• Jeff Glass - Home Equity Investment at Hometap (EP.418)
    Nov 21 2024

    Jeff Glass is the Cofounder and CEO of Hometap Equity Partners, a novel platform with $1 billion of investments alongside a mission to allow homeowners to access their home equity without having to sell, stress, or borrow. Jeff started the business eight years ago after a series of successes as an entrepreneur followed by seven years investing at Bain Capital Ventures.

    Our conversation covers Jeff’s early lessons in sales, entrepreneurship, and investing that led to the founding of Hometap. We then discuss Hometap’s investment strategy, including the chicken-and-egg problem of starting the business, sourcing homeowners, sourcing capital, and developing the team, culture, and infrastructure that brings it all together.

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    55 mins
  • Jon Glidden - Delta Airlines Pension Fund Turnaround (EP.417)
    Nov 18 2024

    Jon Glidden is the CIO of Delta Air Lines, where he oversees the company’s $16 billion pension fund. Jon joined Delta in 2011, when the plan had $7.5 billion in assets, a $13 billion underfunded liability, and the highest actuarial expected rate of return (9%) of any company in the S&P 500. Despite funded status that threatened the solvency of the company thirteen years ago, investment performance combined with corporate contributions that offset plan payouts have improved Delta’s funding status from 42% to 102% today, creating the largest corporate pension turnaround in history.

    Our conversation discusses Jon’s independent thinking and innovative approach that led to his incredible feat. We start with his Naval and investment background and then cover the four forces that drive his investment philosophy - portable alpha, private equity, portfolio construction, and governance - and the implementation of each.

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    57 mins
  • Chris and Rob Michalik - Twin Tackle of Private Equity at Kinderhook (EP.416)
    Nov 11 2024

    Chris and Rob Michalik are twin brothers and co-founders of Kinderhook Industries, a middle-market private equity firm overseeing $8 billion focused on healthcare services, environmental services, and the automotive aftermarket. Chris and Rob joined me on Private Equity Deals to discuss one of their portfolio companies, Ironclad Environmental Services, and that conversation is replayed in the feed.

    This time around, we discuss their story attached at the hip. We cover their background and path to starting Kinderhook, including rooming together for the first 26 years of their lives. We discuss the firm's family-like culture, three pillars of its investment approach, unwarranted scrutiny of private equity in the healthcare sector, and the recent example of their purchase of Stewardship Medical Group out of the bankrupt Steward Healthcare.

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    52 mins
  • [REPLAY] Ironclad Environmental Services – Chris and Rob Michalik (Kinderhook Industries), (PE Deals, S3E8)
    Nov 11 2024

    On episode eight of season three of Private Equity Deals, Chris and Rob Michalik discuss Kinderhook Industries’ investment in Ironclad Environmental Services.

    Chris and Rob are twin brothers and co-founders of Kinderhook, a twenty-year-old private equity firm that manages $5 billion specializing in middle-market businesses across healthcare services, environmental services, and automotive/light manufacturing.

    Ironclad Environmental Services is a leading provider of logistics-based solutions focused on the containment of industrial waste. It has 50 branches and a fleet of 29,000 specialized rental assets that store, separate, and transport liquid and solid industrial waste.

    Our conversation covers Kinderhook’s identification, due diligence, and negotiation of the deal. We discuss a significant early add-on acquisition, progress-to-date, and the future of Ironclad.

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    38 mins
  • Scott Bessent - Macro Maven (EP.415)
    Nov 4 2024

    Scott Bessent is the CEO and CIO of Key Square Group and a renowned global macro investor. His 40-year investment career has included two stints at Soros Fund Management, the first for a decade under Stan Druckenmiller and the second for five as CIO. In between, Scott launched a hedge fund, retired, and joined me at Protégé Partners when he learned retirement wasn’t for him.

    Following his second tour at Soros, Scott started Key Square with $4.5 billion, one of the largest hedge fund launches in history. Scott has been profiled in two best-selling investment books, Steve Drobny’s Inside the House of Money and Sebastian Mallaby’s More Money than God.

    Our conversation covers Scott’s investment path learning research from Jim Rogers, short selling from Jim Chanos, global macro investing from George Soros and Stan Druckenmiller, and twice hanging his own shingle. We discuss high-conviction ideas, asymmetric asset selection, position sizing, risk management, a hub and spoke approach, and core challenges of the global macro hedge fund business.

    I once told Scott that he could read the newspaper six months ahead of time because I had never encountered someone with his ability to connect dots and imagine investments others had not considered. His interest in improving the country’s economic picture has led him to shed his publicity-shy nature, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to share his story.

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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Ricky Sandler - Evolution of Long-Short Equity Investing (EP.414)
    Oct 28 2024

    Ricky Sandler is one of the OGs of fundamental long-short equity investing. Ricky started managing a hedge fund thirty years ago and founded Eminence Capital a few years later. Today, he is the CEO and CIO at Eminence, where he oversees $7 billion across long-short, long-only, and long-extension strategies.


    Our conversation covers Ricky’s path to launching Eminence in his twenties and the evolution of long-short investing in the decades since. We dive into Eminence's culture, adaptation in the investment process, and creation of investment products to meet the needs of allocators, each of which has been an essential part of the firm’s ability to survive and thrive amid changing market dynamics.


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    1 hr and 6 mins
  • WTT: Yale Backs Emerging Managers… and Then What?
    Oct 25 2024

    The Yale Investments Office will soon select its first round of Prospect Fellowship recipients. I’ve been thinking about why Yale launched the Fellowship and what might happen as it rolls out. Yale, emerging managers, and other allocators have opportunities and risks arising from the program, including some potential unintended consequences.

    Read Ted’s blog here.

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    16 mins
  • Brad Briner - Family Office to Public Service (EP.413)
    Oct 21 2024

    Brad Briner is the leading candidate for the Treasurer of North Carolina in the upcoming November election, a role that includes managing the state’s $115 billion pension fund. Brad put himself in the ring for the seat after twenty-five years of investment experience, serving most recently as Co-CIO of Willett Advisors, Michael Bloomberg’s family office. For more background on Willett, my conversation from 2019 with Chairman Steve Rattner is replayed in the feed.


    I don’t often get to talk about really poor investment performance on the podcast, but this time we do. North Carolina has finished dead last among peers over the last three and five years, that’s 50th of 50 states. Its twenty-year returns are almost equally dismal. This significant underperformance resulted from an overlay conservative asset allocation that will leave you shaking your head. Unfortunately, it’s what happens when unsophisticated professionals are tasked with serious investment jobs.


    Our conversation covers Brad’s story, investment and leadership insights from his experience and time at Willett, the problems with North Carolina’s investing and governance, and Brad’s desire and plan to turn around the state’s pension performance.


    I’ve known Brad for ten years and want to do everything I can to help him both win the important seat and succeed once there. So if you happen to live in North Carolina, please get out and vote – every vote truly counts in low turnout races like thisIf, like most of us, you don’t live there, please tell any friends you have who do live in the state. Lastly, if Brad is successful at the polls, he’ll need to build out a team with talented professionals who share his passion for investing and making a difference. Maybe you can help there too.


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    59 mins