François de Visscher - Fourth Generation Wisdom
Private Capital
The Private Capital podcast spent a delightful afternoon with François de Visscher, a fourth-generation family member of the Belgian multinational firm Bekaert, which was founded in 1880. François has been a longtime and respected consultant and banker to family offices and family businesses, and it was a real pleasure to listen to his accumulated wisdom. We spoke about what families get right and wrong about direct investing, where families have an edge over private equity funds, and how to compete for top talent against the Street. Most interesting of all were the rules their...
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André Perold - Beautifully Inefficient Markets
Private Capital
We think of the markets as complex systems but today’s guest André Perold, sees it as a fascinating puzzle of human behavior, asymmetric information, and 'beautiful inefficiencies.' André is a legendary figure in the world of finance. He has worked with Harry Markowitz, Jack Treynor and Bill Sharpe and is a longtime Harvard Business School professor, a board member at Vanguard, and the co-founder of HighVista Strategies. André has spent his career deconstructing how markets work and where they break. In this episode, we discuss the illusion of liquidity, the dramatic rise and fall...
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Kathryn Leaf - CEO of Pantheon on the Rise of Secondaries
Private Capital
Kathryn Leaf is the CEO of Pantheon, a $76 billion private equity firm that has been doing secondaries, among other things, for decades. We had a deep discussion with her about the dramatic growth in the market. Her perspectives on the current state of PE secondaries, as well as evergreen and continuation funds, were fascinating, and the market has a ways to go, she notes: “There has been about $600 billion of capital raised by secondary funds that’s servicing a roughly $15 trillion private market asset class.” We also talk about doing infrastructure at scale, right...
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Avi Kalichstein - GP Stakes at Hunter Point Capital
Private Capital
Today’s guest is Avi Kalichstein, the CEO of Hunter Point Capital. He’s deeply invested in the rapidly expanding world of private equity stakes. We delve into the influence of his father, a renowned pianist, and his early career at Goldman Sachs, where he met Chris Flowers, who significantly impacted his career. Flowers sent him to Japan to work on revitalizing Shinsei Bank, which was an education in cultural nuances. We also discuss his meeting with Bennett Goodman and the decision to establish Hunter Point. The conversation also covers the evolution of private equity stakes, their unique...
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Lawrence Calcano - The Private Markets Revolution
Private Capital
Lawrence Calcano, CEO of iCapital, began his path to finance with a surprising fork in the road, a theater audition on the very same day as his Morgan Stanley interview. That moment set the stage for a remarkable career shaped by both creativity and strategy. Lawrence discovered that the same skills that bring a story to life on stage are just as essential in building successful teams and businesses. From helping to build Goldman Sachs’ East Coast Tech Group in the early 1990s when the internet was a “fire hose” of innovation to witnessing the highs of the Netscape IPO and the...
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Arjun Raghavan - Returns With Resilience
Private Capital
Partners Capital is a $60 billion asset manager that outsources investments for institutions including family offices, foundations, and endowments. The firm was founded with particularly sophisticated clients, most of them private equity partners, which I covered in my previous podcast with founder Stan Miranda. Today we talk to his successor, Arjun Raghavan, who has continued to grow and expand the firm as well as its thought leadership. We talk about his own personal beginnings in India and his consulting and quant background, then talk about how one builds a global...
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Shirl Penney - Champions and Breakouts
Private Capital
Today’s guest is Shirl Penney, founder and CEO of Dynasty Financial Partners, which is a comprehensive platform that allows wealth advisors to go independent and form their own RIA. Shirl’s story starts with a thrift store suit and a bus ticket and leads to the helm of this billion-dollar firm. We start off talking about the inefficiencies and economics of horseracing, Shirl’s passion outside of work. We then go through the formation story of Dynasty post-GFC, their early challenges with technology and data, what the decision is like for a team to break out and start...
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Adam Waterous - M&A Mastery in Oil and Gas
Private Capital
Adam Waterous is the founder of Waterous Energy Fund, the largest private equity fund in Canada’s oil and gas sector. He gives us a masterclass on the past fifty years of oil and gas investing. From humble roots and with no background in oil and gas, he pioneered the competitive sales process in Canada, identified the critical shift in the market and technology after 2012, used a value investing strategy influenced by Buffett to build his firm, and tells us about the importance of finding good rock and the power of consolidation. Adam Waterous began his career in management...
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Roger Ferguson - The Making of a Policymaker
Private Capital
Hello and welcome to the Private Capital podcast. I’m Joe Reilly, head of Circulus Group, a network for family offices based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Our next family office summit is on November 20th in New York. It will feature Jose Minaya, Head of Investments at BNY, and former podcast guest Ken Kencel, president and CEO of Churchill Asset Management. Please subscribe at to stay in the loop. Roger Ferguson, former Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve, has had a compelling professional and intellectual career. In our candid and wide-ranging interview, we learn valuable...
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Andy Unanue - Family Culture and Family Capital
Private Capital
Today we are traveling through one of the great family business stories, that of Goya Foods, the formation of their family office, and the creation of a free-standing private equity firm that focuses on family businesses called AUA Partners. Andy Unanue is the founder and Managing Partner of AUA Private Equity Partners, an operationally focused, lower middle-market investment firm with expertise in supporting and growing family-owned and demographic-driven businesses. Andy is a member of AUA Private Equity’s Investment Committee, and under his leadership, AUA has deployed over $600 million...
info_outlineJennifer Prosek has built a powerhouse communications firm by focusing on asset management. She asked herself, "Why does the financial industry not care about its brand, and why are they so on the back foot about everything?" I was particularly keen to talk to her about how firms struggle to differentiate, especially as formerly low-profile parts of the industry, such as private equity funds, now look to expanding across the wealth channel and begin to look more like consumer brands. We talk about how she built her firm from small beginnings; how family offices should think about their story; being prepared for a crisis in advance; educating financial advisors; how to go from high-level awareness down the funnel to actual ROI; how to navigate Milken and Davos; and the future of AI in communications.
Jennifer Prosek is the founder and managing partner of Prosek Partners, a leading integrated marketing and communications firm with offices in nine cities around the world. The firm was named the best financial communications and marketing firm by PRovoke Media in 2023. Jennifer was also listed personally on The Wall Street Journal’s “Most Influential Decision Markers” list in 2023 and 2024. She is the author of two books, “Army of Entrepreneurs” and “Raising Can-Do Kids.” Jennifer is on the board of the Mount Sinai Health System and the Museum of the City of New York and she received her MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in English Literature from Miami University.
Jen is also known for her pithy sayings, and we managed to get a new one from her. Please enjoy my conversation with Jennifer Prosek.
“Reaching for Retail” Prosek report: https://www.prosek.com/news/prosek-report-reaching-for-retail-reveals-private-capital-firm-brands-remain-in-early-stage-of-development/
Army of Entrepreneurs: https://www.amazon.com/Army-Entrepreneurs-Empowered-Workforce-Exceptional/dp/081443696X/
Raising Can-Do Kids: https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Can-Do-Kids-Children-Fast-Changing-ebook/dp/B00O2BKKYE/
NOTE: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice. Thanks for listening.
Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast.
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