Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Latest Episodes:

Mathieu Chabran – Good Deals Have No Wheels at Tikehau Capital (First Meeting, EP.23) Oct 12, 2020

Show notes

Mathieu Chabran, a co-founder and Co-CIO of Tikehau Capital, a publicly listed alternative asset manager that oversees 25 billion Euros across private credit, real estate, private equity, and liquid strategies.

Our conversation tells the story of how Mathieu and his friend Antoine began with 4 million EU in 2004 and turned it into one of Europe's alternative asset juggernauts in just 14 years. We cover the founding of Tikehau, the importance of alignment and having skin in the game, and having a diverse, multi-cultural team. We then turn to investing, and discuss why good deals have no wheels, the competitive landscape, sourcing, due diligence and decision-making processes, opportunities and risks, and lessons learned.

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Scott Wilson – Concentrated Investing at Washington University-St. Louis (Capital Allocators, EP. 159) Oct 05, 2020

Show notes

Scott Wilson is the CIO at Washington University of St. Louis, where he oversees a $10 billion endowment. Scott joined Wash U three years ago from Grinnell College, where he learned a completely different style of endowment investing than is practiced by others. Our conversation covers Scott's upbringing, early Wall Street career in equity research and derivatives across New York, London and Tokyo, and his leap to Grinnell. We then turn to his applying the Grinnell model at Wash U, transitioning an endowment model portfolio to a concentrated book. We touch on hedge funds and frontier markets and turn to the process of underwriting individual ideas and managers in the context of a concentrated endowment portfolio.

Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien – Best Practices in Alternatives (Capital Allocators, EP.158) Sep 28, 2020

Show notes

Luke Ellis and Mario Therrien are long-time veterans of the hedge fund industry who hold the Chairman and Deputy Chairman seats of the SBAI, or Standards Board of Alternative Investments. The SBAI is an industry consortium that brings together managers and investors to set best practices for the alternative investment industry. In their day jobs, Luke is the CEO of Man Group, the largest publicly traded hedge fund company with $120 billion in assets, and Mario is the Head of Investment Funds and External Management at Canadian pension and insurance fund manager CDPQ, where he oversees $45 billion of funds managed externally. Our conversation focuses on the activities of the SBAI, including its purpose, origin, members, and evolution. We cover how members of an industry driven by different interests came to agree on anything and what has transpired since its founding after the financial crisis. We then turn to the state of the hedge fund industry and discuss its structure, fees, and future.

[REPLAY] Mario Therrien – The Canadian Pension Model (Capital Allocators, EP.12) Sep 28, 2020

Show notes

Mario Therrien is Senior Vice President of External Portfolio Management at Canadian asset manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP). CDP oversees $270 billion Canadian ($200B in USD) for the pension funds in the province of Quebec. Mario joined CDP in the early 1990s after completing his Masters degree in Finance and has worked there ever since.

Mario started out at CDP managing a tactical asset allocation strategy, created an internal global macro hedge fund, and later built and managed the team responsible for investments in external public market funds. Starting from scratch, CDP oversees $20B of external manager allocations today. Mario's team serves as CDP's 'window to the world' of markets, strategies, and managers across the globe.

Our conversation dives into the 'Canadian pension model' which has gained prominence in recent years for the strong performance by funds north of the U.S. border. The model incorporates internal management, risk control, partnership, and collaboration. Drawing on a quarter century of experience, Mario shares his window into this little-known world of investment success.

Paul Marshall – 10 ½ Lessons from 23 years at Marshall Wace (Capital Allocators, EP.157) Sep 21, 2020

Show notes

Sir Paul Marshall is a co-founder and Chairman of Marshall Wace Asst Management, which is Europe's largest hedge fund overseeing $48 billion. The firm specializes in long-short equity management and notably combines fundamental investing with systematic and quantitative strategies. Paul recently authored the book 10 ½ Lessons from Experience: Perspectives on Fund Management, and the show completes a trifecta of consecutive book authors whose work I thoroughly enjoyed this summer. Alongside his long history in the business, Paul has been deeply involved in philanthropy focused on education, and he was knighted for this work in 2016. And if that's not quite enough, his son Winston is a band member of the popular folk rock band Mumford & Sons. Our conversation covers Paul's background. the history of Marshall Wace and the firm's evolution. We touch on his thoughts about quantitative and qualitative investing and on internal and external fund management. And then we turn to his new book, covering lessons relating to market efficiency, skill, portfolio construction, shorting, man and machines, size, and careers.

Annie Duke – How to Decide (Capital Allocators, EP.156) Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

Annie Duke, former professional poker player, decision-making expert, best-selling author, and regular guest on the show. Annie's latest masterpiece is her book entitled How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices, and it releases next week. How to Decide follows her best-seller Thinking in Bets, shifting from highlighting causes of bad decisions to discussing process for making better ones. Our conversation covers the six steps to outline a comprehensive decision framework, factors that determine when to shorten that lengthy decision process, the power of negative thinking, decisions in groups, and work with Committees.

[REPLAY] Gary Klein with Paul Sonkin and Paul Johnson – Conducting Pre-Mortem Analysis (Capital Allocators, EP.109) Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

Gary Klein is a noted cognitive psychologist with an innate ability to see what others don't. Over his 40-year career in the field, he's pioneered the field of naturalistic decision making, the Pre-Mortem method of risk assessment, and the ShadowBox training approach. Gary is the author of five books and editor of three more, and most recently, founded Shadow Box, LLC in 2005 to train decision makers on his technique. You can learn all about Gary at gary-klein.com.

Paul and Paul, you may recall, were guests on the show discussing their book that I greatly enjoyed, Pitch the Perfect Investment. Both are former investors and professors of finance.

Together Gary, Paul and Paul co-authored a paper entitled Rendering a Powerful Tool Flaccid: The Misuse of Premortems on Wall Street. The paper is a detailed look at how properly conduct Pre-Mortem analysis.

Our conversation covers Gary's background studying expertise with fighter pilots, tools to improve decision-making, including the Shadow Box technique, Cognitive After-Action Reviews, and Pre-Mortems. We then do a deep dive on Pre-Aortem analysis, including its history in the Air Force, what it is, how it works, when it falls short, and the benefits of reducing overconfidence, time efficiency, increasing candor, making groups smarter. We discuss views on other risk mitigation techniques as well, including devil's advocates, red teams, risk assessment, and critiques.

I found the conversation an incredible door opener to one of the most effective and time-efficient sources of value in improving investment decision-making processes. I'm privileged and excited to share this conversation with you.

[REPLAY] Annie Duke – Thinking More in Bets (Capital Allocators, EP.76) Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

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 mistakes Annie's advisory clients have made after reading her book. We close with some questions from the audience and end with two great poker stories of how Annie approached being a woman in the male-dominated poker world. Annie's irrepressible brain was on display this time around, covering a few of the same ideas from our last conversation and some new ones with different anecdotes along the way.

[REPLAY] Annie Duke - Improving Decision Making [Capital Allocators, EP.39] Sep 14, 2020

Show notes

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 active mind that constantly searches for accurate truth.

I highly recommend Annie's new book, Thinking in Bets, which comes out this week. In her life after poker, she is a featured speaker, writes a newsletter and a blog, and advises companies on improving their decision-making process. Have a look at her website, annieduke.com, for more information.

Our conversation discusses Annie's path from an Ivy League education to professional poker, the nature of a bet, how we form beliefs, why we make bad decisions, and what we can do to improve our decision-making process. Towards the end, we also talk about bankroll management, poker faces, and advice she would give the President on how to make better decisions.

Morgan Housel – The Psychology of Money (Capital Allocators, EP.155) Sep 07, 2020

Show notes

Morgan Housel is a partner at Collaborative Fund and one of my favorite writers about investing. Morgan recently released his first book, The Psychology of Money, and I'll go on record and predict it will be a best-seller in short order. Our conversation starts with Morgan's non-traditional education, his path to writing, and his process for writing each week. We then turn to the book and discuss some anecdotes about luck and risk, greed, compounding, patience, and tail events. We close with two of Morgan's personal stories – one about his own investing and the other, which seems inconceivable as you listen, about his lifelong challenge with stuttering.

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