Mark Sullivan and Roberto Isch are Partners at Wellington Management, the $1.3 trillion privately owned firm. Mark is the Head of the Hedge Fund Group and Roberto is a Risk and Portfolio Manager. Wellington began its hedge fund strategies in the mid-1990s. Their activities started with a series of long-biased sector specialist strategies, added a multi-asset fund-of-funds, and most recently, built a market-neutral platform overseen by Mark and Roberto. Our conversation covers the history and current state of hedge fund investing at Wellington, including the client-led development of product offerings and the manager selection, portfolio construction, and risk management of the group’s third-generation strategy.

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Donald Miller is the CEO of StoryBrand and author of ten books that have collectively spent more than a year on New York Times Bestseller lists. Don helps businesses clarify their message so customers will listen. His latest book, Building a Storybrand 2.0, is a revised edition of one of the most succinct, impactful, and actionable books I’ve come across on storytelling.

Our conversation covers Don’s most important lessons in telling a story that resonates with customers, including the seven elements of story structure and key components of each.

Don wants to share his gift for taglines with you. He recently launched storybrand.ai, a free LLM trained on 120 pages of his insights. In just seven minutes, you can have Don write your tagline.

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The beginning of a new year brings with it time for reflection and the renewal of rituals. We reflect on our personal and professional lives, set goals for the coming year, and start sprinting towards those goals – hopefully with enough time to calibrate our personal GPS.

One part of the ritualistic sprint is conference season. Industry leaders gather at Davos for the World Economic Forum and Miami for iConnections Global Alts in January, in Beverly Hills for Milken in May, in Sun Valley for Allen & Company in the summer, and at many locations throughout the year.

We’ll be doing the same at our Capital Allocators CIO Summit in April, Senior Decision Makers Summit in June, Capital Allocators University in July, and Small and Emerging Manager Summit in September.

So as you get ready to leave the starting blocks, it’s a good time to pause and think about how to optimize your time and budget at industry events. At Capital Allocators University in December, Hank hosted a panel with Ron Biscardi and Katie O’Reilly to discuss how to think about, plan, and maximize your time and value at conferences.

Today’s show shares their panel discussion from Capital Allocators University.

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We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. 

The top episode this year is perhaps the most timely of our 500 as well. It's Episode 415 with Scott Bessent, a brilliant macro thinker and the cabinet nominee for Secretary of Treasury. The position created by Alexander Hamilton. I was an investor in Scott's first hedge fund, a partner of his for four years, a friend for more than 20, and a huge fan. I'm excited for Scott and for our country about what his appointment might mean for our economic future.

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We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. 

Clocking in at number two is Mike Milken, Episode 3 71. Mike single-handedly developed the high yield market, which has fueled the growth of private equity ever since. When paired with the subsequent episode with his longtime attorney, Richard Sandler, the conversations offer a fresh perspective on Mike's legacy.

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We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. 

Coming in at number three is Episode 385 with the irrepressible Cliff Asness from AQR. Cliff is part brilliant quant and part standup comic. That combination always makes for an entertaining conversation, chockfull of research-backed insights.

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We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. 

Coming in at number four is Episode 414 with Ricky Sandler from Eminence Capital. Ricky discusses his 30 years in the business of investing long and short equities and the adjustments he's had to make to his investment and business strategies to continue to thrive in ever-changing conditions. 

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For this year’s annual review, our CEO Hank Strmac and I sat down to discuss where we’ve been and where we’re headed. Our conversation covers the best blogs and podcasts of the year, my investment activity, what’s top of mind for allocators and managers, our upcoming podcasts, Summits, and CAU education courses in 2025, the team who makes it all happen, and a few closing questions.

I hope you find the conversation engaging and informative.

Wishing you a very happy and prosperous new year.

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We're counting down the top 5 episodes of 2024. 

Coming in at number five is Episode 384 with Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz of 3G Capital, discussing their unique private equity organization and their wildly successful purchase of Burger King.

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Today’s show is our third in the Training Grounds mini-series, following Carnegie Corporation and Bain Capital to better understand how certain organizations have developed industry leaders. Wellington Management is one of the world’s largest, privately held asset managers, managing over $1.3 trillion in assets with 875 investment professionals across 19 offices and a nearly 100 year history with an unusually low level of turnover along the way. Wellington has developed, recruited, and retained leading global investment talent across public equities, fixed income, and recently private markets as well. My guest to discuss this training ground is Jean Hynes, CEO of Wellington, who has spent more than thirty years at the firm starting as an administrative assistant. Our conversation covers Wellington’s cultural values and boutique investment team model, including apprenticeship for junior talent, recruiting at the mid-level, and promotion all the way to partner. We then discuss Wellington’s evolution from a U.S. equity value shop to a global, multi-asset, multi-strategy powerhouse, and Jean’s evolution from a portfolio manager to CEO.

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Eric Peters leads both One River Asset Management and Coinbase Asset Management and writes a widely dispersed blog called Wknd Notes, in which he shares macro insights. He’s twice been a guest on the show, discussing his bespoke macro investment strategy four years ago and the case for Bitcoin three years ago. Both conversations are replayed in the feed.

Since then, many of One River’s strategies played out well during Covid, and Coinbase acquired One River Digital Asset Management in March 2023. We got back together to discuss how Eric has adapted to the changing environment, including One River’s shift from bespoke offerings to a total portfolio solution and the continued case for Bitcoin. Along the way, Eric shares his keen insights on portfolio construction, left-tail risks, and right-tail opportunities.

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