Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Latest Episodes:

Matt Whineray – Leading New Zealand Super Fund (Capital Allocators, EP.108) Sep 09, 2019

Show notes

Matt Whineray is the CEO of New Zealand Superannuation Fund or Super Fund, one of the highest performing, most innovative and well-regarded large-scale investment allocators in the world. The New Zealand government created the Super Fund in 2001 to help defray the costs of retirees in the country in the decades to come. Matt joined the organization in 2008 and became the CEO in 2018 and oversees NZ$42 billion.

Our conversation starts with Matt's background and the creation and objectives of the Super Fund. We then walk through the Super Fund's investment philosophy, which is guided by four competitive advantages or endowments and nine investment beliefs. From there, we dive into the implementation of the strategy, covering the risk allocation process, reference portfolio or benchmark of liquid assets, long-term risk budget and medium-term tactical targets across five risk baskets. We discuss the difference between these risk allocations and a traditional asset class structure, hybrid structure employing internal and external managers, internal strategic tilting program, structure of the team, current perspectives on asset classes, ESG, scaling activities to support upcoming inflows, and culture.

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

Scott Kupor - Andreessen Horowitz (First Meeting EP.07) Sep 02, 2019

Show notes

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 billion.

Scott has served on a number of industry-related Boards, including as Chairman of the Board of the National Venture Capital Association, and he currently sits on four non-profit Investment Committees. A few months ago, Scott published the national bestselling book, Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It,https://amzn.to/2GX5O9M

Our conversation is a full-blown overview of one of the leading venture capital firms and the dynamics at play in the venture industry. We cover Scott's shift from finance to an operating role, and from an individual producer to a manager, the formation of a16z, its founder-centric investment model, building services to increase their portfolio companies chance of success, sourcing investment ideas, conducting due diligence, making decisions, the competitive environment, Board seats, changes in the venture industry, the cardinal sins of venture investing, new frontiers for venture investment, how venture capitalists manage their own money, and the purpose of writing his book.

Eric Ries – Lean Start-Ups and the Long-Term Stock Exchange (Capital Allocators, EP.107) Aug 26, 2019

Show notes

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 2018 "40 Under 40."

Our conversation covers Eric's early startup experience, the core principles of a Lean Startup, his path to creating LTSE, key components of its business philosophy, value proposition, and business model, and the application of Lean Startup principles to building this business.

LTSE's mission is extraordinarily important to improve investment outcomes in public markets for all of our benefit. I encourage you to join the LTSE's Long-Term Investor Coalition on its website ltse.com or by emailing ltic@ltse.com, and ask questions of companies and managers you meet with to keep this movement top of mind.

David Druley – Structure into Action at Cambridge Associates (Capital Allocators, EP. 106) Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

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 brings a quarter-century of investment experience to the role, including a 16-year tenure at Cambridge. Our conversation covers David's path from value investing to Cambridge Associates, including a key early career lesson in calibrating risk tolerance. We discuss the history of Cambridge Associates, key characteristics of generating great investment returns, the manager selection process, and David's take on co-investments, long-only managers, hedge funds, fixed income, innovation, and future opportunities and challenges for the business. The discussion offers a nice compliment to my earlier conversation with Margaret Chen, who oversees Cambridge Associates' OCIO business. You can find that conversation replayed right after this one on the feed.

REPLAY - Margaret Chen – Leadership and Outsourcing the Investment Office (Capital Allocators, EP.35) Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

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 path, her evolution from a consultant to a principal, the value proposition of an OCIO, measuring performance, and the tension between being the same and being different for clients. Margaret has the ear of almost everyone in our field, and brings incredible perspective to addressing the key issues allocators face. 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

Michael Novogratz – Galaxy Digital (First Meeting, EP.06) Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

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 career, most recently riding bitcoin up starting in 2013, almost all the way down in 2017, and back up again this year.

Our conversation covers Mike's background as a wrestler and helicopter pilot, his development from salesman to trader, the art of speculation, his initial interest in Bitcoin, the business of Galaxy Digital, the development of the crypto ecosystem use cases in privacy, payments and video games, and obstacles to institutional adoption of crypto and blockchain assets. We close by discussing how Mike invests his family office assets and his engagement with criminal justice reform.

Paul Black - WCM Investment Management (First Meeting, EP.05) Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

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 sale of a minority stake in their business to Natixis Investment Managers.

Paul Black is portfolio manager and Co-CEO of WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989. His early career included positions at Wells Fargo Bank and Bank of America.

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 competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside.

Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought.

Jon Harris – Investing in People at AIM (Capital Allocators, EP.105) Jul 29, 2019

Show notes

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 network to source and diligence managers, filtering the universe of prospects, understanding the motivations of managers, conducting reference checks, and using the information they gather. We then turn to AIM's private equity strategy, including selecting managers, the misalignment of interests in co-investments, and the death by a thousand cuts of hidden fees. We close talking about the continued purpose of hedgeD funds, due diligence tricks, preparing for unexpected risk, managing time, and philanthropy.

André Bourbonnais – Blackrock Long-Term Private Capital (First Meeting, EP.04) Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

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 pension fund. He previously served as Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Private Investments at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), where he was responsible for over $65 billion in private market assets, the largest program of its kind globally.

Our conversation talks about the creation of Blackrock's innovative private equity fund starting with a clean sheet of paper. We discuss the traditional private equity playbook, the changes in financial structure, business strategy, and return drivers that can occur with permanent capital, the structure of the fund, deal origination, a new ownership playbook, the re-underwriting process, sell decisions, portfolio construction, and managing a team whose careers will be shorter than the duration of the fund.

Richard Lawrence – Overlook Investments Group (First Meeting, EP.03) Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

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 Asian equities that Richard founded in 1991. Over the past quarter-century, Overlook developed and implemented disciplined investment and business philosophies that interconnected to drive extraordinary results for its partners. Overlook has compounded capital at an annualized 14.5%, outperforming its benchmark by an insane 9% per annum. But that's not all, as Richard would proudly tell you himself, the capital weighted return of the average investor in Overlook is nearly identical to the time weighted return over any period of time – a rare feat in the money management industry. Indeed, today's asset base is the result of $4 billion of investment gains on top of $1 billion in contributed capital.

Our conversation starts with a look at investing in Asia in Overlook's early days and walks through the particulars of the approach Richard takes to investing and running his business, including attractive investment attributes, management integrity, portfolio construction, selling discipline, and China Yangtze Power - the only stock the firm supersized in an SPV in its history. We discuss Overlook's long-held cap on subscriptions and periodic reductions in its management fee, two business philosophies that Richard believes have been key drivers of Overlook's success.

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