My latest book, Private Equity Deals: Lessons in investing, dealmaking, and operations from private equity professionals, arrives next week. This post shares how this book came to be, a glimpse at what’s inside, and a rebuttal of common criticisms of private equity.

Read Ted’s blog here.

David Eichhorn is the CEO and Head of Investment Strategies at NISA, a $400 billion employee-owned asset manager of risk-controlled fixed income and derivative overlays that is widely respected for its highly collaborative client relationships. The firm is one of the largest derivative overlay managers in the world and the largest U.S. manager of LDI strategies. Our conversation dives into Dave’s twenty-five years at NISA, its client-centric focus, approach across fixed income and derivative strategies, culture, and opportunities and risks in the markets.

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Today’s show is quite different from our typical show. It’s an edited replay of a conversation from six years ago with Michael Mervosh, the Executive Director of the Hero’s Journey Foundation. Michael created HJF to provide experiential opportunities for human development and transformation based on Joseph Campbell’s mythic hero’s journey. A few weeks ago, I received a FaceTime call from Michael at the tail end of the annual HJF Men’s Journey in the mountains of West Virginia. He called alongside someone I didn’t know, who had listened to the podcast years ago and planted a seed that led to his participation this year. He recently retired after two decades as a partner at a very well-regarded, multi-billion-dollar equity manager. Seeing his ear-to-ear grin and expression of thanks from leading him on the journey had me wanting to share this again, in case you also find the call to the mountain at a future moment in your life. My conversation with Michael took place in the mountains of West Virginia towards the end of a hero’s journey six years ago and discusses the program, how Michael came to creating it, and life lessons across perfectionism, uncertainty, and fear. You can learn more by visiting herosjourneyfoundation.org.

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Josh Fenton is the CIO of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, an $8 billion pool he began leading earlier this year upon the retirement of Roz Hewsenian, who served as CIO for the prior twelve years. Roz was a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed.

Our conversation follows last week’s about succession, using the live example of a successful CIO transition. We discuss Roz’s plan for her retirement, steps to evaluate and train her successor, and actions upon her retirement announcement eighteen months beforehand. We also cover the transition from Josh’s perspective, including what happened along the way, conversations that took place, and changes when he took over as CIO. Lastly, Josh and Roz share lessons others can apply for transitions in both allocator and manager organizations.

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Roz Hewsenian is the Chief Investment Officer of the $6 billion Helmsley Charitable Trust. Prior to joining Helmsley in 2010, Roz had a storied career in the industry, highlighted by her two decades of work as the consultant to CalPERS while at Wilshire Associates. 

Our conversation tracks Roz’s career, including lessons from teaching children, the most important rule of management, successful investment consulting, taking time off, and joining Helmsley. We then turn to her current role and cover opportunistic-based allocation, theme identification, benefits of concentrating in managers, oversight of a team and due diligence, stories from the front lines, exciting investment opportunities, co-investments, and governance.

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As the first generation of investment firm founders approaches retirement age, the issue of succession to the next generation is increasingly at hand. We’ve seen several successful transitions of firms, many that haven’t survived their founders, and an entire sub-industry arise to help facilitate generational transfers across GP stakes, public offerings, and structured transactions. With both managers and allocators thinking more about the inevitability of succession, I thought it would be helpful to share what a leading allocator who reviews thousands of managers has learned about the issue. My guest on today’s show is Sarah Samuels, Partner and Head of Investment Management Research at NEPC, which advises on $1.7 trillion in assets. As part of her work assessing managers, Sarah has created a framework to analyze succession as an investment risk. She was a past guest on the show, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation covers that framework across its three key metrics: performance, age, and economics. We discuss the challenges of transitioning both economics and portfolio management, using stories and analogies to other businesses along the way.

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Sarah Samuels is the Head of Investment Manager Research at NEPC where she oversees teams across public equities, credit, hedge funds, and private markets for the $1.5 trillion investment advisory juggernaut. Prior to joining NEPC three years ago, Sarah worked at the senior level of both a top notch endowment and a public pension fund. She sought to bring the best of both worlds to her role at NEPC. Our conversation covers Sarah’s early career investing, time in the allocator seat at Mass PRIM and Wellesley College, and decision to join NEPC. We discuss her key investment themes, investment framework blending qualitative and quantitative analysis, second-level thinking, CIO mindset, alignment of interest, private equity allocations, and investment committees. We close discussing Sarah’s work on DE&I and her involvement in Girls Who Invest.

Todd Simkin is an Associate Director at Susquehanna International Group, a global quantitative trading firm comprised solely of internal capital that is known for its rigorous analytical approach to decision-making. Todd is also the CEO of Susquehanna Re, his latest role in a 27-year tenure at SIG that has spanned trading, strategic initiatives, and trader education.

Our conversation covers the history of SIG alongside Todd’s roles, trader development, the art and science of trading, risk management, recruiting talent, competitive advantages, luck, and strategic initiatives in venture capital, prediction markets, sports gambling, and reinsurance.

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Jeff Assaf is the founder and CIO of ICG Advisors, which oversees $7B in assets for a highly curated group of 80 client families. While Jeff keeps his client names confidential, ICG manages money for a roster of successful athletes, entertainers, and business professionals with a combination of tailored investment solutions and white-glove service, many of whom he has served for decades.

Our conversation covers Jeff’s path to investment allocation through Oppenheimer, Bear Stearns, and eventually ICG. We discuss defining client objectives, selecting managers, building low-volatility portfolios, assessing re-ups in private equity, and serving as a good partner to managers and clients.

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Rob Small and Anil Seetharam are Managing Directors and founding members of the Stockbridge team at Berkshire Partners, a $5B concentrated public equity manager that sits inside the $20B private equity firm. Unlike many public equity strategies at private equity firms, Stockbridge works closely and collaboratively with Berkshire’s private equity team on its investment research and has attracted an enviable client roster of some of the most respected allocators in the world. Our conversation covers Rob and Anil’s history at Berkshire and the steps they took to launch Stockbridge in 2007. We discuss their collaboration with Berkshire’s private equity team, investment criteria, deep dive research, decision-making process, portfolio management, board involvement, management of stock volatility, sell decisions, mistakes, and lessons learned over the last 17 years.

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Jennifer Prosek is the founder and CEO of Prosek Partners, a leading marketing and communications firm that for 30 years has helped the world’s top brands navigate what comes next. In asset management, Prosek’s clients oversee $60 trillion and comprise a who’s who in private and public markets. Jen is a popular past guest on this show from her first appearance five years ago and second when she shared her thoughts on navigating the pandemic.

Our conversation updates Jen’s thoughts on the emerging market of branding in the private markets, the importance of nailing the narrative, power of convening, maximizing value at conferences, and identifying talent. We discuss her thoughts on the trends driving capital flows and some great Jen-isms from her LinkedIn newsletter called Leading in Volatile Times.

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