichael Mauboussin is the well-known investment strategist currently plying his wares at Blue Mountain Capital. He joined me for the second time to discuss his new research entitled “Who’s on the Other Side?” Our conversation dives into the work, discussing how investors can focus on process over outcome, the four types of investment edges, behavioral traits of single and group portfolio managers, portfolio position weighting, informational edges available from paying attention and complexity, the principal-agent issues that create cycles and opportunities during dislocations, the growth of private markets, and implementing his research. We close with a discussio...2019-05-1355 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Michael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team DynamicsMichael 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 s...2019-05-131h 11
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJon Hirtle – The Pioneer of OCIOJon Hirtle is the Executive Chairman at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., a $20 billion Outsourced CIO business he founded in 1988. Hirtle Callaghan retains the distinction of initiating the OCIO model that is flourishing in the market today. Our conversation covers leadership lessons from Jon’s experience in the Marines and at Goldman Sachs, the genesis of the idea to create Hirtle Callaghan, the structure, culture, philosophy and execution of their investing, Jon’s outlook on emerging markets, the economy, private equity, and credit, and the concept of governance alpha. Jon has a gift for distilling the investment process into under...2019-05-0654 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMatt Levine – Money Stuff Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. His column discusses current events in corporate finance and markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit. As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger. If you receive my monthly email, you’ll already know that I’m a huge fan of Matt’s and that Money Stuff has become my go to source of business news. Our conversa...2019-04-2938 minCapital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Michael Mervosh – Invest in YourselfBoth times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He h...2019-04-291h 12
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryDavid Zorub - The Path to a Hedge Fund LaunchDavid Zorub is the founder of Parsifal Capital, a new hedge fund he is launching later this year. Before founding Parsifal, Dave spent fifteen years in research and portfolio management at hedge funds and another few in investment banking and private equity. I interviewed David recently at Columbia University’s Student Investment Management Conference and that conversation follows. We cover his career path and his insights into the philosophy and structure of a hedge fund business and investment portfolio. It’s not easy starting a hedge fund these days, and those eager to try will get a sense...2019-04-2247 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTed Seides – Interviewing and Manager MeetingsA few months ago, Marcel van de Hoef interviewed me on his podcast, The Meeting Strategist. He created Meeting Strategist to help senior professionals across industries think more strategically about business conversations and improve their listening, questioning and meeting skills. With his permission, I’ve shared that discussion on this week’s show. You can learn more about his work at meetingstrategist.org. Our conversation starts with my background and covers my communications with Warren Buffett, characteristics of successful active managers, manager meeting structure, culture assessment, tools for effective listening, lessons I learned from David Swensen...2019-04-0845 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Ted Seides - Deep Dive into Hedge Funds I’ve received several emails over the last bunch of months asking for my take on the investing world and the topics we cover on the show. Fortunately, I’ve had a chance to appear as a guest on a few other podcasts, and thought I would share some of those conversations from time to time. About a year and a half ago, Patrick O’Shaughnessy interviewed me to discuss the book I wrote on his amazing podcast, Invest Like the Best. The discussion quickly turned to a deep dive on hedge funds - past, present and future...2019-04-081h 17
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Ted Seides - It’s Not About the Money (EP.45) Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capit...2019-04-0858 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryDan Ariely – Investing in IrrationalityDan Ariely is a renowned behavioral economist, author, entrepreneur, and investor. He is the James B. Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University and a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight. Dan is the author of six books, most of which have the word “Irrationality” in the title and has a weekly column in the The Wall Street Journal called “Ask Ariely.” Dan’s TED Talks have been downloaded more than 10 million times. Dan also is a Founding Partner of Irrational Capital, an investment firm that identifies and quantifies the nuanced relationship between comp...2019-04-011h 09
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryManny Friedman – EJF on Economic Opportunity ZonesManny Friedman is the founder of EJF Capital. Manny discussed his background and his nuanced take on markets last July in Episode 61 of the podcast. In that conversation, he mentioned a new regulation in the U.S. that created an area of investing called Economic Opportunity Zones. I started learning about Economic Opportunity Zones from Manny and dove in for my day job. Since then, more and more eyes are viewing investments in Opportunity Zones, and I asked Manny to sit down with me to share his perspective. Our conversation covers the governments broad, bipartisan effort to rea...2019-03-1842 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Manny Friedman – Non-Linear Financial SystemsManny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic opportunity zones, long-term impact of government stimulus, stranded assets created by technological change, regulation, and philanthropy. Learn More2019-03-1851 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryThomas Russo – All About GoogleTom Russo is the Managing Member of Garnder Russo & Gardner. Last week, Tom talked in detail about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway. This week, we continue the conversation with his new holding in Google. Our conversation covers buying Google now, comparing the company to Facebook, future growth opportunities starting from a large base, competition from Amazon, Google X’s long-term moonshots, and related stories in Tom’s portfolio companies Philip Morris and Nestle. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com...2019-03-1138 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryThomas Russo – All About Berkshire HathawayTom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner. Tom and I sat down in Episode 16 to discuss his background and investment strategy in what was one of the most popular episodes on the show. He oversees $13B in a global value strategy focused on family-operated public companies. Our second conversation is a two-part episode for this week and next. First, we talk solely about his holding in Berkshire Hathaway, a stock he first bought 38 years ago. The conversation covers Tom’s initial purchase of Berkshire, company meetings, reaffirming his thesis and search for disco...2019-03-0454 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY (EP.16) Thomas Russo – Buy and Hold...and Then WhatTom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first partnership, Semper Vic Partners, has compounded at 14.6% per year for 33 years, besting the S...2019-03-0459 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryChris Ailman – CalSTRS’ Venerable CIOChris Ailman is the chief investment officer of the $220 billion pool for California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS). He joined CalSTRS back in 2000 after 4 years as CIO of the Washington State Investment Board and 11 years as CIO of the Sacramento Country Employees Retirement System. Chris is a legend in the business and the list of accolades for his work is longer that the list of my podcast episodes. Our conversation dives in with the flawed business model of government running a money management firm, looming retirement crisis, and challenges of governance and communication with a rotating Board. We...2019-02-111h 13
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustrySteve Kuhn – Life After Hedge FundsSteve Kuhn is a retired hedge fund manager. He spent two decades in the industry, specializing in mortgage-backed securities at Cargill, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, and Pine River. In his last stint in the business until his retirement in 2016, Steve was a Partner and Portfolio Manager at then $14 billion Pine River Capital Management and was one of the hedge fund industry’s most widely known fixed income traders. Our conversation covers parlaying a passion for playing games into a two-decade Wall Street career, spending time productively when your investing specialty is out of favor, stepping away from the mone...2019-02-0454 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryDonna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge FoundationDonna Snider is a Managing Director at the $4 billion Kresge Foundation, where she has worked for ten years as one of three senior team members under Chief Investment Officer Rob Manilla. Last summer, Institutional Investor named Donna the number one ranked Most Wanted CIO of the future. Our conversation starts with Donna sharing the cross fertilization of bringing her sell side trading experience to a Foundation and on the flip side learning manager selection from her very first data point. We then turn to the inner workings of the Foundation investment program from the perspective of a l...2019-01-2848 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJean Hynes – Inside Wellington ManagementJean Hynes is a Managing Partner at Wellington Management, where she one of three people responsible for the governance of Wellington’s storied partnership. Jean also is the sector leader of the firm’s healthcare team that manages the Vanguard Healthcare Fund, three global healthcare hedge funds, and global healthcare sector portfolios. She joined Wellington after graduating from college in 1991 and has been at the firm ever since. Our conversation covers Wellington’s humanistic culture, its evolution from a U.S. value shop to a global federation of boutiques, talent recruitment, the successful merit-based partnership structure, and the Well...2019-01-1452 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management FirmJennifer 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 desc...2019-01-0755 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTim McCusker – Consistency and Creativity as CIO at NEPCTim McCusker is the Chief Investment Officer at NEPC, an investment consultant that advises on $1 trillion in assets on behalf of 400 institutional clients. Tim oversees NEPC’s 50-person investment research team and leads investment strategy for the firm. In each of 2014, 2015, and 2016, CIO Magazine recognized Tim as one of the world’s most influential consultants. Our conversation covers NEPC’s client centric model, meeting the needs of a range of client types, forming and implementing capital market views, researching managers, sourcing in public and private assets, allocating to scarce capacity managers, and forming and leaning into the megatren...2018-12-1757 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty as CIO for the Institute for Advanced StudyMark Baumgartner is the CIO of the Institute for Advanced Study, where he oversees a $1 billion portfolio that seeks to achieve just median returns but with significantly less risk. Prior to joining IAS, Mark had stints at the Ford Foundation overseeing risk, at Morgan Stanley’s Alternative Investment Partners, at both quantitative and qualitative hedge funds, and as a management consultant. Oh, and he studied to be a rocket scientist before that. Our conversation covers Mark’s path to IAS and the principles of luck, risk, and uncertainty on that path. We discuss the IAS portfolio, one catered...2018-11-2656 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAnnie Duke – Thinking More in BetsMy guest on today’s show once again is Annie Duke, decision-making expert, former world-famous poker player, and author of the best seller, Thinking in Bets. I had a chance to interview Annie at The Investment Institute’s Fall Forum in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and the live interview follows. Special thanks to Andrea Szigethy and Donna Holly, founders of the Institute, for having Annie and me down for their terrific event. Our conversation covers the challenge of separating signal from noise in making decisions, the formation and confirmation of beliefs, forming decision groups, communicating with teams, and m...2018-11-1946 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Lombardi – Leadership Through FootballMichael Lombardi is a thirty-year veteran of professional football, including as a General Manager and a three-time Super Bowl winning executive. He is the author of the fantastic recently released bookGridiron Genius, A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL. The book is a tour de force of applied leadership through his learnings working alongside football greats Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick. Since stepping aside from the front office to write his book, Michael appears as a commentator on television, hosts the top-ten sports podcast, GM Street, and speaks to businesses about leadership and...2018-11-1251 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAndrew Tsai – Catching a Theme on the ChalkstreamAndrew Tsai is the Chief Investment Officer of Chalkstream Capital Group, which he founded in 2003 to manage the assets of quant guru Peter Muller. Andrew’s fascinating background started on the Lehman arbitrage desk in the early 1990s, after which he formed a quantitative hedge fund in 1997, built a dot.comlogistics business in 1999, and led the turnaround of a private equity-backed business thereafter. He combined his wide range of skills to focus on investing at Chalkstream. Our conversation walks through the stories and lessons from Andrew’s background and turns to Chalkstream. His investment program is the opposit...2018-10-221h 09
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Schwimer – Moneyball as an Investment StrategyMichael Schwimer is the CEO of Big League Advance, a company that makes investments in Minor League baseball players in exchange for an agreed-upon percentage of their future earnings. Before founding BLA, Michael was a professional baseball player, working his way through the minors and reaching the majors as a pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. A shoulder injury left him pondering what to do next, which led to the creation of BLA. Our conversation discusses Michael’s career as a player, the difficult life of Minor Leaguers, and his mission to improve their fortunes. We discuss his passio...2018-10-1555 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryRaphael Arndt – Australia’s Sovereign Wealth Fund CIO 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 le...2018-09-241h 26
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryStephen McKeon – Professor of Crypto Security TokensProfessor Stephen McKeon spent six years out of college working in finance for venture-backed startups before returning to graduate school and earning his PhD in finance in 2011. Blending his interest and experience, Steve focuses his research on corporate finance, M&A, security issuance, and most recently, crypto assets, where he has become a leading academic authority in the nascent area. Our conversation starts with Steve’s first job smack into the teeth of the tech meltdown in 2000 and his subsequent roles at a winery and a drone company. We then turn to his work as an academic in...2018-09-171h 10
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Mervosh – Invest in YourselfBoth times I was interviewed (by Khe Hy and Patrick O'Shaughnessy) and shared those conversations on Capital Allocators, I made reference to a special experience I’ve participated in for the last five years called the Hero’s Journey. The weeklong journey in the mountains of West Virginia provides a setting and platform for each participant to access their best self. Michael Mervosh is the deeply insightful Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation, an organization he created that provides experiential learning opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. He h...2018-09-101h 12
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustrySarah Williamson – Focusing Capital on the Long-TermSarah Williamson is the CEO of FCLTGlobal, a non-profit consortium of large asset managers, allocators, and corporations dedicated to encouraging long-term behavior in business and investment decision-making. FCLTGlobal conducts research, convenes business leaders, develops actionable tools, and generates broad awareness of ways in which a longer-term focus can increase innovation, economic growth, and future savings. Prior to joining FCLTGlobal in 2016, Sarah spent 21 years at Wellington Management Company, where she was most recently a Partner and Director of Alternative Investments. She started her career at Goldman Sachs, and had stints at the U.S. Department of State and Mc...2018-09-0351 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryKristian Fok – Australia’s CBUS Superannuation CIOKristian Fok is the Chief Investment Officer of Australia’s A46B ($35B USD) Construction & Building Industry Superannuation Fund, or CBUS. Prior to joining CBUS in 2012, Kristian spent 14 years consulting to Australian Super Funds at Frontier Advisors. Australia’s Superannuation program mandates that employers contribute 9.5% of its employee salaries into a Super Fund, which is owned by the employee, like a 401k in the U.S., and grows with investment returns until retirement. The employees, in turn, have a choice of providers to invest their savings. The model has been one of the most successful in the world in prepa...2018-08-271h 01
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJosh Wolfe – Seeing the LuxJosh Wolfe is the co-founder of Lux Capital, a $1.5 billion venture capital firm formed to support scientists and entrepreneurs who pursue counter-conventional solutions to the most vexing puzzles of our time. Josh’s innovative thought process across his activities offers frameworks and insights applicable across the spectrum of investing. Our conversation covers Josh’s early passion for science and finance, building a competitive advantage in venture capital from scratch, sourcing ideas, conducting due diligence, making investment decisions, constructing portfolios, making exits, learning from mistakes, navigating a challenging private equity environment, posting on Twitter, active vs. passive management, dinn...2018-08-201h 09
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryBen Reiter – Moneyball 2.0Ben Reiter is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated and the author of Astroball: The New Way to Win It All. He joined SI in 2004 a few years out of college and has written for them ever since. In 2014 Ben wrote a cover story for SI entitled YOUR 2017 WORLD SERIES CHAMPS featuring the then sorry Astros who were the laughingstock of baseball at the time. Three years later, his prediction came true. His book chronicling the journey has been dubbed Moneyball 2.0. Our conversation blew me away in how closely the parallels have been between baseball management and fun...2018-08-1347 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryRoz Hewsenian –Helmsley Trust’s Chief of People and ProcessRoz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates. Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cover opportunistic-based allocation, theme identification, benefits of concentrating in managers, oversight of a team and due diligence, stories from the front lin...2018-08-061h 15
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryCharley Ellis - Indexing and Its Alternatives Investment luminary Charley Ellis is the founder of Greenwich Associates, author of 16 books, and one of the most sought-after industry advisors worldwide. He also believes deeply in the paradox of skill and his latest book, The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now, presents a compelling case for indexing for most investors.. Charley was an early guest on the show and we reconvened to talk through the full case of indexing for individuals and some of its constraints for institutions. Our conversation covers the case for indexing, smart beta, the retirement problem, investing in alternatives, private eq...2018-07-301h 13
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryManny Friedman – Non-Linear Financial SystemsManny Friedman is the CEO of EJF Capital, a firm he co-founded in 2005 that manages $9 billion with a focus on the financial services industry. Manny started EJF after his retirement from Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc., a company he co-founded in 1989 and served as Co-Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer. Our conversation looks back at Manny’s lifelong passion for investing, the globalization of markets, and the financial crisis, and then looks forward at the newly created economic opportunity zones, long-term impact of government stimulus, stranded assets created by technological change, regulation, and philanthropy. Discuss the sho...2018-07-2351 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryREPLAY - Scott Malpass – The Fighting Irish’s Twelfth Man (Capital Allocators, EP.25) This replay is the one of the most downloaded shows from last year, and one that new listeners may have missed. Regular listeners no doubt might pick up a new insight listening again. Scott Malpass is the esteemed Vice President and CIO of Notre Dame University, where he oversees the school's $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees at Notre Dame, and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 years, as defined by both performance and impact, place h...2018-07-161h 20
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAnthony Scaramucci – It’s Called a MoochThe name Anthony Scaramucci currently has 55% name recognition in the U.S. according to Politico. Anthony has been an entrepreneur in the hedge fund industry for 23 years, growing to prominence within the industry through his oversight of fund of funds Skybridge Capital, creation of the popular SALT conference, regular television appearances, and rejuvenation of the iconic television show Wall Street Week. He grew to prominence worldwide when his longtime political interests led to a brief tenure as White House Communications Director in 2017. Our conversation starts off with a bang and turns to the ups and downs in A...2018-07-091h 00
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryPeter Troob – Monkey Business in High YieldPeter Troob is the co-Founder and CIO of Troob Capital Management, an opportunistic investor and family office with particular expertise in distressed situations. Prior to starting TCM in 2002, Peter spent six years focusing on distressed debt investing at Contrarian Capital and Everest Capital. He started his career as an investment banker, and after his tenure in self-proclaimed purgatory, he co-authored the entertaining book ‘Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle.” Our conversation begins with life as an investment banking analyst, and turns to competing with large distressed funds, the frothy high yield market, trickery in the CDS m...2018-07-0251 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJames Aitken – Macro Strategist ExtraordinaireAustralian 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...2018-06-251h 25
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryBrian Portnoy – From Complex to SimpleBrian Portnoy Brian is currently the Director of Investment Education at $100B investment solutions provider Virtus Investment Partners, where he strives to simplify the complex world of money in an effort to help investors make better decisions and lead a joyful life. For the past two decades, he has held senior investment, research, and strategy roles in the hedge fund and mutual fund industries at Chicago Equity Partners, Mesirow Financial, and Morningstar. Brian is the author of “The Investor’s Paradox,” a book about manager selection rooted in choice theory. His second book, “The Geometry of Wealth” hits electronic...2018-06-1859 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTom Lydon – ETF TrendsTom Lydon is one of the leading experts in the ETF and mutual fund industries. He is the founder and CEO of ETF Trends, a business he created in 2004 whose website, etftrends.com, is filled with news, analysis, and webcasts about the world of ETFs. Before creating ETF Trends, Tom ran a financial advisory and publication business that followed the mutual fund industry. Our conversation covers the evolution of mutual funds in the 80s and 90s and the rise of ETFs in the 2000s. We discuss the composition of the ETF marketplace, structure and tax advantages of E...2018-06-111h 03
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryTali Sharot – Optimism, Decisions, and MistakesTali Sharot is a leading expert on human decision-making, optimism and emotion. A neuroscientist by trade, Tali combines research in psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience to reveal the forces that shape our decisions, beliefs and inaccurate expectations of the future. She is currently a visiting professor at MIT, and is also an associate professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London where she directs the Affective Brain Lab. Tali is the author of The Influential Mind, The Science of Optimism, and The Optimism Bias. Our conversation tackles many of the issues Tali has studied in her career, i...2018-06-0447 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJohn Pfeffer - Crypto for InstitutionsJohn Pfeffer is an entrepreneur, investor and author of “An (Institutional) Investor’s Take on Cryptoassets.” He is currently Partner of Pfeffer Capital. In the 2000s, John was a Member at private equity firm KKR, and in the 1990s, he was Chairman of the Executive Board of leading French IT company Groupe Allium S.A. Before that, he advised on turnarounds while with McKinsey in Europe and Latin America. Our conversation jumps in the thought process and structure behind John’s family office portfolio, which combines building new businesses alongside fund investments in public equity, private equity and ventur...2018-05-2848 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryRoss Israel - Stable, Predictable Cash FlowsRoss Israel is the Head of Global Infrastructure Investments for QIC, Queensland, Australia’s 82B AUZ ($62B USD) investment fund. The Queensland government formed QIC in 1991 to oversee its Superannuation Fund, and the business has since evolved into a Global Diversified Alternative Asset Manager. Ross joined QIC in 2006 to create the Global Infrastructure effort and also serves as a member of QIC’s Executive Committee. He has a quarter century’s worth of experience in corporate finance and infrastructure funds management. Our conversation covers QIC’s structure, examples of long duration assets in ports and waterways, crossing knowledge...2018-05-2152 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryKim Lew – The Carnegie WayKim Lew is the Vice President and CIO of Carnegie Corporation, where she is responsible for the investment and oversight of the Corporation’s $3.5 billion Foundation. Kim joined Carnegie in 2007 after spending a dozen years at the Ford Foundation. She is also a Trustee of Ariel Investments, the Board Chair of the Stevens Cooperative Schools, and a member of the investment committees of the Girl Scouts of America and the ACLU, and the steering committee of the Private Equity Women Investor Network. Last year, Institutional Investor awarded her Endowment & Foundation CIO of the year. Our con...2018-05-141h 10
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryPaul Black - Gratitude, Fun, and Growth StocksPaul 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 com...2018-05-0755 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryJames Williams – Curating The Getty’s AssetsJim Williams is the Vice President, Chief Investment Officer, and Treasurer of the Getty Trust, where he oversees a $7 billion portfolio for the Getty Museum. Before joining the Getty in 2002, Jim spent three years as the President of Harbor Capital Advisors and prior to that, was manager of the Ford Motor Company pension department. Our rich conversation covers all aspects of managing a significant pool of non-profit assets including modeling liquidity, creating a specialist team structure, sourcing managers, discerning between talented managers, co-investing, sizing manager positions, investing in venture capital, viewing hedge funds like a basketball point...2018-04-301h 15
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Cembalest – Eye on the MarketMichael Cembalest is the Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, a global industry leader with $2 trillion of client assets under management. Michael is also a member of the Investment Committee for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management and the Investment Committee for the J.P. Morgan Retirement Plan that covers the firm’s 250,000 employees. Before taking on his current seat in 2012, he spent eight years as Chief Investment Officer of J.P. Morgan’s powerhouse Global Private Bank. Prior to his work on the buy side, Michael worked on the sell side at J...2018-04-231h 02
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustrySteven Galbraith – In the BoardroomOne common refrain across my conversations has been the importance and subtleties of effective governance in making optimal investment decisions. Alongside Steven Galbraith’s incredible career as an analyst, strategist, portfolio manager, and entrepreneur in the asset management business, he has served on as many Boards as anyone I know. I imagine many of you have heard Steve’s story, but if not, you may want to have a listen to the very first episode of Capital Allocators before diving in here. Our conversation today starts with an update on Steve’s personal investment in the Narr...2018-04-1655 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryChris Brockmeyer – On BroadwayChris Brockmeyer is the Director of Employee Bennefit Funds for the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry. Chris serves as an employer-appointed trustee, in most cases as Co-Chair, on eleven multi-employer pension funds, seven health funds and four annuity/401(k) funds with approximately $7 billion in assets. For 11 years, Chris has artfully navigated delicate relationships across unions and employers and was honored for his great work by Institutional Investor magazine with the 2014 award for Taft-Hartley Plan of the Year. Before arriving at the Broadway League in 2007, Chris worked on both sides of the table – first repr...2018-04-0954 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAndy Redleaf - Evolution of MarketsAndy Redleaf is the Founding Partner of Whitebox Advisors, a $5.5 billion multi-strategy hedge fund launched in 1999 with primary offices in the metropolitan hubs of Minneapolis, Austin, and Sydney, Australia. Before founding Whitebox, Andy spent twenty years trading options, for two years at Gruntal & Comes mpany alongside Stevie Cohen, fourteen on the CBOE, and five as a Founding Partner at Deephaven Capital Management. He has an irrepressibly creative mind and, alongside his partners, writes one of my favorite manager letters. Our conversation covers Andy's nuanced view of the evolution of trading markets and financial instruments over his forty-year c...2018-04-0258 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryIt's Not About the MoneyLast fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capital Allocators. 2018-03-2658 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryWayne Wicker - Managing for Millions who MatterWayne Wicker is the Senior VP and CIO of ICMA Retirement Corporation, an asset manager that oversees $50B across more than a million retirement accounts of City and County public sector employees throughout the country. Before joining ICMA-RC in 2004, Wayne had a distinguished career as an allocator and manager, starting as an allocator at the corporate pension fund of Dayton Hudson (now Target Corporation) in the 1980s and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute endowment in the mid-1990s, after which he moved to direct investing in large cap growth equities for seven years at Cadence Capital Management in 1998. 2018-03-191h 04
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryClare Flynn Levy and Cameron Hight - Moneyball for ManagersOur exploration of the use of modern data analytics to enhance investment results continues this week with two of the leading providers of tools for portfolio managers. My guests on today’s show are Clare Flynn Levy and Cameron Hight, both former investment managers who became entrepreneurs seeking to improve outcomes for other managers. Clare is the founder and CEO of Essentia Analytics, a behavioral data analytics service that enables fund managers to capture rich data about their own behavior and its context. Essentia analyzes trading history to help managers overcome common behavioral biases and optimize their tra...2018-03-121h 16
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryBasil Qunibi - Moneyball for AllocatorsIncreased sophistication in manager assessment is an important trend in the search for alpha. My conversations with Michael Mauboussin and Annie Duke suggested frameworks to think about enhanced decision-making processes and prompted a deeper dive into the ways allocators and managers can improve their craft. This week and next explores some of the tools available to help make it happen. Basil Qunibi is the CEO of Novus Partners, a data analytics company whose mission is to help the world’s top investors generate higher returns. As big data pervades commerce across industries, Novus is the most well-known pr...2018-03-0555 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryRick Selvala - Harvesting VolatilityRick Selvala is the co-founder and CEO of Harvest Volatility, a ten-year old manager of a variety of volatility strategies that oversees $13 billion in assets. After starting his career in the Treasury department at General Motors in the mid 1980s, Rick has spent nearly three decades trading derivatives on the sell side and buy side. Rick has an uncanny ability to break down this complicated investment area and make it sound simple. Our conversation discusses the world of volatility, including intelligent uses of derivatives, overcoming headline risk, characteristics of successful traders, assessment of alpha, the current volatility...2018-02-2650 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAli Hamed - Novel Asset InvestingAli Hamed is the co-founder of CoVenture and Managing Partner of the CoVenture VC Fund. CoVenture is an innovative company that identifies and invests in novel assets formed by the intersection of technology and finance. The firm manages an early stage venture capital fund, direct lending fund, and crypto asset index fund, with each taking a creative twist on its market. Our conversation starts with Ali’s entrepreneurial path to the creation of CoVenture, and covers examples of previously unpriced investment opportunities, including produce receivables, employee payroll loans, AirBnB accounts, and loans against employee stock options. We wal...2018-02-191h 03
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryAnnie Duke - Improving Decision MakingAnnie Duke is a renown public speaker and decision strategist. For two decades, she was one of the top poker players in the world, including winning a World Series of Poker bracelet and the $2 million winner-take-all WSOP Tournament of Champions. Her study of the science of smart decision-making began with a National Science Foundation Fellowship, which she used study Cognitive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Among her charity work and television appearances, Annie was a runner-up to Joan Rivers on Celebrity Apprentice, during which she raised $700,000 for Refugees International. She is a natural teacher and storyteller with an a...2018-02-0559 min
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryMichael Mauboussin – Active Challenges, Rational Decisions and Team DynamicsMichael 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 s...2018-01-081h 11
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryScott Malpass – The Fighting Irish’s Twelfth ManScott Malpass is the esteemed Vice President and CIO of Notre Dame, where he oversees the University’s $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his B.A. and M.B.A. degrees at Notre Dame, and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 years, as defined by both performance and impact, place him indisputably in rare company at the very top of the field. Among his many accolades, Scott received Institutional Investor’s Endowment Manager of the Year award, NACUBO’s Rodney H. Adams Award, and CI...2017-09-181h 20Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment IndustryThomas Russo – Buy and Hold...and Then WhatTom Russo is the Managing Member of Gardner Russo & Gardner, where he manages $11 billion in a long only, global value strategy. Tom buys the stock of global consumer businesses with great brands and holds them for a really long time. He looks for businesses with a capacity to reinvest free cash flow and a capacity to suffer through short-term pain in order to achieve long-term gain. Tom started his investment career at the Sequoia Fund in New York, where he worked from 1984 to 1988. His first partnership, Semper Vic Partners, has compounded at 14.6% per year for 33 years, besting the S...2017-07-1059 min