Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Latest Episodes:

Steve Kuhn – Life After Hedge Funds (Capital Allocators, EP.85) Feb 04, 2019

Show notes

Steve 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 money game, presenting the evidence-based case for active manager alpha, talking the state of the hedge fund industry, managing his own money, engaging in philanthropy, and proposing the IDEAL immigration model.

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Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) Jan 28, 2019

Show notes

Donna 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 long-tenured senior team member, including the nitty gritty details of the internal investment process, the tricky decision process that goes into adding a manager or taking one out of the portfolio, the management of overlays and internal trades, the different roles of a CIO and senior investment team member, current challenges in venture capital, value investing, hedge funds, and emerging markets, and the politics of getting named a Most Wanted future CIO.

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Ron Biscardi – Putting Hedge Funds in Context (Capital Allocators, EP.83) Jan 21, 2019

Show notes

Ron Biscardi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Context Capital Partners and a Partner and Board Member of Context Summits. Ron sits at the intersection of buyers and sellers for small funds, and actively invests as a provider of acceleration capital.

Our conversation covers Ron's path from an engineer to an asset management entrepreneur, the challenges and opportunities of investing in small hedge funds, the disconnect with the perception of hedge funds in the media and the reality that occurs at the Context Summit, the interests of single-family offices, and new investment opportunities on the horizon.

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Jean Hynes – Inside Wellington Management (Capital Allocators, EP.82) Jan 14, 2019

Show notes

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 Wellington of the future. Along the way we touch on Jean's progression from an administrative assistant to a Managing Partner, the healthcare team's investment philosophy and process, a day in her work life, and topical issues of active vs. passive, public and private investing, and large vs. small firms.

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Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) Jan 07, 2019

Show notes

Jennifer 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 describing the differences in hedge fund and private equity branding. We then turn to some of Jen's fascinating observations learned from her experience, including raising entrepreneurial children, working with millennials and Gen Z staffers, and implementing the principals of 'Just Ask', behave with humanity, and not thinking in black and white.

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Top 10 Episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018 Dec 31, 2018

Show notes

Please enjoy this countdown of the top 10 most downloaded episodes of Capital Allocators in 2018 (and top 5 most downloaded episodes featuring CIOs).

If you have any ideas and can make introductions to guests who might crack next year's top 10, please send the my way.

Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

Tim McCusker – Consistency and Creativity as CIO at NEPC (Capital Allocators, EP. 80) Dec 17, 2018

Show notes

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 megatrends of artificial intelligence, income inequality, demographics, and shifting currency regimes.

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Brent Beshore - Micro Buyout Adventur.es (Capital Allocators, EP.79) Dec 10, 2018

Show notes

Brent Beshore is the founder and CEO of Adventur.es, an investment firm that buys small family-owned businesses with the intention of holding them indefinitely. After launching a few businesses out of college, Brent developed a distinct investment strategy and style. Earlier this year, he raised outside capital for the first time in a permanent capital vehicle, and I am a happy investor in the fund.

Brent regularly shares his insights on business and investing through his widely distributed letters on his website and commentary on Twitter. And just last week, he released his first book, The Messy Marketplace: Selling Your Business in a World of Imperfect Buyers. It's a fantastic instructional guide that covers everything from emotional expectations to the fine print in documentation.

Our conversation covers Brent's childhood interest in business, early mistakes, structural differences in his strategy from traditional private equity, search funds and fundless sponsors, sourcing deals, conducting due diligence, understanding valuation, negotiating, raising a first-time permanent capital vehicle, entering the ranks of professionals, and his new book.

Brent is unusually insightful about investing in general and deeply knowledgeable about the niche he occupies.

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Tom Bushey – Launching a Hedge Fund (Capital Allocators EP.78) Dec 03, 2018

Show notes

Tom Bushey is the founder of Sunderland Capital, a Boston-based hedge fund he started in 2016. Tom graduated from the Wharton School as an undergraduate, and worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse First Boston, private equity analyst at Thayer Capital, hedge fund analyst at Millenium and Mayo Capital, and portfolio manager at Blackrock before trying his hand on his own. Even with that stellar resume, the road to success running an asset management business has plenty of obstacles along the way.

Our conversation tells Tom's story of what happened through his career and launch process. He shares an inside look from a manager's perspective of what it takes to get a fund off the ground.

As an important aside and disclaimer, I've known Tom for a while and have advised him for the last two years. I happen to like him a lot, both personally and professionally, but you should know I have a small vested interest in his success.

Mark Baumgartner – Luck, Risk and Uncertainty at the Institute for Advanced Study (Capital Allocators, EP.77) Nov 26, 2018

Show notes

Mark 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 to achieve a low risk profile, and how he has stayed the course when that structure hasn't been rewarded by markets. We talk about identifying managers that fit into his approach and different metrics of defining risk at both the manager and portfolio levels.

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