Capital Decanted

Daniel Gamba joined Franklin Templeton late in 2025 after over 22 years at Blackrock and Barclays Global Investors and most recently, as President of Northern Trust Asset Management.  We begun with a discussion on his journey from engineer to asset management executive and how he has evolved into a leader of leaders.  We then transitioned to how he is building a "One Franklin" mantra across the fu...

Jean Hynes is the CEO of Wellington Management, the $1.3T asset manager. We discussed Jean's 35 year progression from administrative assistant to health care industry savant to (originally reluctant) CEO. We explored how Jean had to develop and reinvent herself at each stage along that leadership journey; how they somewhat quietly incubated hedge fund and private equity strategies before their...

Wafra was founded in 1985 as a conduit for sourcing and executing investment activity in the US for their owner PIFSS, the public pension system of Kuwait.  But about a decade ago, their public posture, innovative spirit, and expanding investment capabilities begun to fully embody the Arabic meaning of Wafra - abundance.  Adel Alderbas, Wafra's CIO joined me to talk about the evolution of the...

Peter Madsen is the CIO for the $5B Utah School and Institutional Trust Funds Office or SITFO.  We discussed his formative years in the capital markets and how they contributed to his current philosophy of managing risk and return for this permanent fund: circumspect about equity beta, deep sensitivity to draw down risk, finding alpha in up and down markets, and ensuring each strategy is contribut...

Here we say goodbye to tired market takes and superficial sound bites to dive beneath the surface of capital allocation. This show attempts to challenge conventional wisdom and likely some of your own assumptions as we explore the nuances that can change how we understand an issue and its practical implications. Along the way, we draw on experienced voices from across the industry, allowing their...

What happens when governments can't fund infrastructure anymore? A $1.6 trillion private asset class that doesn't recognize itself in the mirror. In the 2020s, infrastructure has entered a battlefield where geopolitics, government agendas, and investor returns collide. We trace infrastructure's evolution from nation-building mechanism to one of the most integrated asset classes in modern investing...

In every tech supercycle, investors are good at identifying disruptive technologies, but bad at picking the winners. AI is no different, except for the pace and velocity of growth, investment, and hype. And this time the incumbents are leading the charge. This episode works through how to separate the hype from who actually captures the enterprise value, walking through four layers of the AI inves...

Geopolitical change, product disruption, and technological transformation have all made this the most complicated moment in history to navigate capital markets. CAIA Association spent the last 12 months finding out why. After convening 120 global executives across eight financial centers we're proud to introduce: The World Rewired , a blueprint for the decade ahead. In this episode, we unpack...

What happens when asset owners stop managing asset classes and start managing the whole fund? How do portfolios change, and how does the industry reorient their business models around them? In this episode, a practical sequel to Season 1's introduction, we break down how TPA changes investment processes, how portfolios differ under an SAA framework, and what this means for external managers. With...

Listen in for a live recording of CAIA’s Capital Decanted Podcast that was hosted in New York City—where the conversation goes beyond surface-level takes to explore the deeper forces shaping capital allocation. Hosted by CAIA’s John Bowman and Aaron Filbeck, the podcast brings together leading voices in asset management to challenge perspectives and unpack today’s most important industry shifts. G...

In every tech supercycle, investors are good at identifying disruptive technologies, but bad at picking the winners. AI is no different, except for the pace and velocity of growth, investment, and hype. And this time the incumbents are leading the charge. This episode works through how to separate the hype from who actually captures the enterprise value, walking through four layers of the AI inves...

Unprecedented geopolitical instability, the invasion of AI, and the convergence of public and private markets are causing a system-level reset for the investment profession. An endowment CEO, a global private capital partner, a Chief Investment Strategist, and a secondaries veteran walk into a room and each is experiencing and responding to this reset differently. Join CAIA Association on June 16...

Geopolitical change, product disruption, and technological transformation have all made this the most complicated moment in history to navigate capital markets. CAIA Association spent the last 12 months finding out why. After convening 120 global executives across eight financial centers we're proud to introduce: The World Rewired , a blueprint for the decade ahead. In this episode, we unpack...

What happens when governments can't fund infrastructure anymore? A $1.6 trillion private asset class that doesn't recognize itself in the mirror. In the 2020s, infrastructure has entered a battlefield where geopolitics, government agendas, and investor returns collide. We trace infrastructure's evolution from nation-building mechanism to one of the most integrated asset classes in mode...

The asset management industry is knocking on the door of the 401(k) system in the U.S.. While it has been the driving argument for inclusion, access alone doesn’t answer the harder questions. We step back from product hype to examine whether defined contribution plans are structurally equipped to handle illiquidity, complexity, and risk at scale. Joined by Dan Cahill of Partners Group and Drew Car...

What happens when asset owners stop managing asset classes and start managing the whole fund? How do portfolios change, and how does the industry reorient their business models around them? In this episode, a practical sequel to Season 1's introduction, we break down how TPA changes investment processes, how portfolios differ under an SAA framework, and what this means for external managers. W...

Growth equity has evolved from the “middle child” between venture and buyout into a distinct and increasingly institutionalized part of the private markets ecosystem. Its role in capital formation, the characteristics of the companies it targets, and the ways value is created have sharpened its identity in a post-COVID market. In this episode, we are joined by Steve McCourt of Meketa and Suzanne G...

Space exploration has historically been viewed as a lofty and prideful goal of governments and the old space economy has been led by legacy private sector telecom companies. But what happens when innovation and competition heats up, launch costs are dramatically pushed down, and geopolitical tensions arise amongst nations? Are we in a new space race? What will the outcome be? Join us and guests Lu...

Say goodbye to tired market takes and superficial sound bites. Because here, instead of skimming the surface, we dive into the heart of capital allocation — striking the perfect balance and exposing the subtleties that reveal the topic’s true essence. Prepare to have your perspectives challenged as we open up the issues that resonate with the hearts and minds of those shaping capital allocation.

Today’s asset management business has quickly transformed into a race to build out a stable of thoroughbreds--investment strategies across a spectrum of conventional public equity and debt as well as offerings across the continuum of private capital--equity, credit, secondaries, real estate, infrastructure etc. What makes recent history particularly unique are the crossover deals from traditional...

How does a legacy private capital partnership who has thrived solely in the institutional draw down LP ecosystem, assemble the apparatus to begin distributing those strategies to the individual investor? When client acquisition and conversations, investor sophistication, product design, culture, operational support etc. are all fundamentally different...where do they start in this overhaul? What c...

What do co-investments, secondaries, joint ventures, and NAV lending have in common? To some, they sound like complex investment vehicles - to us, they represent the cutting-edge tools reshaping how asset owners build portfolios. Gone are the days of relying solely on the binary choice between insourcing or outsourcing investment capabilities. Today’s institutional investors have a dynamic, custom...

After many booms, busts, and shakeouts in crypto markets, the pump seems primed for broader adoption in institutional portfolios. Are we really doing this? How might a seemingly crypto-friendly Trump Administration fuel further adoption in the largest capital market in the world? In this episode, we use history as a guide, exploring the phases of crypto adoption and wrestling with whether we'r...

Despite being thousands of years old, China’s current economic and political system began to take shape only in the late 20th century, particularly following the economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s. Today, China represents one of the largest economies in the world, a breeding ground for innovation, and an exciting capital market increasingly open to foreigners. However, recent policy swin...

Asset-based lending has come of age, but its evolution has made it challenging to put it in a homogeneous category or asset class, given its complexity and diversity of the underlying universe. From receivables and real estate to royalties and R&D, the range of collateral backing these loans raises questions about ABL's position within the broader private credit complex. In this episode, w...