The HPScast

This week, host Colbert Cannon looks at key takeaways from The HPScast's third season. We'll be back in the fall with more great interviews, but we encourage you to enjoy these last days of summer by checking out all of the Best Ideas from our guests.

Sitting down with host Colbert Cannon this week is President of Corporate Banking at Capital One, Darren Alcus. We’ll hear about his education at Dartmouth and earning his MBA at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Darren walks us through his time at Bankers Trust in Atlanta before spending two decades at GE, resulting in him becoming President and CEO of GE’s health care financial services business unit. We’ll also hear how Capital One came to purchase the branch Alcus ran at GE and why he’s stayed with Capital One to this day.   Learn more about Darren's role at Capital One here. Take a look at Darren's Best Idea, the book The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson, here. Colbert’s Best Idea this week is to take a trip to New Orleans - check out one of his favorite NOLA restaurants, August, here.

Colbert’s guest on this week's episode is CEO of Rayus Radiology Kim Tzoumakas. Having received her undergraduate degree from Northwood University and her law degree from Western Michigan, Tzoumakas has had a nearly 20 year long career at Hall Render, a prominent law firm focused on the healthcare industry. Kim and Colbert discuss her time at Hall Render, other positions she has held as a leading healthcare executive, and the challenges she overcame in those roles. To learn more about Rayus Radiology, formerly known as the Center for Digital Imaging, visit their website here. Check out Colbert's Best idea, supporting pediatric cancer research through the organization Cookies for Kids Cancer, here.

Host Colbert Cannon is joined by founder and managing partner of Brewer Lane Ventures, John Kim. We’ll hear about how he went from earning an MBA at University of Connecticut to leading Cigna’s Retirement and Investment services business all the way through Prudential’s acquisition of the company in 2004. John speaks about joining New York Life as CEO in the midst of a global financial crisis. We’ll also hear about what led him to launch Brewer Lane Capital, an early stage venture capital firm, in 2019.To learn more about Brewer Lane Ventures, visit the website here.Check out John’s Best Idea, Stephen Covey's book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People here. Learn more about Colbert’s Best Idea, the book Cod, by writer Mark Kurlansky here.

Colbert Cannon sits down with Anthony Wilbon, the Dean of Howard University's School of Business. We hear about his experience as a consultant for everything from Westinghouse and Booz Allen and Hamilton to the Fed, all while pursuing an MBA at Howard University in the evenings. Anthony speaks to the enriching experience he had at Howard University, which catalyzed his eventual pivot into academia to become a mentor to up-and-coming generations. We also discuss the ongoing partnership between HPS and Howard University to help the latter's students find their way into careers in private investment and investment banking.To learn more about the partnership, visit the website here.Check out Colbert's Best Idea, the book Greed and Glory on Wall Street by Ken Auletta here.

Join host Colbert Cannon in conversation with Will Mesdag, a Senior Advisor to HPS. We’ll hear about his 21-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he spanned various locations from New York to Frankfurt, and caught the eye of former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. We discuss his transition to founding Red Mountain Capital Partners in 2005. We also learn about his work with the Equity Alliance to invest in diverse fund managers.    To learn more about Equity Alliance, visit the website here.Check out Will’s Best Idea, the book Wilmington's Lie by Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino, here. Learn more about Colbert’s Best Idea, the book The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, here.

In this episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Tracy Blackwell, CEO of U.K.-based Pension Insurance Corporation. We learn about her transition from Goldman Sachs to helping start PIC, a U.K.-based defined benefits scheme liabilities insurer. We gain insights on the two trillion pounds market and its trajectory. We also hear how Tracy led her fast-growing team through the global pandemic and beyond.Check out Colbert's Best Idea, Tony Kushner's Angels in America here, now streaming on HBO Max.

Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett, a self-described American trapped in an Englishman's body who’s become one of the most prominent football (read: soccer, for our less Anglocentric listeners) commentators in the U.S. We hear how he and co-host Michael Davis turned a niche football podcast into a primetime show scooped up by ESPN. We also hear about Roger’s love affair with the America that he dreamed of while growing up in Liverpool in the 80s, and his path to becoming a U.S. citizen.Roger's new book, (Re)born in the USA, is now available wherever books are sold. Learn more about the  book here. Listen to Roger's podcast, Men in Blazers, here.Check out Roger's Best Idea, music programming from Australian radio station triple j here. You can find more on Colbert's Best Idea, the beloved New York local bookstore, The Strand, here. 

Colbert Cannon sits down with Dick Parsons, Senior Advisor at Providence Equity and former CEO of TimeWarner. We hear about his work as legal counsel to President Gerald Ford, and his eventual transition out of the courtroom and into the boardroom as CEO of Dime Savings Bank and later TimeWarner. We discuss how he navigated Citigroup as their Board Chair through the calamitous financial industry post-2008 and talk about leading under duress. We also learn about Dick’s efforts with Equity Alliance to help level the playing field regarding access to capital.To learn more about Equity Alliance, visit the website here. Check out Dick's Best Idea, the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson here. And be sure to stream David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO Max here.

In this episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Megan Colligan, President of IMAX Corporation. We hear about Megan’s career path from Wall Street, to political campaigns, to the film industry. We also consider the future of theaters post-pandemic. And for horror film buffs, we learn about the unique strategy Megan used to promote the most profitable movie of all time, Paranormal Activity.You can watch Colbert’s Best Idea, Edge of Tomorrow, on Amazon, YouTube, or other streaming platforms.