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Steve Kurz vaulted from early days at a worm poop startup (yes, that's a real thing) to the fast track of traditional finance, only to find himself with a front row seat to the Global Financial Crisis.  Steve took the lessons he learned in traditional finance at legendary institutions like Lehman Brothers, Fortress, and River Birch and forged a new path along with his co-founder, Mike Novogratz, to found Galaxy: the Goldman Sachs of crypto.

In today's episode, Steve explains to us his vision of the institutional future of crypto, the character of the crypto ecosystem emerging from the stress tests of the past few years (ahem, FTX), and explains the contemporary use cases for crypto that transcend the fragmented narrative of its early days. He also talks about building a family with an equally talented, successful, and driven partner.

Steve's bold --- yet thoughtful --- entrepreneurial mindset should be an inspiration to anyone doubting themselves as they navigate their own career path. We are honored to share Steve's insight & perspective.  


Steve Kurz is the Global Head of Asset Management at Galaxy and a member of Galaxy’s founding team. In addition, Steve is a member of the firm’s management committee and serves as chair of the ESG Steering Committee. Before joining the firm, he Co-founded Outer Realm, an enterprise focused immersive software company (sold in 2022). Previously, he was a Principal and Head of Business Development at River Birch Capital, where he led global capital formation efforts. Prior to that, he was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group, where he held strategy, product specialist, and capital formation roles in New York and Singapore. He started his career as a Capital Markets Analyst in the Fixed Income Division of Lehman Brothers. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Cornell University. He also serves as a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Check out Galaxy on Instagram @galaxydigitalhq

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You've probably heard of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) before.  You may even own shares in some.  But do you actually know what they are?  How are they created?  How do they work?  Who maintains liquid markets in them?  Why would you invest in one in the first place?  And why has this marketplace exploded to a size of $11-12 trillion across 10,000+ funds?

We are joined by longtime friend Brian Weinstein, head of global markets at MSIM, to understand the mechanics, philosophy, and inner workings of the world of ETFs.


Brian Weinstein is head of Global Markets at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, overseeing counterparty management, ETFs, liquidity investment management, and the Global Markets Strategy Group, which designs and implements algorithmic portfolio management solutions. He is a member of the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Operating Committee. Previously, he was head of Fixed Income.

 Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2018, he was cofounder and chief investment officer of Blue Elephant Capital Management and before that was head of Fundamental Institutional Fixed Income at BlackRock. He has over 20 years of financial services experience.

 Brian has a BA in History from the University of Pennsylvania.

 https://www.morganstanley.com/im/en-us/individual-investor/product-and-performance/etfs.desktop.html

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With less than two weeks to go until the US Election, we are bringing you this special edition crossover podcast episode with our trusted friend and news source, Mosheh Oinounou of Mo News.

We are trying to achieve the impossible: a non-political podcast episode about politics. 

We sat down with Mosheh to explain some basic mechanics behind the US presidential election process, fill in some gaps in our own knowledge, get a better understanding of what the financial markets do ---and don't --- care about when it comes to elections, and ask the question: are we going to be ok??

Our goal here is to educate and entertain, and above all: remind you to vote!

Follow Mo News at @mosheh and @monewsteam on Instagram and TikTok.

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In today's episode of TSO we are joined by Jade Huang, Chief Investment Officer of Calvert Research Management. She breaks down what is going on right now at the COP 16 Summit, talks about responsible investing, ESG, why it's so much more than just buzz words and how you can make money while also doing good for the planet.

Jade Huang
Chief Investment Officer, Co-Head of Applied Solutions
Calvert Research and Management

Jade Huang is chief investment officer and co-head of applied solutions for Calvert Research and Management. In that role, she leads Calvert’s innovative investment strategy and oversees research. Jade previously served as managing director of Applied Responsible Investment Solutions. Prior to leading that team she served as a Calvert portfolio manager and analyst.  

Previously, she was an investment analyst at Microvest, an asset management firm specializing in impact investing, and led the certification department at Fair Trade USA.  Jade began her career as a Financial Auditor for Deloitte Financial Advisory Services. 

Jade earned a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.A. in international finance and economics from Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).

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In this episode of The Wall Street Skinny, we dive deep into the world of financial inclusion with Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking. Microfinance has long been hailed as a key tool for empowering women in emerging markets, but as Mary Ellen explains, true financial empowerment requires far more than just access to microloans.

We explore how Women’s World Banking is rethinking financial inclusion—looking beyond small-scale loans to other necessities like savings, insurance, and digital banking. Mary Ellen breaks down the complexities of creating sustainable economic growth, highlighting the importance of building financial resilience, promoting long-term wealth creation, and ensuring women have the tools to navigate both personal and global economic challenges.

Throughout the conversation, we discuss the vital role of financial literacy, access to capital, and how tailored financial services can create lasting change for women entrepreneurs and their communities. This episode challenges the traditional view of microfinance and dives into the broader strategy needed to empower women economically—unlocking opportunities for sustainable, inclusive development.

Join us for a thought-provoking conversation on what it really takes to build a financially inclusive future for women around the world.

Learn more about Women’s World Banking: https://www.womensworldbanking.org/

Mary Ellen Iskenderian is the President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, a global nonprofit dedicated to serving the nearly one billion women excluded by the formal financial sector. She joined Women’s World Banking in 2006 and leads its global team in partnering with financial institutions and policymakers around the world to design and develop solutions and programs that facilitate systemic change for women. Additionally, she oversees Women’s World Banking’s asset management business that makes direct equity investments in financial service providers as a means to advance women in the workplace and as customers.

Mary Ellen is a passionate advocate for women’s economic empowerment through greater access to finance; she urges the financial services industry and business community to view low-income women as a powerful new market of small business owners, heads of households, and consumers of financial products and services. 

Mary Ellen has spoken widely and published extensively on topics ranging from equality of economic opportunity, women’s financial inclusion, climate resilience, and financial abuse. In April 2022, her first book, “There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women,” was published by MIT Press.

Before joining Women’s World Banking, Mary Ellen worked for 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, and had previously worked for the investment bank Lehman Brothers. She is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves as a Director on the Board of the William and Flora Hewlett Found

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We've talked a lot about how Private Equity Megafunds approach valuation when they purchase companies through LBOs. And we've spoken about their exits, either through IPOs or PE Secondaries. 

But we've never really talked about what happens during the YEARS in between!  How do Private Equity companies actually grow their portfolio companies over the life of their investment? Enter: the portfolio group or operations team.

This group works closely with executives at the portfolio company itself, along with the valuation and deal teams. This team is generally separate from the deal team within Megafunds, though many roles may have significant overlap at smaller firms. At a Megafund, this role differs considerably in terms of skills set, background, and career path. Instead of a conveyor belt path through Investment Banking, this group looks for for skilled consultants and experienced corporate executives. It can be a fantastic entry point into Private Equity for older candidates with more experience in the workforce.

Today, we sit down with Florence Evina-Ze, an SVP at Bain Capital, to discuss the recruiting, career path, skills set, and lifestyle associated with this particular vertical. 

Florence also shares her perspective as an underrepresented minority in the industry. She discusses specific programs that were instrumental to her success, the critical role of mentors, and her inspiring approach to helping others follow in her footsteps.

Florence Evina-Ze joined Bain Capital in 2021. She is a Senior Vice President in the Portfolio Group and a member of the North America Private Equity team. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Florence worked at IPSY. Previously, she was a consultant at McKinsey and Deloitte where she focused on industrials and consumer/retail. Florence earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and SB in mechanical engineering from Harvard College.

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Our thoughts are with everyone who has recently been impacted by or is in the path of the devastating hurricanes this fall.  In today's episode, we touch on the perplexing price action in the oil markets.  The price of oil remains curiously low relative to what seem to be fundamental upward pressures, and we discuss a recent Bloomberg interview with Jeff Currie, Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways at The Carlyle Group where he suggests that the upside risk to oil "has never been higher".

You can watch the full interview here:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-10-09/oil-market-risk-at-its-highest-since-the-1970s-currie-says?srnd=phx-technology

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Today we are bringing back Carissa Jordan, who was in our incredible episode about problematic female managers (episode 55). She was a credit trader at Goldman Sachs, and she’s here to give us our long awaited Credit Trading 101 episode. 

We discuss everything about credit from its conception and origination in IBD — the investment banking division — Debt Capital Markets, and the Syndicate group, all the way through to investment grade, high yield, distressed.

Carissa walks us through the lifestyle on a credit desk and gets into some of the nitty gritty mechanics of how these bonds trade.

We do touch briefly on CDS and CDX, but we'll do a deep dive on those in a future episode! 

This is also a GREAT resource for listeners of our other podcast, our unofficial companion to HBO Max’s hit show INDUSTRY, because understanding the basics of credit will help you understand a lot of the points we touched on in the episode we released yesterday!

For anyone who wants to follow and listen to our fledgling INDUSTRY podcast, the unofficial companion podcast to HBO Max's hit show Industry, subscribe here so you don't miss our conversations breaking down the finance, the trades, discussing how realistic the interactions, relationships and lifestyle is, and so much more:

Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-industry-unofficial-companion-podcast-for-hbo/id1771026407

Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/show/5WxBgEenp0SiIniIafDlul?si=8EwJREbaRSaSSNjZYd_BYA

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We are BACK, baby! We've missed you guys, and we're so sorry we've been MIA while we've been getting ready to launch our flagship self-paced course. Join the waitlist to make sure you have early access here:  https://the-wall-street-skinny.mykajabi.com/waitlist-opt-in-IBD

Today we talk about Apollo's quest to become a megalith in the private credit space, looking to double their Assets Under Management (AUM) from ~$700bn to $1.5tr over the next 5 years with support from the likes of JPMorgan. 

We also discuss this Wall Street Journal article: https://www.wsj.com/finance/investing/the-giant-hedge-fund-that-hates-risk-and-still-wins-1110e90a, explaining the basics of how Sharpe ratios are used to measure individual and fund investment performance. 

And we are joined by Alex Cavalieri, Head of Marketing at CAIS (https://www.caisgroup.com/) ahead of their October CAIS Summit, where we'll be live on the ground interviewing some of the thought leaders shaping the industry in realtime!

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This is the last episode of Industry to appear on this feed!  Follow The Industry | Unofficial Companion Podcast to HBO Max's Hit TV Show "Industry"  Here if you want to hear more analysis of Indstury.

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