Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry
Allocator and asset management expert, Ted Seides, conducts in-depth interviews with leaders in the institutional investing industry. Guests include Chief Investment Officers from leading allocators, asset managers, strategists, thought leaders, and many more. Our mission is to learn, share, and help implement the process of premier investors. Learn more and join our community at capitalallocators.com.
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Interviewing: Interdisciplinary Skills – The Art of the Interview
08/10/2026
Interviewing: Interdisciplinary Skills – The Art of the Interview
This week’s Summer Series is a highly atypical episode, where I appear as the guest. Matt Breitfelder from Apollo asked to interview me about interviewing, something I learned far more from hosting the show the last nine years than I ever did while interviewing managers for 20. The conversation has been sufficiently popular that it made the Summer Series on investment process. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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WTT: The Anatomy of a Blow-Up
08/05/2026
WTT: The Anatomy of a Blow-Up
This What Ted's Thinking brings Situational Awareness to the underlying causes of hedge fund disasters. Read Ted’s blog Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Skills – Annie Duke (2022)
08/03/2026
Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Skills – Annie Duke (2022)
Our Summer Series kickoff is with one of the all-time greats, Annie Duke. The former world-class poker player has become a noted academic and practitioner in the art of decision-making. Her best-seller Thinking in Bets is a one-of-a-kind set of tools and tips to try (emphasis on try) to get past our embedded behavioral biases. And her follow-up works How to Decide and Quit pull different threads in the decision-making process. Since writing Thinking in Bets, Annie has consulted several investment organizations to apply her insights to investing, including becoming a Special Partner focused on Decision Science at venture firm, First Round Capital. For the series, we’ve shared two of Annie’s most popular appearance on the show – coinciding with the launched of Thinking in Bets in 2018 and Quit in 2022. Please enjoy these great conversations with Annie Duke. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Skills – Annie Duke (2018)
08/03/2026
Decision-Making: Interdisciplinary Skills – Annie Duke (2018)
Our Summer Series kickoff is with one of the all-time greats, Annie Duke. The former world-class poker player has become a noted academic and practitioner in the art of decision-making. Her best-seller Thinking in Bets is a one-of-a-kind set of tools and tips to try (emphasis on try) to get past our embedded behavioral biases. And her follow-up works How to Decide and Quit pull different threads in the decision-making process. Since writing Thinking in Bets, Annie has consulted several investment organizations to apply her insights to investing, including becoming a Special Partner focused on Decision Science at venture firm, First Round Capital. For the series, we’ve shared two of Annie’s most popular appearance on the show – coinciding with the launched of Thinking in Bets in 2018 and Quit in 2022. Please enjoy these great conversations with Annie Duke. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Building Durable Real Estate Portfolios at Morgan Stanley – Lauren Hochfelder (EP.514)
07/30/2026
Building Durable Real Estate Portfolios at Morgan Stanley – Lauren Hochfelder (EP.514)
Lauren Hochfelder is Head of Global Real Assets at Morgan Stanley, where she oversees a team of 300 investment professionals across 13 countries, managing $80 billion across real estate, infrastructure, equity and credit. Lauren joined Morgan Stanley as an investment banking analyst directly out of Yale 26 years ago and has spent her entire career at the firm, helping build one of the industry's leading platforms. Our conversation traces Lauren's journey from analyst to Global Head and the evolution of Morgan Stanley's real estate business before, during, and after the Global Financial Crisis. We cover the firm’s thematic approach to investing behind structural demand tailwinds, combination of global perspectives and on-the-ground teams, operational improvements to assets, portfolio construction, and themes across industrial real estate and infrastructure, senior housing, and net lease properties. We also touch on riskier areas of real estate and Lauren’s new role adding infrastructure to her real estate oversight. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
07/27/2026
Rebuilding the NYU Endowment – Michelle Knudsen (EP.513)
Michelle Knudsen is Chief Investment Officer of NYU, where she oversees the university's $8 billion endowment. Michelle joined NYU two years ago, after fourteen years as an allocator at Partners Capital and the Mellon Foundation, with a mandate to build a best-in-class endowment from a clean sheet of paper. Our conversation traces Michelle's lessons learned working at Goldman Sachs, a growing OCIO, and a foundation that shaped her investment philosophy and views on portfolio construction, risk management, and manager selection. We then turn to the transformation of NYU's investment office from the ground up across governance, portfolio strategy, investment process, and the team. Along the way, we discuss manager selection, emerging managers, venture capital, hedge funds, AI, stress tests, and what it takes to build an enduring investment organization. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn more about our Strategic Investments: Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Senior Decision Makers: Luis Laboy, Hewlett Foundation (EP.512)
07/20/2026
Senior Decision Makers: Luis Laboy, Hewlett Foundation (EP.512)
Our next guest on the Senior Decision Makers series is Luis Laboy, Director of Public Equity at the Hewlett Foundation, where he's spent the last decade running the public equity book alongside CIO Ana Marshall — a mentor and colleague he first met nearly thirty years ago. The foundation's assets stand at roughly $14 billion today. Luis spent fifteen years as a direct emerging markets investor at Everest Capital before crossing to the LP side, and our conversation digs into how he’s leveraged that experience as an allocator. We discuss how the cadence and depth of decision-making changed when he went from a high-turnover book at Everest to a handful of high-conviction relationships at Hewlett, how his time split between portfolio construction and manager selection has evolved over, and how his time marketing the fund shaped the way he interviews managers and thinks about turnover. Luis is incredibly insightful about how his early interests and upbringing have shone through across his career. He thinks and speaks in analogies, he's wildly entertaining, and — in short — he's just a genuinely good dude, and that comes through in spades in our conversation. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Roadmap for Private Credit from Australia – Frank Danieli of MA Financial Group (EP.511)
07/16/2026
Roadmap for Private Credit from Australia – Frank Danieli of MA Financial Group (EP.511)
Frank Danieli is Head of Global Credit Solutions at MA Financial Group, an ASX-listed alternative asset manager that oversees A$15 billion ($10 billion) across a broad range of private credit and lending strategies and A$179 billion ($125 billion) in a lending ecosystem platform. Frank began his career in restructurings, the self-described ‘dark side of credit’, and has used the lessons from special situations and distressed loans to build a performing credit platform across asset backed finance, direct asset lending and corporate private credit. Our conversation discusses what global investors can learn from the model of private credit in Australia. We explore the evolution of private credit in Australia and why it developed differently from the sponsor-backed lending market in the U.S., the regulatory shift that pushed lending off bank balance sheets, the role of Australia's pension system, and MA Financial’s strategy for building proprietary origination across the lending ecosystem. We then turn to MA Financial’s investment process, including the separation of investment selection from portfolio management, red teams, war games, and rigorous stress testing. Along the way, Frank shares why sourcing - not fundraising - will define long-term winners, why private credit requires diversified balance sheets, and why portfolio management and risk management are the largest sources of alpha in the asset class. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Economic Growth, Governance, and Capital Allocation – Dambisa Moyo (EP.510)
07/13/2026
Economic Growth, Governance, and Capital Allocation – Dambisa Moyo (EP.510)
Baroness Dambisa Moyo is a global economist, author, board member, and investor who sits at the intersection of public policy, corporate governance, and capital allocation. Dambisa serves in the U.K. House of Lords, sits on the boards of Chevron, Starbucks, Condé Nast, and Oxford University's investment committee, is Chair of the Economic Club of New York, and oversees Altered Trajectory alongside her husband, Jared Smith, the family office formed after his sale of Qualtrics in 2018. Our conversation traces Dambisa's journey from growing up in Zambia to becoming a leading voice on global economic development and governance. We discuss how her experiences across more than 80 countries and on the boards of four global companies shaped her judgment on economic growth, governance, and decision-making. We then turn to the application of those lessons at Altered Trajectory, including the evolution away from an endowment-style portfolio, balancing Dambisa's macro convictions with Jared's moonshot investing style, and positioning for long-term themes. Along the way, we discuss the challenge of investing through structural change while avoiding ideological thinking. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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WTT: 5.5 Lessons at 55.5
07/10/2026
WTT: 5.5 Lessons at 55.5
This WTT, 5.5 Lessons at 55.5 reflects on what five-and-a-half decades of investing, podcasting, and mistakes have taught me about people, markets, and myself. Read Ted’s blog . Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Moat Investing Nuances – Pat Dorsey (EP.509)
07/06/2026
Moat Investing Nuances – Pat Dorsey (EP.509)
Pat Dorsey is the Founder of Dorsey Asset Management, a $1.7 billion global public equity manager focused on companies with competitive advantages and long investment runways. Pat created Morningstar’s moat research framework and led its equity research efforts for a dozen years before launching his firm in 2014. Our conversation covers the nuances of investing in businesses with wide moats across quantitative analysis, switching costs, network effects, brands, management, alignment, capital allocation, and reinvestment runways. We then turn to Pat’s application of moat analysis to his investing, including concentration, global scope, position sizing, decision making, and lessons learned. Any leader should see for themselves the benefits of elite coaching. Try ALEX: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Senior Decision Makers: Nicholas Csicsko, Trinity Wall Street (EP.508)
06/29/2026
Senior Decision Makers: Nicholas Csicsko, Trinity Wall Street (EP.508)
Our first guest on the Senior Decision Makers mini-series is Nick Csicsko. Nick is a Managing Director at the Trinity Wall Street endowment, where he joined CIO Meredith Jenkins at the founding of the investment office in 2016 and has spent the last decade helping build a young endowment inside a 320-year-old institution. Today the endowment has grown to over $6 billion. Nick's path into investing is a fascinating one. He studied composition and earned his Doctorate of Music at Juilliard. While there, he talked his way into an internship at Juilliard’s endowment and never looked back. Our conversation covers the lessons he carried from music into investing, his investment philosophy, and the details of his process. Manager selection sits at the heart of his work, and he articulates what separates the relationships that endure from the ones that don't. Nick is a remarkable storyteller and shares a number of real-life examples of manager relationships — some that worked out well, some that didn't, and others with insights for allocators and managers alike. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Homegrown CIO at Williams College - Abigail Wattley (EP.507)
06/22/2026
Homegrown CIO at Williams College - Abigail Wattley (EP.507)
Abigail Wattley is the Chief Investment Officer of Williams College, where she oversees the school’s $4.5 billion endowment. She became CIO three years ago upon the retirement of Collette Chilton, whose past conversation is replayed in the feed. Abigail has spent two decades in the Williams investment office, and her tenure manifests the benefits of duration and institutional knowledge in the seat. Our conversation traces Abigail's nearly twenty-year journey inside the Williams Investment Office, from joining as an early analyst to becoming the internal successor CIO. We discuss the consistent mandate throughout alongside Abigail’s evolution from analyst to deputy to decision-maker, including the knowledge retained as an internal candidate, the tension between respecting an institution's history and putting her own stamp on the portfolio, and perspectives on hedge funds, private markets, liquidity management, real assets, team development, and AI. Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant () Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with
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[REPLAY] Collette Chilton – Humility and Loyalty at Williams College (EP.174)
06/22/2026
[REPLAY] Collette Chilton – Humility and Loyalty at Williams College (EP.174)
Collette Chilton is the CIO of Williams College where she has overseen its $3 billion since 2006. Collette is nothing short of a legend in the business. She has sat in a CIO seat since the early 1990s at the helm of public pension MassPrim and corporate pension Lucent before joining Williams. Institutional Investors bestowed its Lifetime Achievement Award on Collette in 2019, and Barron’s named her one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Finance in 2020. Our conversation covers Collette’s career path and lessons learned before joining Williams. We then turn to her arrival at Williams in 2006 to a phone, a computer, and a legacy portfolio, Williams’ governance structure leveraging alumni advisors, asset allocation, manager selection, manager monitoring, hedge funds, venture capital, and navigating around popular managers. Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant () Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with
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WTT: AI: Fundamentals, Valuation, and the Next Allocator Dilemma
06/17/2026
WTT: AI: Fundamentals, Valuation, and the Next Allocator Dilemma
This WTT, AI: Fundamentals, Valuation, and the Next Allocator Dilemma takes on a high-level assessment of AI companies as late-stage private winners prepare to go public, and the next big challenge allocators face as a result. Read Ted’s blog . Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Hotel Investing at EOS – Jonathan Wang (EP.506)
06/15/2026
Hotel Investing at EOS – Jonathan Wang (EP.506)
Jonathan Wang is the founder and CEO of EOS Investors, where he has built three real estate investment platforms totaling $2 billion in assets under management across the hotel and residential sectors. Jonathan also created a wholly owned hotel management company that oversees 60 properties for the EOS funds and five core partners. Our conversation covers Jonathan’s path to hotel investing and EOS’ hotel investment process across market selection, property type, underwriting, vertically integrated operations, and managing through cycles. We also discuss extensions into residential real estate, hotel credit, and opportunities and risks going forward. Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant () Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with
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Contrarian Quality at GQG Partners – Rajiv Jain (EP.505)
06/08/2026
Contrarian Quality at GQG Partners – Rajiv Jain (EP.505)
Rajiv Jain is the Chairman and CIO of GQG Partners, a global equity manager he founded in 2016 that has soared to $160 billion in assets, rebuffing the challenging decade for active managers. Our conversation covers Rajiv’s path from trading in India to his long tenure at Vontobel and founding of GQG. We discuss the periodic crisis lessons that shaped his approach, his definition of quality, team dynamics, and portfolio construction to avoid losses. We then turn to Rajiv’s contrarian views, including current significant positions in energy, utilities, steel, tobacco, and emerging markets, avoidance of hyperscalers and semiconductors, and nimbleness to change his mind. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with
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Operator-Led Private Equity at Ethos - Erik Brooks (EP.504)
06/01/2026
Operator-Led Private Equity at Ethos - Erik Brooks (EP.504)
Erik Brooks is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Ethos Capital, a middle-market private equity firm built to bring seasoned C-Suite operators into every aspect of the investment process. Erik’s experience prior to founding Ethos in 2019 spanned privatizations in Eastern Europe, value investing at Baupost, and twenty years at Abry Partners. Our conversation covers Erik’s path to private equity, lessons learned about risk, the importance of betting on people, and the evolution in his thinking that led to forming Ethos. We then cover Ethos’ focus on durable business models, one-deal-a-year cadence, operating system to evaluate and improve companies, and an investment example that brings it all to life. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
05/25/2026
Fundraising Mastery: The Tao of Kimmer – John Kim (EP.503)
John Kim, or Kimmer, has raised more than $70 billion across his career for leading venture capital and private equity firms. Kimmer recently distilled three decades of lessons into The Tao of Fundraising, the best book I’ve ever read on fundraising for investment managers. Since then, Kimmer joined a General Catalyst portfolio company, Lila Sciences, as Chairman and President of Corporate Development. Our conversation covers Kimmer’s philosophy about raising capital, the sales process, art of persuasion, best practices in a meeting, frameworks determining fundraising success, taxonomy of institutional investors, ideal sales team structure and compensation, and the features he carried over from capital formation for funds to a new operating role. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Making Mistakes – Josh Steiner (EP.502)
05/18/2026
Making Mistakes – Josh Steiner (EP.502)
Josh Steiner is a polymath of the New York and D.C. power corridors across government, media, and finance, and co-author of From Mistakes to Meaning: Owning Your Past So It Doesn’t Own You. Josh rose to national prominence as the youngest-ever Chief of Staff at the U.S. Treasury in the Clinton administration, where he made a high-profile mistake he unpacks in the book. He pivoted to finance as a media investment banker and co-founder of private equity firm Quadrangle Group in 2000, worked as an operator at Bloomberg in the 2010s, has served on Yale’s Investment Committee for nearly a decade, and five years ago returned to private equity as co-founder of SSW Partners managing capital for a few families. Our conversation focuses on mistakes, quite a contrast from other discussions on the podcast. We kick it off with Josh’s big mistake at Treasury and analyze the nature of mistakes and what happened to Josh. We then turn to his mistakes in investing across deals, managing an investment business, managing people, and serving on Investment Committees. We close with frameworks to avoid mistakes and with Josh turning the table on me to discuss an impactful mistake I made that I’ve never discussed before. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Will England, Derek Drummond, and Tony Caruso – Disintermediating Pod Shops (EP.501)
05/11/2026
Will England, Derek Drummond, and Tony Caruso – Disintermediating Pod Shops (EP.501)
Today’s show discusses an innovative joint venture between asset owners and a multi-manager hedge fund that seeks to deliver smooth, equity-like returns at a lower cost than available in the marketplace. My guests are Will England, Derek Drummond, and Tony Caruso. Will is the CEO and CIO of $12 billion multi-strategy hedge fund Walleye Capital. Derek is head of external public markets investing at the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, and Tony Caruso is Managing Director of hedge funds at UTIMCO. Together, they co-founded Dockside Platforms, a managed account platform that gives institutional allocators direct access to portfolio managers using the infrastructure, risk systems, and financing capabilities of a multi-strat underneath. Our conversation traces Dockside’s evolution from a barstool brainstorm to a platform with more than 60 managers and billions in assets. We discuss the accessibility of talent through managed accounts, differentiated manager sourcing, due diligence with trade-level transparency, capital efficiency across portfolios, hedging, risk management, and onboarding and exiting managers on the platform. All told, the combined heft of large asset owner capital and the sophisticated infrastructure of a multi-manager hedge fund have created a win-win for everyone involved. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Sloane Payne and Dave Joerger – Why Culture Matters (EP.500)
05/04/2026
Sloane Payne and Dave Joerger – Why Culture Matters (EP.500)
Sloane Payne and Dave Joerger are the COO and CCO of WCM Investment Management, a firm chronicled over the years for its remarkable culture and growth to $120 billion in assets under management. This special conversation was hosted by Scott MacDonald on our affiliate Investment Management Operations podcast. Their conversation describes WCM’s culture in practice that includes hiring for character over credentials, trust as an operating principle, overtrusting before proof exists, generous compensation and shared equity, values as a daily practice, connection through relational investment, making mistakes feel survivable, scaling culture by modeling behavior, accountability alongside kindness, and succession planning without financial burden. Sloane and Dave believe the atypical human blend of these disciplines has been the primary driver of the firm’s success. Although not the origin of its name, it’s perhaps not surprising that WCM also stands for Why Culture Matters. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Alex Sloane & Matt Perelman – Buy-and-Build Playbook in the Core Economy at GSP (EP.499)
04/27/2026
Alex Sloane & Matt Perelman – Buy-and-Build Playbook in the Core Economy at GSP (EP.499)
Alex Sloane and Matt Perelman are co-founders of Garnett Station Partners, a $4 billion private equity firm focused on buy-and-build investments in founder-led, core economy businesses. Alex and Matt are lifelong friends who took an unconventional path out of business school, acquiring a 23-unit Burger King franchise in North Carolina that they scaled to 1,100 locations before selling it back to the franchisor. That operating experience became the foundation for their investment firm. Our conversation traces that evolution from operators to investors. We discuss their “shared desk” partnership and culture of debate, and the Garnett Station playbook, from sourcing “lighthouse” businesses and moving quickly in fragmented markets to building diversified platforms through disciplined capital allocation. We also cover lessons from scaling through cycles, the role of speed and integration in buy-and-build strategies, and how they think about risk, exits, and long-term value creation. Learn more about our Strategic Investments: Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Rodney Comegys – The Mechanics of Indexing at Vanguard (EP.498)
04/20/2026
Rodney Comegys – The Mechanics of Indexing at Vanguard (EP.498)
Rodney Comegys is the CIO of Vanguard Capital Management and its Head of Global Equity Indexing, where he oversees $8.5 trillion in index assets across domestic, international, and multi-asset strategies. Rodney joined Vanguard twenty seven years ago and has worked across operations, customer service, risk management, and investing. Our conversation covers the philosophy and mechanics behind running one of the world’s largest index fund operators. We discuss Vanguard’s ownership structure, values, product selection, and mechanics of delivering an index fund. We then turn to common issues around indexing, including concentration in U.S. equities, corporate governance, private assets, and AI. Learn more about our Strategic Investments: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Randall Stutman – Giving Feedback, Followership, and Admired Leadership (EP.497)
04/13/2026
Randall Stutman – Giving Feedback, Followership, and Admired Leadership (EP.497)
Randall Stutman is the founder of Admired Leadership and one of the most sought-after executive coaches in the world. He’s known across Wall Street, the hedge fund community, professional sports, the Olympics, and the White House entirely by word of mouth. Randall was a past guest on the show six years ago in a rare public appearance, and that conversation is replayed in the feed. Our conversation covers the framework for uncovering the behaviors and best practices of admired leaders and then dives into examples around giving feedback. We also discuss how admired leaders both generate results and develop followership, and a few extra behavioral gems for investment leaders. Last year, Randall launched ALEX, an insane AI coaching tool trained solely on his insights. It’s effectively an executive coach available 24/7 for only $400/year. We use it regularly, and always for situations with elevated stakes. Give it a try at . Learn more about our Strategic Investments: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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[REPLAY] Randall Stutman - Admired Leadership (EP.150)
04/13/2026
[REPLAY] Randall Stutman - Admired Leadership (EP.150)
Randall Stutman is founder and co-head of the Leadership Practice at CRA. and the Admired Leadership Institute. Randall is probably the top executive coach that you’ve never heard of before. He’s spent 30 years coaching and learning about the behaviors and routines of extraordinary leaders. To give you a sense, he was worked in the White House and the Olympics, with something like 2,000 senior executives and 400 CEOs, and in our world, the most senior executives at JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Blackstone. Randall is also well known among the titans in the hedge fund community, where he’s worked with many of the industry’s leading funds. And he’s done all of this entirely by word of mouth referral. Randall was one of the first people I asked to come on the show three years ago, and he respectfully declined – at that point in time not wanting share the uncovered behaviors that drive his work. A few months ago, he and his partners launched Admired Leadership, an online course with short videos of 100 behaviors repeated by the most talented CEOs. The course is extraordinary. It’s so ridiculously good that I started sharing a link to it in my email signature as a gift to those who don’t know about it. Our conversation covers Randall’s path to coaching and the coaching process. We cover behaviors common among hedge fund managers, the admired leadership course, and examples across inspiring others, decision making, time management, and elevating performance. We close with Randall’s thoughts on behaviors that allocators can identify in their manager research. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Promote Giving – A New Model for Performance-Driven Giving (EP.496)
04/09/2026
Promote Giving – A New Model for Performance-Driven Giving (EP.496)
My guest on today’s special episode is Joel Holsinger, Co-head of Ares’ $50 billion Alternative Credit strategy. In addition to his long and stellar career in the credit markets, Joel spearheaded the launch of Promote Giving, a philanthropic initiative similar to Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge, designed for alternative asset managers. Our conversation covers Joel’s path to engaging in philanthropy, starting from humble beginnings to now making grants of $5 million in 2025 through Ares and launching Promote Giving in October. The proposition of Promote Giving is simple – GPs commit up to 5% of their promote on at least one fund to give to a charity of their choice. With ten signatories and more than $35 billion in AUM pledged to participate already, Promote Giving is quickly growing the movement to managers across asset classes. It’s the Giving Pledge applied to investment firms, and I can’t imagine a better use of this space than to spread the word. Learn more and pledge to give at Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Bruce MacDonald – The Playbook for Building a Mid-Sized Endowment from Scratch (EP.495)
04/06/2026
Bruce MacDonald – The Playbook for Building a Mid-Sized Endowment from Scratch (EP.495)
Bruce MacDonald is the CEO and CIO of the Virginia Commonwealth University Investment Management Company, which runs $2.5 billion for VCU’s endowment and health system. Bruce joined the University in 2015 and shortly thereafter, had the opportunity to sell the portfolio and start fresh. Since being promoted to CIO in 2022, VCU has been a top decile performer with a team of just five investment professionals. Our conversation covers Bruce's unconventional path from a religion major at Wesleyan to fixed income investing at Putnam and endowment roles at Columbia and UVIMCO before arriving at VCU. We discuss the principles of VCU’s approach, including building a portfolio around secular tailwinds like India, Vietnam, gold, and artificial intelligence while maintaining abundant liquidity to act countercyclically during market dislocations. We explore VCU’s team-based underwriting process, lessons learned from mistakes, and personal influences that have shaped Bruce’s investment philosophy. Learn more about our Strategic Investments: Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Kieran Goodwin – Private Credit Concerns (EP.494)
03/30/2026
Kieran Goodwin – Private Credit Concerns (EP.494)
Kieran Goodwin is a Partner at Saba Capital, a $6 billion hedge fund manager that seeks to identify dislocations in credit and equity markets to generate convex returns in volatile times. Kieran has been one of the top credit traders on the Street for the last three decades across roles at investment banks in the ‘90s and early 00’s, King Street, his own hedge fund, Panning Capital, and most recently, Saba that he joined in 2024. Our conversation covers a tour of Kieran’s background, including early experience with credit derivatives, growth at King Street, lifespan of Panning, downtime between stints, and re-engagement with Boaz Weinstein at Saba. We then turn to risks in the private credit market, including its rapid growth, asset-liability mismatches, pricing marks, leverage, liquidity, default risk, and the potential for reflexive problems. Kieran shares how managers should navigate the environment and how he is positioning Saba to benefit. Learn more about our Strategic Investments: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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Jeremy Grantham – Bubbles, Value Investing, and the Long Game at GMO (EP.493)
03/23/2026
Jeremy Grantham – Bubbles, Value Investing, and the Long Game at GMO (EP.493)
Jeremy Grantham is the Co-Founder of GMO, a $100 billion Boston-based asset management firm co-founded in 1977. Over six decades in markets, Jeremy has been one of the most respected and outspoken voices on value, market bubbles, and long-term investing. He recently published The Making of a Permabear with Edward Chancellor, an account of his career and investment lessons learned along the way. Our conversation begins with Jeremy’s early lessons in frugality growing up in wartime Yorkshire and his interest in numbers and investing. We trace his career through the founding of Batterymarch and GMO, the golden period of value, painful lessons of the dot-com bubble, and the challenges since. We cover Jeremy’s framework for identifying and navigating market bubbles, career risk, and the current AI investment boom, and close with his essential philanthropic work to change the trajectory of the environment alongside the investment strategy he deploys in his Foundation. Learn more about our Strategic Investments: . Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at or Subscribe to the Access Transcript with Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant ()
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