Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

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 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. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

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. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Tom Bushey, founder of Sunderland Capital, shares his journey of starting a hedge fund, highlighting the challenges, team dynamics, and investment focus. He discusses the importance of self-belief, team building, and personal qualities in entrepreneurship.

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. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Annie Duke, a decision-making expert and former world-class poker player, shares riveting insights from her book, "Thinking in Bets." She discusses the complexities of separating signal from noise in decision-making and how biases can cloud judgment. Duke emphasizes the importance of collaborative decision groups and continuous learning. With engaging poker anecdotes, she reveals strategies for navigating uncertainty and managing groupthink, while offering valuable lessons on being a woman in a male-dominated environment.

Michael Lombardi is a thirty-year veteran of professional football, including as a General Manager and a three-time Super Bowl winning executive. He is the author of the fantastic recently released bookGridiron Genius, A Master Class in Winning Championships and Building Dynasties in the NFL. The book is a tour de force of applied leadership through his learnings working alongside football greats Bill Walsh, Al Davis, and Bill Belichick. Since stepping aside from the front office to write his book, Michael appears as a commentator on television, hosts the top-ten sports podcast, GM Street, and speaks to businesses about leadership and teamwork. Our conversation covers his early passion for football, the contrasting leadership styles of Bill Walsh and Al Davis, the magic of Bill Belichick, the four areas of leadership, the science and art of scouting, and where the front office breaks down. Michael embodies the style of leader that he describes, and his lessons are applicable to investment and business leaders alike. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Last week, the senseless and tragic events at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh left me and many others asking questions about our world today. This one hit a little closer to home for me than the many other equally terrible events that have occurred because my mother grew up in Squirrel Hill. Our family is a generation removed and not closely connected to the town anymore, but my friends Andy Fisher and Jeff Solomon very much are. Andy is the President of CIM Investment Management in Pittsburgh, where he has worked for a quarter-century and oversees $1.4 billion. He was born and raised in Squirrel Hill and lives a few blocks from the Tree of Life Synagogue. Andy sent me an email last Monday with a clip from an interview that our mutual friend Jeff conducted on MSNBC. Jeff is the CEO of Cowen Group and is a proud Pittsburgh and Squirrel Hill native. He was also the guest on the 9th Episode of Capital Allocators, and you can find a replay right after this special episode. I sat down with Jeff last Wednesday to talk about his experience in the initial days of these tragic events. That conversation follows. I want to offer a special thanks to Andy for the thread that led to this episode, and offer prayers and healing to Andy, Jeff, their family and friends directly impacted in Squirrel Hill, and to everyone I don't know wherever acts of hated have impacted their lives.

Jeffrey Solomon is the President of publicly listed Cowen Group (TK: COWN), a financial services company focused on supporting and providing active management to the marketplace. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988, Jeff deferred an acting career with a brief respite on Wall Street, but he hasn't looked back since. In 1994, he joined Peter Cohen, then the former head of investment bank Shearson Lehman Brothers, to form money management firm Ramius Advisors. Ramius grew to become one of the largest hedge funds in the world, and in 2009 merged with boutique investment bank Cowen Group. Following the merger, Jeff switched over to the investment bank side of the business and today serves as its Chief Executive Officer, where he embodies the firm's core values of vision, tenacity and empathy. Our conversation starts with a passionate description of Pittsburgh sports, and flows to how active managers succeed in the 1990s and need to evolve to succeed today. We discuss the importance of empathy in the investment business, and touch on how Jeff's summer camp experience as a kid informs how he manages people today. His answers to my closing questions are just amazing. If you're short on time, fast forward to the 51stminute of the show. You'll miss plenty along the way, but you don't want to miss these. Please enjoy my conversation with Jeff Solomon. Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast

Karl Scheer is the Chief Investment Officer of the University of Cincinnati's billion-dollar endowment. Before taking the helm at Cincinnati in 2011, he co-ran a family office and spent eight years in the venture capital industry. Our conversation covers Karl's background, running a family office in the teeth of the Global Financial Crisis, high-functioning governance, avoiding the worst managers, taking the hard road, conducting due diligence with popular managers and without checklists, and picking your spots. Book Links John Brooks, Once in Golconda: A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1938 Edward Chancellor, Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation John Brooks and Michael Lewis, The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s Learn More Discuss show and Read the Transcript Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Join the Capital Allocators Forum Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast