Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Scott Kupor is the managing partner at Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z for the 16 letters between the A in Andreessen and the z in Horowitz. Scott is responsible for all operational aspects of running the firm. He joined Andreessen at its inception in 2009 and has overseen its rapid growth from three employees and $300 million under management to 150 employees managing in excess of $10 bil...

Eric Ries is the founder and CEO of LTSE, the company that is affiliated with the SEC-approved Long-Term Stock Exchange, which seeks to build a new relationship between companies that are built to last and the stakeholders who believe in them. Eric is an entrepreneur who created the Lean Startup methodology and wrote the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup. He was named by Fortune to its 20...

David Druley is the CEO of Cambridge Associates, a global investment firm that works with premier institutional investors and family offices to manage custom investment portfolios that aim to generate outperformance so they can maximize their impact on the world. David works with Cambridge's leaders to set and execute the firm's strategy, enhance its capabilities, and evolve its processes. David b...

Margaret Chen is the Head of CA Capital Management, Cambridge Associates' $20 billion Outsourced Chief Investment Officer (OCIO) business. She has spent twenty years at Cambridge Associates, which was her first and only stop in the investment business after getting started in the working world as a management consultant at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting.   Our conversation covers Margaret's career p...

Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Digital, a merchant bank with a balance sheet to invest that seeks to serve as the bridge between the crypto and institutional investment worlds. Mike is well-known speculator who started his career at Goldman Sachs and later managed Fortress' multi-billion dollar hedge fund, the Drawbridge Global Macro Fund. He's notably made and lost a few fortunes in his care...

My guest on today's first meeting is Paul Black of WCM Investment Management.  This show is a replay of our conversation on Capital Allocators last year, and has been one of the most listened to conversations with a manager on the show.  At the time, WCM managed $26 billion and since then they've continued to perform and grow.  Today, WCM oversees $40 billion and earlier this year announced the sa...

Jon Harris is the CEO of Alternative Investment Management, a twenty-year-old investment firm that started as a family office and has evolved into managing $1 billion in hedge fund and private equity strategies on behalf of a range of fascinating business and investment executives.  Our conversation starts with the formation of AIM and its people-based investment approach.  We discuss building a n...

André Bourbonnais is a Managing Director at Blackrock and Global Head of its newly launched Long-Term Private Capital business, a multi-billion dollar permanent capital private equity fund.  André brought thirty years of private market transaction and management experience to the role, most recently as CEO and Chief Investment Officer of PSP Investments, the $110 billion Montreal-based Canadian pe...

My guest on today's First Meeting is Richard Lawrence of Overlook Investments Group, one of the top managers of Asian equities.  The conversation that follows is a replay of an early episode on Capital Allocators and one of the inspirations for the First Meeting concept.  Richard Lawrence is the Chairman and Executive Director of The Overlook Group, a $5 billion investment organization focused on...

Ash Williams is the Executive Director and CIO of the Florida State Board of Administration, where he oversees $200 billion in assets for the State of Florida including one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S.  He is as highly regarded as they come, and among other accolades, received a Lifetime Achievement Award from CIO Magazine in 2017. Ash began his career serving the State of Flori...

Sam Sicilia is the Chief Investment Officer of HostPlus, Australia's AUZ 37 billion ($25B USD) Superannuation Fund.  Sam joined HostPlus in 2008 after a storied career in academia and the finance industry stretching back to the early 1990s. During that time, he held senior roles, both in Australia and internationally, consulting at Russell Investments, managing assets at Bank of Ireland, and consu...

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. La...

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 riva...

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 ma...

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 fewe...

Khe Hy rose to be one of the youngest Managing Directors at Blackrock's hedge fund of funds business. In his 30s he left the industry to explore what would come next. His path led to creating the RadReads blog and coaching about facing fears and insecurities attached to the relationship of psychology and money. Khe has since been dubbed the " Oprah for Millenials " by CNN and " Wall Street Guru "...

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 year...

David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname "Bull" fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines...

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 Michiga...

Michael Mauboussin is the well-known investment strategist currently plying his wares at Blue Mountain Capital.  He joined me for the second time to discuss his new research entitled "Who's on the Other Side?"  Our conversation dives into the work, discussing how investors can focus on process over outcome, the four types of investment edges, behavioral traits of single and group portfolio manager...

Michael Mauboussin currently is the Director of Research at BlueMountain Capital, a multi-billion dollar hedge fund and asset manager.  He spent the majority of his professional career thinking and writing about decision making, behavior and complex systems, with long stints at Credit Suisse and nearly a decade alongside Bill Miller at Legg Mason.  Michael has been an Adjust Professor at Columbia...

Jon Hirtle is the Executive Chairman at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., a $20 billion Outsourced CIO business he founded in 1988.  Hirtle Callaghan retains the distinction of initiating the OCIO model that is flourishing in the market today. Our conversation covers leadership lessons from Jon's experience in the Marines and at Goldman Sachs, the genesis of the idea to create Hirtle Callaghan, the structu...

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 mont...

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 deepl...

David Zorub is the founder of Parsifal Capital, a new hedge fund he is launching later this year.  Before founding Parsifal, Dave spent fifteen years in research and portfolio management at hedge funds and another few in investment banking and private equity.  I interviewed David recently at Columbia University's Student Investment Management Conference and that conversation follows. We cover his...