Conversations with Mike Milken

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Ep. 45: Anchored, with Admiral James Stavridis May 18, 2020

Show notes

“The US and China, particularly in 2020, are on something of a collision course....We should confront where we must, we should cooperate where we can, and we should be clear-eyed that we're in for a period of real tension.”

A retired 4-star, Admiral James Stavridis has not lost his focus on the future of geopolitics and American national security. Recently, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO has turned his attention to how a pandemic will alter the world order and how America might navigate the crisis.

“Europe will come out of this at worst neutral [and] China will come out clearly in a stronger position,” he tells Mike. “For the United States, we need to avoid the mistake of leaning too far toward isolationism....That's going to be crucial for the United States in this 21st century.”

Ep. 44: The Virus and the Clock, with Moderna’s Tal Zaks May 15, 2020

Show notes

“In this fight, where we are today—this is May of 2020—there's a lot of other companies and a lot of other approaches that are trying to generate vaccines. I wish them all success, and we all need to be successful here. I have only two competitors in this race: the virus and the clock.”

If developing a COVID-19 vaccine were a race, Tal Zaks and Moderna Therapeutics won the first leg. It took them only 63 days from the time the virus was sequenced until they had a new vaccine in human clinical trials. So impressed was BARDA—the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority—that they awarded Moderna $483 million to begin producing the vaccine should it gain FDA approval.

Their vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) to ‘reprogram’ the kinds of proteins a cell expresses—a potential game-changer. “You can make a completely different kind of drug and a completely different kind of vaccine with it,” Zaks tells Mike. “And with that you can go after targets that traditional medicine has found really hard to target.”

Ep. 43: Turning Point, with CEPI’s Richard Hatchett May 13, 2020

Show notes

“When I was working at ground zero, I saw a level of cooperation and willingness for everybody to sort of check their egos at the door because we knew that we were all facing an external threat. And that's exactly what we're seeing today. We're all in this together.”

For Richard Hatchett, 9/11 changed everything. While serving as an oncology fellow in New York City, he quickly found himself on the front lines tending to the injured. He never looked back, shifting his focus to public health and toward helping as many people as possible deal with external threats. Today, as CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), he coordinates between multiple sectors to ensure that emerging vaccines are safe, effective, and readily available to all who need them.

“We wanted speed, we wanted vaccines that could scale, and we wanted to be able to ensure global access to those vaccines,” he tells Mike. “And so what we've ended up with is a deliberately diversified portfolio to overcome this pandemic.”

Ep. 42: Foresight, with WorldQuant Predictive’s James Golden May 12, 2020

Show notes

“We knew that some kind of pandemic has always been inevitable….What we didn't really predict was the magnitude of the impact, the stress on the healthcare system, shocks to markets and economies….How do we predict the new normal at speed and at scale?”

Predicting the future isn’t what it used to be, especially with the inherent variables of a pandemic. For WorldQuant Predictive CEO James Golden, the current crisis means putting his company’s artificial intelligence, machine learning, and quantitative finance approaches to the test as never before.

Everything today, it seems, is grist for his data mill: “EMR data, genomic data, sequencing data—all of those things are extremely valuable and tell us a lot about viral mutation, virulence, what happens with comorbidities. But there are other kinds of data: mobile phone data, transportation data, consumer signals, buying and demand curves….How do we think about creating actionable intelligence based on real data in the light of so many unknowns?”

Ep. 41: Play, with Mattel’s Ynon Kreiz May 11, 2020

Show notes

“Play is never canceled. You can cancel school, you can suspend retail stores or close movie theaters, but you cannot cancel play.”

For Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz, taking the helm of one the world’s iconic companies two years ago was a privilege and a responsibility. In the age of COVID-19, he views the company’s mission as more important than ever to help children—and their parents—navigate the challenge.

The company has even launched a special line of action figures called Thank You Heroes, which, as Kreiz describes to Mike Milken, “celebrates the individuals that are part of the frontline fight against COVID-19….We are contributing all net proceeds to a charity called First Responders First.”

Ep. 40: Can-Do, with MassMutual’s Roger Crandall May 07, 2020

Show notes

“You start by taking care of your people. Your people then can take care of their families and loved ones. That's how communities get taken care of. And that's kind of the building blocks that we see as being critical here.”

For MassMutual’s Roger Crandall, leadership in times of a pandemic means more opportunities to help policyholders and employees create virtuous cycles. Under his stewardship, the venerable life insurance company has offered $3 billion of free life insurance to frontline workers—a program he hopes to expand.

Crandall finds optimism in the federal Paycheck Protection Program and similar efforts: “This is American business and American ‘can-do-ism’ at its finest, in my opinion. So, I'm actually very optimistic that this can remind everybody of the ability of the public and private side to work together to get us to a better place.”

Ep. 39: Trial by Fire, with Credit Suisse’s Thomas Gottstein May 07, 2020

Show notes

“I was deeply impressed. They managed much bigger volumes than in any normal period, and we were really very proud and still are very proud how our fixed income and equity traders managed these challenges, because it was certainly not an easy environment.”

Thomas Gottstein became CEO of Credit Suisse on February 14, 2020. Within three weeks, the world had changed, and he found himself leading the storied firm through the uncharted waters of a pandemic. Moreover, Credit Suisse took a leading role in developing and executing its nation’s rescue package.

Gottstein, a 20-year veteran of Credit Suisse, understands the occasion to which his industry must rise: “Since the financial crisis, there were a lot of negative comments about the role of banks….This crisis has helped us to emphasize the important role banks can play in supporting the broader economy and supporting private individuals, corporates, or institutions in times of crisis.”

Ep. 38: Disparities, with Freda Lewis-Hall May 06, 2020

Show notes

“One of the other things that has come to light with regards to COVID-19 are health disparities….in the infection rates and the hospitalization rates and in the death rates of certain communities.”

As a young African American girl growing up in the early 1960s, Freda Lewis-Hall was accustomed to people telling her that she would never attain her dream of becoming a doctor. Today, she can look back at a 35-year career that included serving as Pfizer’s Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer, where she was a passionate advocate for health equity and improved outcomes for all patients.

Trained as a psychiatrist, Dr Lewis-Hall is particularly concerned about the impact COVID-19 is having on communities who are disproportionately affected with higher mortality rates, and who perform much of what we now consider essential frontline work. “From nursing staff and medical staff, EMTs, people who are working in grocery stores, who are picking up the trash, driving public transportation—these people are at exposed risk. They know it, and they're also dealing with the emotional disadvantage of facing this every day.”

Ep. 37: Resilience, with Hospitality Icon Stephen J. Cloobeck May 05, 2020

Show notes

“The consumer is resilient. Vacations are mandatory. I believe the cruise business within a year will be back. I truly believe that. And I believe the [Las Vegas] Strip will be back within that period of time too.”

As the founder of Diamond Resorts International and the former chairman of Brand USA—the nation’s first public-private partnership to promote tourism—Nevada native Stephen J. Cloobeck has led the hospitality industry through good times and bad.

As he consults with companies and governments about COVID-19, he’s focused on guest safety, transparent communications, and the resilient nature of the human impulse to explore the world. He’s also a realist when it comes to reopening the nation: “If you're looking for a perfect solution, it doesn't exist.”

Ep. 36: The Pioneer, with the National Cancer Institute’s Steven Rosenberg May 04, 2020

Show notes

“We're perhaps working now at 10% of where we were working before the COVID infections. It's heartbreaking to think what cancer patients are going through as they're watching their cancers grow, and yet have to deal with this threat of the virus and problems in getting access to care.”

When Steven Rosenberg joined the National Cancer Institute more than 45 years ago, he was determined to prove that a patient’s own immune system could be used to fight cancer. His interleukin-2 therapy was approved by the FDA for cancer in 1992, leading to many more advances and resulting in thousands of lives extended and saved.

Today, this pioneer of immunotherapy is seeking to better understand how to use those same advances to fight COVID-19. “We're taking information that we've learned from cancer treatment and learning to at least control some of the morbidity that occurs from a viral infection, which comes from the vigorous immune reaction and the release of hormones that causes many of the side effects of COVID.”

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