Lawrence Calcano - The Private Markets Revolution

Lawrence Calcano, CEO of iCapital, began his path to finance with a surprising fork in the road, a theater audition on the very same day as his Morgan Stanley interview. That moment set the stage for a remarkable career shaped by both creativity and strategy.

Lawrence discovered that the same skills that bring a story to life on stage are just as essential in building successful teams and businesses. From helping to build Goldman Sachs' East Coast Tech Group in the early 1990s when the internet was a "fire hose" of innovation to witnessing the highs of the Netscape IPO and the lessons of the dot-com collapse, Lawrence has had a front-row seat to the evolution of technology and capital markets.

Now, as the leader of iCapital, he shares how the firm has invested over $700 million in technology to tackle one of wealth management's biggest challenges: expanding access to alternative investments for high-net-worth investors. Calcano opens up about the early skepticism from fund managers, the "chicken-and-egg" dynamics of building a two-sided marketplace, and how a relentless focus on education, access, and automation helped iCapital reshape the industry.

Lawrence Calcano is the Chairman and CEO of iCapital, the world's alternative investment marketplace. Since 2013, he has led the strategic vision and guidance that has defined iCapital as a leading financial technology provider iCapital now services more than $270 billion in client assets on the platform across more than 1,760 funds and 106,000 underlying accounts and has 16 offices worldwide Lawrence has appeared on the Forbes Midas List five times.

Prior to joining iCapital, Lawrence was a partner and managing director at Goldman, Sachs & Co. for over seventeen years, including serving as the co-head of the Global Technology Banking Group within the Investment Banking Division. He was responsible for all aspects of technology financing for the internet, digital & e-commerce, software, services & hardware client businesses. He began his career at Morgan Stanley.

Outside of technology, Lawrence's other passion is mental health & wellbeing, and this has led him to serve as a director of Vibrant Emotional Health (formerly the Mental Health Association of NY) for more than 10 years.

Lawrence received a BA from the College of the Holy Cross and graduated from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College as a Tuck Scholar.

Please enjoy my interview with Lawrence Calcano.

iCapital website: https://icapital.com

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