The chapter delves into the speaker's journey from a position at Carnegie to becoming a CIO for Michael Dell's family office, exploring the differences in environments, the need for a listening tour, and the fluidity of decision-making with one person's capital. It reflects on the challenges of managing personal investments and building a team while adapting best practices from previous institutional experience. The discussion also touches on the uniqueness of family offices, personal growth through mentorship, and the value of fostering trust and mission-driven leadership within organizations.
Today’s show is the first in an ongoing mini-series discussing Breeding Grounds, organizations that have developed and spawned future industry leaders. We’ll cover both allocators and managers to see what we can learn about developing talent.
In the first episode of the mini-series, we discuss Carnegie Corporation of New York. Ellen Shuman became Carnegie’s first CIO in 1999 after working for David Swensen at Yale. Over her dozen year tenure and that of Meredith Jenkins and Kim Lew for the next dozen, and incredible 8 of the 17 investment professionals that walked in the door have become CIOs, and the rest appear either on their way or found their passion as leaders in complimentary roles or outside the industry. Those who became sitting CIOs are Meredith at Carnegie and Trinity Wall Street, Kim at Carnegie and Columbia, Jon Michael Consalvo at Carnegie, Alisa Mall at Michael Dell’s Family Office, Niles Bryant at Bowdoin College, Brooke Jones at Bryn Mawr College, Ken Lee at Children’s Healthcare, and Li Tan at Radian X. Carnegie is a lesser-known allocator training ground than Yale, but it’s produced half the number of future CIOs from fraction of the team size.
My guests to discuss how this happened are Ellen Shuman, Meredith Jenkins, Kim Lew, and Alisa Mall. We cover the chronology of their paths, and the Carnegie organization and investment process, including recruiting, culture, research, decision-making, and succession. Alongside the many applicable lessons they share, their palpable love and respect for each other is evident from the get go.
Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership