Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

A few months ago an idea came to me to share some conversations with great capital allocators that I've been fortunate to know from my time in the business. I lined up my first three guests, and didn't know what would happen from there. Taking this journey without goals or expectations was new for me, and it's been a ton of fun. My first unexpected surprise in podcasting came from the answers to one of my closing questions. That question is : what is your favorite thing to do that's a complete waste of time. My own time consuming vice is pretty harmless, but I was curious what others would reveal in answer to the same question. As you'll hear, some of my guests followed my lead, but most quickly came upon an important life lesson. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Chris Douvos is Managing Director at Venture Investment Associates, a fund that invests $1B in commitments to venture capital funds. Chris is responsible for the management of relationships with the funds' managers and the identification and development of new manager relationships. He is the author of an entertaining blog about venture capital entitled SuperLP – Adventures in Investing, available at SuperLP.com. Prior to joining VIA, Chris spent seven years co-heading the private equity program at The Investment Fund For Foundations, or TIFF. In this role, he was responsible for another $1 billion in new capital commitments. Before joining TIFF, Chris worked on Princeton University's endowment team. He started his career as a strategy consultant at Monitor Company. He is a graduate of Yale University and the Yale School of Management. Our conversation starts with Chris' path to venture capital, through strategy consulting, investment banking and an endowment investment office. We talk about perception and reality in venture investing, exciting areas of future innovation, and the nuts and bolts of research, portfolio construction and decision making when running a portfolio of venture funds. When Chris pulls off his suit, the red undershirt of the Super LP remains. He's a charismatic guy with great insight into how the venture capital game is played and draws many parallels from venture to investing in general. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Andy Golden, President of Princeton University's Investment Management Company, shares insights on transforming PRINCO from $3B to $22.5B in assets. He discusses his unique career shift from photography to finance, emphasizing the critical role of collaboration and long-term perspectives. Golden delves into strategic asset allocation and the evolution of evaluating investment managers, especially during challenging times. He highlights the importance of nurturing internal talent, balancing data with intuition, and offers valuable life lessons relevant to the current market landscape.

Mario Therrien is Senior Vice President of External Portfolio Management at Canadian asset manager Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP). CDP oversees $270 billion Canadian ($200B in USD) for the pension funds in the province of Quebec. Mario joined CDP in the early 1990s after completing his Masters degree in Finance and has worked there ever since. Mario started out at CDP managing a tactical asset allocation strategy, created an internal global macro hedge fund, and later built and managed the team responsible for investments in external public market funds. Starting from scratch, CDP oversees $20B of external manager allocations today. Mario's team serves as CDP's 'window to the world' of markets, strategies, and managers across the globe. Our conversation dives into the 'Canadian pension model' which has gained prominence in recent years for the strong performance by funds north of the U.S. border. The model incorporates internal management, risk control, partnership, and collaboration. Drawing on a quarter century of experience, Mario shares his window into this little-known world of investment success. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Larry Kochard is the CEO and CIO of the University of Virginia Investment Management Company (UVIMCO), where he provides leadership, connectivity to the University, and responsibility for the University's $8.5 billion long-term investment pool. Before joining UVIMCO in 2011, he served as Georgetown University's first in-house CIO. Prior to that, he was Managing Director of Equity and Hedge Fund investments for the Virginia Retirement System. From 1997-2004, Larry was an adjunct, and later full-time, professor at Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. He spent his formative professional years in debt capital markets at Goldman Sachs, and corporate finance at Fannie Mae and DuPont. Larry received his B.A. in Economics from William & Mary, an MBA from the University of Rochester, and an MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Virginia. Our conversation covers tricky issues involving the internal management of portfolios alongside external manager allocations, UVIMCO's five core principals, and the consideration of absolute and relative metrics in asset allocation and performance. Our deep dive on UVIMCO's core principals and asset allocation provides an inside look at the subtleties required to maintain seemingly simple tenants. I'm quite sure everyone that touches the University of Virginia will come away thrilled that Larry is the steward of their capital. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

David Gurfein, Marine Corps Combat veteran, discusses principles of leadership, management, and resource allocation alongside colorful stories of success and failure. The podcast covers the importance of leadership development in the Marine Corps, the concept of learning through mistakes in the military, transitioning from Goldman Sachs to a high tech startup, favorite pastimes, lessons from parents, and reflections on personal relationships and career advice.

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. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Charley Ellis is one of the most highly regarded experts in the investment business. After spending nearly a decade as an equity research analyst in the 1960s, Charley founded financial services consulting firm Greenwich Associates in 1972 to help institutions understand what their clients think of them. Over 50 years, Charley has worked hand in hand with nearly every major financial institution in the world and has published sixteen books on investing, including his most recent "The Index Revolution: Why Investors Should Join It Now." Charley is not just another preacher for index fund investing. He extols the virtues of indexing after having looked both broadly and deeply under the covers of some of the most successful active managers in the world. Our conversation begins with a glimpse at what equity research and the structure of the markets looked like in the 1960s and the monumentally different way research is conducted and markets function today. Charley describes elegantly why indexing is a winner's game for many, and then walks through very special and rare qualities of three of the most successful active managers over the last few decades – Vanguard, Capital Group, and Yale University. Charley is a brilliant communicator and masterful storyteller. I hope you enjoy the show as much as I enjoyed the conversation. For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides

Jennifer Heller, President and CIO of Brandywine Trust Group, discusses sustainable competitive advantages, long-term investing, manager selection, and her experiences in microfinance. She reflects on frustrations with a non-profit in India and the challenges of working for a non-profit organization. The podcast also covers her time at the Stanford Endowment, the importance of mentorship, mistakes in managing money for families, and her favorite ways to waste time.

Josh Brown, CEO of Ritholz Wealth Management, shares his journey from a start in the wrong lessons of a brokerage to the reformed broker. He discusses the three worst lessons learned in the investment industry and the power of compounding. They also touch on investment committee decision-making and the importance of staying true to the investment model. Reflecting on past regrets, they discuss the significance of reading social cues and impactful words.