Alt Goes Mainstream

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast dives into the world of real estate with one of the industry’s largest managers and investors in industrial real estate.

We sat down in Franklin Templeton’s New York City office with real estate veteran Josh Pristaw, Managing Director, President of Clarion Partners, a $73.3B AUM real estate investment firm within Franklin Templeton’s alternatives platform.

Josh discussed data and durable demographics, which are drivers of the deeply researched investment process that his team at Clarion employs to invest in industrial real estate.

Josh’s background, which spans developing shopping centers to investing in real estate Brazil to running one of the industry’s leading single-family rental investing platforms at Pretium, has helped him lead Clarion, one of the industry’s largest industrial real estate investment platforms.

Josh and I had a fascinating conversation, connecting data and demographics to actionable insights in real estate investing. We covered:

The durable demographic and secular trends driving Clarion’s investment strategy in healthcare real estate.

How 10,000 people turning 80 years old in the US daily is creating an “aging in place” dynamic that is impacting housing supply and self-storage demand.

Why industrial demand is tied to e-commerce growth.

How Clarion takes a quantitative approach to real estate investing, evaluating sub-markets using recursive factor analysis.

How diversification and liquidity drive Clarion’s open-ended fund strategy, with 95% of the firm’s $73.3B in AUM residing in open-ended funds.

Why data centers pose liquidity, capex, valuation, and concentration challenges for open-ended fund vehicles.

Bio

Josh Pristaw, equity owner and Managing Director, is President of Clarion Partners. He is a member of the Firm’s Executive Board, Investment Committee, and the Board of Directors for Clarion Partners Holdings, LLC. He joins Clarion from Pretium, where he served as Senior Managing Director and Head of Pretium’s real estate platform. Prior to Pretium, Josh co-founded GTIS Partners.

He has more than two decades of real estate experience across property sectors and functions, including acquisitions, asset management, portfolio development, and capital markets. He joined Clarion Partners in 2025 and has been working in the industry since 1997. Josh graduated from Dartmouth College, B.A. (1997).

Thanks, Josh, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about real estate investing and your data-driven approach to the asset class.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Introduction

01:14 Message From Ultimus Fund Solutions, Our Sponsor

02:46 Josh’s Career Origins

05:01 Understand Demographics and Mega Trends

06:36 Senior Housing Supply Gap

07:35 Housing Turnover and Storage

08:51 Data Models Across Sectors

10:40 Four Drivers of Returns

13:06 Timing Bets and Liquidity

16:20 Lessons Learned From Building In Brazil

22:20 Data Meets Relationships

22:35 Clarion Data Science Edge

23:32 Asset Class Specialists

23:56 Vertical Integration Analytics

24:21 Housing Demand Funnel

25:03 Industrial Demand Megatrends

25:19 Ecommerce Growth Wave

26:05 Efficiency and Taller Warehouses

26:58 Robotics Power and Floors

27:51 Future-Proofing Specs

29:08 Infrastructure Constraints Risk

31:04 Macro Trends Change Underwriting

32:20 Why Not Big Data Centers

36:14 Liquidity Mismatch Warning

39:34 Evergreen Fund Playbook

41:13 Hardest Parts and Skills

45:15 Career Advice and Wrap Up

Editing / post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast takes us to Oslo, Norway, for a very special conversation with Christian Sinding, the former CEO of one of the industry’s leading alternative asset managers, EQT.

Christian’s hometown of Oslo provided an ideal setting to showcase both the Nordic heritage that represents EQT’s DNA and the global ambitions of a firm (and one of its portfolio companies, 1X) that is looking to fund Europe’s first €1T company.

Christian has been one of the alternative asset management industry’s leaders. He was most recently the CEO of EQT, where he steered the firm on an impressive growth path as a public company and helped scale the firm to almost €300B AUM.

He’s now focused on another ambitious project: the Scaleup Europe Fund, a fund that EQT is managing and has support from the European Commission to invest in Europe’s most promising technology companies.

With 1X Tech’s NEO humanoid robot joining us for part of the discussion, Christian and I had a fascinating conversation about the past, present, and future of alternative asset management and Europe’s technology ecosystem. Christian and I discussed:

The evolution of EQT and alternative asset management.

What Europe needs in order to fund the future.

How Europe can harmonize its capital markets infrastructure.

What it will take to create the €1T company.

What it means for companies to have global ambition.

The what, why, and how behind EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund.

Why EQT’s Scaleup Europe Fund invested in Iceye and Lovable.

Why EQT invested in 1X Tech.

How Christian’s “why not” attitude can take Europe’s technology ecosystem to the next level.

Bio

Christian Sinding is an Institutional Partner at EQT with nearly 30 years of experience at the firm. He served as CEO and Managing Partner from 2019 to May 2025, during which EQT quadrupled in size, becoming the fourth-largest company listed on the Swedish stock exchange.

As CEO, Christian oversaw EQT’s public listing on Nasdaq Stockholm in 2019 and guided the firm’s development as a publicly listed organization, with a strong focus on governance, transparency and long-term, responsible ownership.

Prior to becoming CEO, Christian served as Head of EQT Equity from 2011, where he played a central role in building EQT’s core investment franchise and expanding the firm’s international footprint. Under his leadership, EQT scaled from a market value of approximately €6 billion at listing to around €40 billion in 2025, further strengthening its position as a global leader in private markets.

Christian chairs the EQT Council and the Global Investment Forum, serves as Chair of the Investment Committee for the Scaleup Europe fund, and serves on the Investment Committees for EQT Equity and EQT Future. He is also a board member of the EQT Foundation, supporting EQT’s long-term societal engagement.

Christian brings deep experience in leadership, governance, public markets and long-term value creation, with a focus on resilience and partnering with founders and management teams to build durable, globally competitive businesses.

Thanks, Christian, for sharing your passion, expertise, and wisdom about private markets and building companies and for such a fascinating conversation.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Meet NEO, the 1X Robot

00:06 Europe’s $10B Gap

00:18 The “Why Not” Mindset

00:29 Lovable and The Trillion Euro Ambition

01:37 A Message From Our Sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:38 Christian Sinding’s Nordic Roots

03:18 Scandinavian Roots Global Outlook

05:40 EQT Culture and DNA

09:10 Inspiring Change Full Potential Plans

11:34 Troika Model Explained

14:43 IPO Success Playbook

19:37 EQT Growth Strategy

22:41 Why Venture and Growth

26:04 Hard Tech Capital Needs

30:58 Europe at a Turning Point

30:58 Europe’s Innovation Gap

33:51 Policy Push for Growth

34:25 Rethinking European Listings

35:05 Building a Pan-European Exchange

35:45 From Local Winners to Global Ambition

37:10 Geopolitics Fuels Founder Drive

38:09 Lovable and the Trillion Euro Vision

39:10 EU Inc and Capital Reforms

40:58 Private Longer Needs More Capital

41:38 Scale Up Europe Fund

44:19 Why This Fund Wins

48:56 Catalyzing Europe’s Flywheel

51:41 The “Why Not” Mindset

54:07 NEO the 1X Robot in Action

57:23 Wrap Up and Thanks

Join over 17,400 Substack subscribers & followers and 46,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast takes us into the importance of ownership and equity, and how the world’s largest private equity firm (source: PEI 300) has helped create a culture of ownership within its portfolio companies and more broadly across the industry.

With the backdrop of KKR’s studio in New York and the firm fresh off the heels of celebrating its 50th Anniversary, we sat down with KKR’s Global Co-Head of Private Equity Pete Stavros for a live conversation during AGM’s RIA Field Trip to discuss how culture can be a competitive advantage and how it defines much of what KKR does both internally and with its portfolio companies.

Pete has not only been a leading private equity investor at one of the industry’s largest firms, but he’s also been a pioneer in one of the industry’s most important initiatives: enabling employees of private equity-backed companies to share in ownership of the companies where they work.

The firm’s Broad-Based Employee Ownership has delivered on its promise in many ways, with KKR’s recent 14x (and $4.75B) exit on CoolIT providing all 650 CoolIT employees with cash payouts that ranged from approximately one year to more than eight years of annual pay, which, as Pete noted in our conversation, was “life-changing for many employees.”

Pete and I had a fascinating conversation about the culture of ownership at KKR, the evolution of the firm’s private equity platform, why it’s so important to make employees owners, and how it’s created a ripple effect in the industry. We covered:

KKR’s “we not I” culture.

Why the most important trend in private equity going forward will be a shift from “balance sheet and income statement arbitrage to total cultural transformation.”

Why and how culture is an advantage — and how KKR sustains its competitive advantage.

The power of a scaled platform and why the division of labor is important as firms grow.

What Pete means by “persistence in process.”

How can companies encourage people to act like owners, and why is it so important for employee retention and productivity?

How can sharing equity ownership be used as a tool to change culture?

The impact the private equity industry can have through its ability to cascade change.

Bio

Pete Stavros (NewYork) joined KKR in 2005 and is Co-Head of Global Private Equity. This includes oversight of assets across Europe, Asia and the Americas and traditional large and mid-cap private equity, core and growth equity. Prior to this role, Pete served as Co-Head of the Americas Private Equity platform. He is a member of several investment committees at KKR. As an investor, Pete has helped lead a number of successful investments across sectors and sizes, including HCA Healthcare, Nielsen, Gardner Denver / Ingersoll Rand, Capsugel, Capital Safety, Hyperion, Flow Control Group, Charter Next Generation, Minnesota Rubber and Plastics, Geostabilization International, Crosby Group and CHI Overhead Doors. Prior to becoming Co-Head of Americas Private Equity, Pete led the Industrials industry team where he pioneered an innovative employee engagement and ownership model. This approach has been successfully implemented at more than 90 KKR companies and has positively impacted more than 200,000 workers. Pete is the Founder and Chairman of Ownership Works, a non-profit focused on building a worker ownership movement globally and enhancing the financial resiliency of the workforce. The goal of Ownership Works is to create more than $20 billion of wealth for working families over the next decade. Pete is also the Founder and Chairman of Expanding ESOPs, an organization focused on dramatically expanding the number of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) in corporate America. Prior to joining KKR, Pete was an investor with GTCR Golder Rauner, where he was an investor in the healthcare sector. He holds a B.S. in Chemistry, magna cum laude, from Duke University and an M.B.A. with high distinction, Baker Scholar, from Harvard Business School.

Thanks, Pete, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion on private equity and making everyone an owner.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Live From AGM Field Trip at KKR Studio In NYC

00:29 A Message From Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:00 Meet Pete Stavros

02:09 The Story of Joining KKR

02:33 From Interviews To NYC

03:08 All About Collaboration

03:26 A No Star Culture

04:40 How Culture Is Sustained

04:53 Ritz-Carlton Analogy

05:23 No Star Culture

05:42 Culture Shapes Investing

06:07 Platform Resources Edge

06:24 Capital Markets Bench

06:41 Macro And Ops Experts

07:06 Making Resources Work

08:11 Consistency And Process

08:40 Evolving Value Creation

09:07 Gardner Denver / Ingersoll Rand Case

09:49 Value Engineering Method

10:09 Warehouse Teardown

10:54 Customer Feedback Loop

11:25 Sixty Million In Savings

11:50 Culture As The Next Frontier

12:16 Defining Transformation

12:27 Workforce Crisis Stats

13:39 Problems Are Global

15:04 Underwriting Culture Risk

15:28 Leadership Makes It Work

16:42 Ownership Done Right

17:49 BBEO Origins

20:07 Early Mistakes Learned

20:51 Scaling To 85 Companies

21:00 CoolIT Exit Results

22:00 Closing The Wealth Loop

22:26 Financial Literacy Journey

23:02 Truck Loan Lesson

23:54 Building Resilience Stack

25:42 Exit Support Package

26:17 Industry Adoption

27:13 Ownership Works Launch

27:51 Street Loan Cautionary Tale

30:03 Why Share The Playbook

31:42 Taking Ownership Global

32:13 International Rollout

33:30 Local Culture Differences

34:19 State Of Private Equity

34:45 Is Software Dead

35:17 KKR Software Approach

36:41 AI At Portfolio Scale

37:34 One Hundred Thirty Tests

37:57 Buying The Fear Trade

38:11 Accounting Is Not Dead

39:14 Closing Thoughts

Join over 17,300 Substack subscribers & followers and 46,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We went to Miami to sit down with the professor of infrastructure investing and Founder, Chairman, and Managing Partner of I Squared, Dr. Sadek Wahba.

Sadek has blended academic knowledge and a practical approach to infrastructure investing to build I Squared into a $60B infrastructure investment firm in 14 years, some of which he has adroitly distilled into the 2024 book that he authored, Build: Investing in America’s Infrastructure.

We had such a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion that I’ve decided to break down our conversation into chapters.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Alt Goes Mainstream at I Squared in Miami

01:39 A Message From Our Sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:41 Meet Dr. Sadek Wahba

03:18 Career Path Origins

03:59 World Bank Lessons

07:36 Private Sector Contrast

08:55 I Squared Focus Model

10:22 Platform Playbook

13:02 Dr. Wahba’s Book

14:35 AI Infrastructure Wave

16:19 No Free Lunch: Ownership and Regulation

16:58 Politics And History

19:57 Municipal Debt Funding

21:55 User Fees Reality

25:55 Ownership Management Regulation

29:57 Incentives

32:40 If It Sounds Too Good To Be True

33:57 I Squared Investing Approach

37:29 Risk Return Discipline

39:17 Building Durable Infrastructure

40:37 Regulation Risk Reality

42:27 Balancing Risk Return

43:50 Why Middle Market Wins

45:14 Great Management Traits

46:22 Infra Tech And AI

49:51 Platform Building Playbook

52:59 Capital Flows And Competition

57:57 Democratizing Infrastructure Ownership

01:04:11 Privatization And Listed Airports

01:07:42 Retirement Accounts For Infrastructure

01:09:28 Nearshoring And National Security

01:16:02 Investor Skillset And Edge

01:18:01 What Drives The Mission

Join over 17,300 Substack subscribers & followers, 46,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers, and syndication to the 330,000 Bloomberg Terminal userswho are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We went to Golub Capital’s New York office to sit down with Co-CEO David Golub.

David Golub and his brother Lawrence both started their careers in private equity. It was their experiences in private equity in the 1990s that turned them into private credit pioneers.

Lawrence and David have built Golub Capital into a $95B private credit behemoth, largely due to their pioneering decision to create the “one-stop” unitranche loan solution for sponsor-backed companies after spotting a gap in the sponsor finance market.

Fast forward over 30 years, and Golub Capital is one of the leaders in private credit.

David discussed how Golub has spent the balance of its life as a scaled specialist credit manager “honing the competitive advantages” that make the firm so unique. Golub has built a cadre of 200 high-quality sponsor relationships with many of the industry’s top private equity firms, which call on them when they are seeking sponsor financing for their companies.

David and I had a fascinating conversation that covered everything from the early days of private credit to the story of pioneering unitranche loans to what LPs should look for in GPs to the psychology of relationships and partnerships. We discussed:

What David and Lawrence saw in the early days of private equity informed how they decided to build Golub.

Why the unitranche loan became popular with private equity sponsors.

What Golub looks for in relationships with private equity sponsors.

Why focus has been a key driver of scaling Golub’s business.

What LPs should ask GPs when evaluating their fund and firm.

Why LPs should evaluate GPs based on how GPs think about their own business.

The psychology of relationships and partnerships.

How David’s experience being surrounded by a family of psychologists and psychiatrists has given him an edge in investing, negotiating, and building win-win relationships.

Bio

David B. Golub, Co-Chief Executive Officer

David Golub is Co-Chief Executive Officer of Golub Capital, a market-leading, award-winning direct lender and experienced private credit manager. As of April 1, 2026, Golub Capital had over $90 billion of capital under management, a gross measure of invested capital including leverage. Golub Capital partners with institutional investors and family offices, offering tailored solutions for investors’ credit asset strategies. The Firm specializes in delivering reliable, creative and compelling financing solutions to companies backed by private equity sponsors. Golub Capital has been a top 3 U.S. Middle Market Bookrunner each year from 2008 through Q1 2026 for senior secured loans of up to $500 million for leveraged buyouts. Golub Capital has been consistently recognized with industry awards, including Lender of the Year, Americas (Private Debt Investor, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) Lender of the Decade, Americas (Private Debt Investor, 2023), Senior Lender of the Decade, Americas (Private Debt Investor, 2023), Senior Lender of the Year, Americas (Private Debt Investor, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2023, 2025) and BDC Manager of the Year, Americas (Private Debt Investor, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2023).

Mr. Golub is active in charitable and civic organizations. Mr. Golub is a member of the Founder’s Council of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, where he was the first board Chairman and a long-time director. Mr. Golub is Co-Founder and Chair of the Golub Capital Nonprofit Board Fellows Network, which operates at 20 leading business schools; its mission is to make nonprofit boards more effective by training hundreds of MBA students each year to become highly skilled nonprofit directors. Mr. Golub is a member of the Association of Marshall Scholars’ Director’s Circle and previously was a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council. He has served on the boards of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association, the Hudson Guild and the World Policy Institute. Mr. Golub is on the board of directors of Burton Snowboards and has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies.

Prior to joining Golub Capital in 2003, Mr. Golub was a Managing Director of Centre Partners, a leading middle market private equity firm, and of Corporate Partners, a Lazard-sponsored $1.5 billion private equity fund formed to acquire significant minority stakes in established companies.

Mr. Golub earned his AB degree magna cum laude in Government from Harvard College. He received an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar.

Thanks, David, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about private credit, the business of asset management, and the psychology of relationships.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Introduction

01:23 A Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions, Our Sponsor

02:21 Meet David Golub

03:21 David’s Career Shift to Credit

05:24 Joining Forces with His Brother

06:18 Sponsor Finance Market Gap

11:23 Origin of The Unitranche Loan

13:19 Crisis as the Catalyst

14:03 Underwriting Differently

15:19 Distressed Value Mindset

17:01 What Makes a Good Business

20:42 Relationships And Game Theory

22:19 Capital Isn’t Proprietary

27:02 Being First Call

27:58 Managing Growth Carefully

29:45 Only The Paranoid Survive

32:08 Job One Is Performance

35:43 PE Industry Underwriting

36:59 Raising Capital Follows Winners

38:47 Future PE Picks Fewer Lenders

39:27 Credit Partner As A Signal

41:01 Risk Real Vs Perceived

42:15 Cycle Headwinds Explained

43:25 Press Noise And Redemptions

45:43 Why Some LPs Lean In

47:15 Two Narratives Debunked

47:27 Stress Drivers Under Surface

48:51 Manager Dispersion Worsens

50:07 Junior Debt Warning

50:27 How To Underwrite Managers

53:21 Ask For The Why

54:24 Best LP Questions

56:53 Culture Of Balanced Thinking

57:47 Interviewing For Rigor

58:48 Building The Wealth Channel

59:41 Early Fundraising Origins

01:01:14 Investor Diversification

01:04:44 Decades Mindset And Focus

01:05:48 More Of The Same Strategy

01:06:31 Adjacencies And Secondaries

01:06:45 Why Continuation Vehicles Fit

01:09:42 Problem Solving Relationships

01:11:06 Authenticity Over Tricks

01:12:21 Repeat Game Negotiation

01:12:37 Closing

Join over 17,100 Substack subscribers & followers, 46,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers, and syndication to the 330,000 Bloomberg Terminal userswho are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast takes us to the heart of New York City to talk with James Li, the President and Partner of Davidson Kempner, a firm that was an early participant in the merger arbitrage, distressed debt, and opportunistic credit industries.

Davidson Kempner’s heritage lies in cutting through complexity to find value.

Founded in 1983, Davidson Kempner’s origins began in merger arbitrage, distressed debt, and opportunistic credit. The firm, which now has around 1,800 clients, began accepting outside capital in 1987 and has since built out its investment platform to include convertible arbitrage, long / short equities, asset-based lending, and real estate strategies.

Davidson Kempner has since grown to almost $40B in AUM across public and private markets strategies.

The firm has a penchant for navigating complex situations across public and private markets to opportunistically uncover value, noting that “no situation is too complex for [them].”

James unpacked how the firm’s family office DNA has evolved across three generations of leadership into a scaled investment platform across public and private markets to inform the firm’s relative value investing perspective.

James and I had a fascinating conversation on a number of pressing topics at the intersection of public and private markets. We covered:

How do public market feedback loops inform private market investments?

How post-GFC growth in private equity has created “indigestion” in the system.

What the current state of private equity means for capital solutions opportunities.

Why distressed and opportunistic credit can be countercyclical.

What deglobalization means for investing in private markets.

Why are allocators shifting toward absolute return strategies?

How Davidson Kempner’s family office DNA has informed how they approach working with the wealth channel.

Bio

James Li is the President and a Partner at Davidson Kempner. Mr. Li also co-manages the Client Partnerships & Business Development department and oversees the Firm’s Capital Markets, Strategy and Treasury Teams. He joined the Firm in 2018 and is based in the New York office.

Before joining Davidson Kempner, Mr. Li was a Managing Director in the Client Relationship Management and Strategy Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co. Mr. Li received a B.S. from Columbia University.

Thanks, James, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about public and private markets and your approach to investing in complex situations.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Live From Davidson Kempner’s Office in NYC

01:36 A Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:37 Introduction to James Li

05:21 Why Join Davidson Kempner

06:17 Three Generations Of Leadership

06:46 Family Office DNA

08:28 Principled Investing And Complexity

09:13 Finding Returns In Complexity

12:38 Liquid Versus Private Feedback Loops

13:57 Macro Forces And Time Horizons

14:57 Deglobalization And Global Footprint

16:46 Competition And The Marginal Buyer

17:52 Private Capital “Indigestion”

19:12 Capital Solutions Playbook

22:30 Integrated Public Private Edge

32:05 Hedge Funds Return

32:50 Post GFC Lessons

33:01 Incentives And Capacity

33:40 Liquidity Mismatch Risks

34:06 Evergreen Vehicle Design

34:33 Public Private Split

35:00 Avoiding Leverage

36:13 Mark To Market Mechanics

36:37 Flows Back To Hedge Funds

37:28 Educating Wealth Investors

37:46 Strategy Buckets Overview

38:20 Merger Arb Explained

39:43 Global Credit Toolkit

41:02 Portfolio Velocity And Risk

42:13 Investment Led Ownership

45:07 Less Competition In Small Deals

52:16 Opportunistic Credit Case

55:49 Long Term Firm Vision

59:57 Closing Thoughts

Join over 17,100 Substack subscribers & followers and 46,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We were live from iCapital Connect’s conference in Phoenix, where we sat down with some of the industry’s leaders across asset management and wealth management.

We sat down with Ava Mallin, Managing Director, US Private Wealth Solutions at Ardian.

Ava brings a distinctive approach to how she works with the wealth channel. She emphasized that asset managers should treat capital as a client’s legacy rather than “just dollars.”

Speaking of legacy, Ardian is a firm with a rich legacy. The firm was born in 1996, when AXA’s Chairman, Claude Bébéar, chairman of AXA, asked Dominique Senequier to create a private equity arm for the insurer. And so AXA Private Equity was born. The firm’s first fund launched with a $100M French Buyout fund and two external clients.

Today, Ardian stands tall as a giant in private markets, spanning asset classes and managing over $200B AUM.

As a firm that provides investment solutions and customized strategies, Ardian thinks deeply about the breadth and depth of its relationships with LPs. Ava brings this perspective to bear in the wealth channel, which was evident in our conversation.

Ava shared how she brings a uniquely human perspective to fundraising and partnering with the wealth channel. She believes managing money is managing emotion, which is critical for GPs to understand how wealth advisors manage their relationships with clients.

We had a fascinating conversation, covering:

The importance of understanding the human and emotional side that it takes to build enduring partnerships with LPs.

Why US LPs have a growing interest in diversification and want exposure to Europe.

How Ardian’s global footprint helps them generate LP de

Why secondaries are a partnership business with LPs and GPs.

The importance of educating the wealth channel on private markets.

Why Ardian prefers the term “evergreen” over “semi-liquid.”

Why GPs should work with the wealth channel only if they have true commitment to the channel and top-down support from senior leadership.

Bio

Ava Mallin joined Ardian in 2022. She is responsible for Private Wealth relationships in the US. Prior to joining Ardian, she spent seven years at Carlyle in their Private Wealth group. She is based in New York.

Thanks, Ava, for sharing your wsidom, expertise, and passion for how you approach working with the wealth channel and your focus on EQ as part of building relationships with advisors that enable them to treat their clients' capital as legacy.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

Show Notes

00:00 Live From iCapital Connect

00:23 A Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions

01:21 Meet Ardian’s Ava Mallin

01:48 Money And Emotion

03:12 Ardian Culture And Fit

03:48 Secondaries Partnership Model

04:49 Building US Wealth Business

06:07 Evergreen Funds And Liquidity

07:38 Advisor Education And Trust

09:18 Brand Building In Wealth

11:00 Authentic Sales Relationships

12:56 Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should

14:00 Getting Firmwide Buy-In

14:44 Wealth Channel Challenges

15:21 Closing Thoughts

Join over 17,000 Substack subscribers & followers, 45,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers, and syndication to the 330,000 Bloomberg Terminal userswho are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We were live from AGM’s RIA Field Trip at Franklin Templeton’s New York office in Madison Square Park with Franklin Templeton’s Head of Private Markets - Americas Wealth Management Dave Donahoo to discuss the nuances of serving the wealth channel.

Dave brings the perspective of someone who has seen the wealth channel handle multiple market cycles and an understanding of both traditional and alternative asset management, while always keeping the outcome for the end investor in mind.

Dave started his career in the depths of the 2008 financial crisis at T. Rowe Price, where he worked with individual investors. He rose up the ranks of T. Rowe Price and then joined Blackstone as a Principal in the firm’s Private Wealth Solutions business before moving to Franklin Templeton as Head of Private Markets - Americas Wealth Management.

Unpacking nuances in private markets, Dave discussed why he believes a “family of specialists” with a “narrow scope” is critical for a private markets investment platform and how a traditional asset manager can approach building brand in private markets. We had a fascinating discussion, covering:

How Dave’s background starting his career working with individual investors has informed how he approaches creating solutiosn for the wealth channel.

Why LPs want to do more with fewer partners and what this means for GPs.

Specialists vs. generalists.

Why RIAs have “cold call fatigue.”

What RIAs want from a product perspective and why differentiation, trust, and proactive client service are top of the list.

How asset managers can approach brand-building.

The product innovation roadmap and what the path to 401(k) and DC products might look like.

Thanks, Dave, for sharing a fascinating window into the wealth channel and for your passion, expertise, and dedication to providing private markets solutions to the wealth channel.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 Live From Franklin Templeton RIA Field Trip

00:07 Meet Dave Donahoo

02:29 Lehman Day One

03:15 Phone Lines Meltdown

03:38 Teacher Call Story

04:54 Start With End Client

05:37 Lessons From Blackstone

05:56 Wealth Playbook Takeaways

07:22 Why Franklin Made Sense

08:18 Traditional Manager Edge

08:40 Wealth Architecture Headstart

09:17 One Partner Full Platform

10:27 Challenges And Tradeoffs

10:55 Brand Transformation Work

11:58 Internal Alignment And Comms

12:30 Desired Brand Feeling

13:04 Specialist Manager Model

13:59 Perpetual Products Done Right

14:28 Defining The Right Structure

15:52 Vehicle Alpha Debate

16:26 Secondaries Structure Choice

18:28 Infrastructure Partnership Build

20:21 Preserving Investment Cultures

22:09 Data Synergies Across Teams

24:39 Macro Insights Advantage

26:11 Product Innovation Roadmap

27:36 401(k) And DC Opportunities

28:23 Private Markets Model Portfolios

29:39 What RIAs Really Want

30:55 Service And Honest Selling

31:53 Wrap Up And Thanks

Join over 17,000 Substack subscribers & followers and 44,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast takes us to the heart of London, where we sat down with Maggie Fanari, the CEO of J Rothschild Capital Management Limited, manager of RIT Capital Partners plc.

RIT blends a rich heritage with a modern approach to both asset allocation and private markets.

Lord Jacob Rothschild founded Rothschild Investment Trust in 1971. RIT listed on the London Stock Exchange with total assets of £280M. Today, the firm stands tall as one of the UK’s largest investment trusts with over £4.7B of total assets.

The firm’s permanent capital and family office heritage have enabled the firm to think long-term, according to Maggie. “Permanent capital is a privilege,” she said.

Maggie has brought an institutional allocator’s background to RIT. She joined as CEO of RIT from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2024, where she was Senior Managing Director, Global Group Head of High Conviction Equities at OTPP, which has a global mandate to invest in public and private companies.

Maggie and I had a fascinating discussion about how the firm invests across public and private markets, balancing both top-down portfolio construction and bottom-up asset selection. We covered:

How RIT has aimed to compound wealth over time.

Why top-down portfolio construction and bottom-up asset allocation are equally important.

How can investors capture as much growth, limit market volatility, and compound growth over a long period of time?

How RIT finds uniuqe and different managers in private markets, which includes some of the top investors in the world.

What market structure changes mean for investing across public and private markets?

How to invest when the world order has changed.

Why permanent capital is a privilege.

How to be early to a theme rather than chase the trend.

Why RIT decided to invest in SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, Databricks, and Epic Systems.

Where do investors bucket RIT into their asset allocation?

What is a manager’s edge and how can they apply that edge with consistency?

Why depth of network matters for private markets managers.

Why RIT invested in firms like Thrive, Greenoaks, and Ribbit.

Bio

Maggie Fanari is the CEO of J. Rothschild Capital Management Limited (JRCM) , investment manager for RIT Capital Partners plc. She is Chair of JRCM’s Investment Committee.

Maggie was previously Senior Managing Director, Global Group Head of High Conviction Equities at Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which has a global mandate to invest in public and private companies.

At Ontario Teachers’, she served as a member of many of the pension plan’s investment committees. She was involved in the execution of investments across a variety of asset classes (private and public), including supporting the development and execution of the venture and growth business.

Before joining Ontario Teachers’, Maggie worked at KPMG and Scotia Capital. Maggie is a chartered accountant and a CFA charter holder. She also holds a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and ICD.D certification from the Institute of Corporate Directors.

Maggie served as a non-executive director on the Board of RIT Capital Partners plc from April 2019 to February 2024.

Thanks, Maggie, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion across public and private markets and your thoughtful perspectives from your experiences as an institutional investor.

A word from AGM podcast sponsor, Ultimus Fund Solutions

This episode of Alt Goes Mainstream is brought to you by Ultimus, the full-service fund administrator and transfer agent powering asset managers in private and public markets. As alts go mainstream, you need real expertise to handle complex fund structures, connect with key distribution partners, and handle sophisticated compliance, reporting, and transparency demands.

That’s Ultimus: high-tech, high-touch solutions for over 450 clients and 2,500 funds with $775B in assets under administration. Backed by an expert team of over 1,200 employees, they place client service at the core of their business, helping you navigate complexity during your fund structuring or launch and then supporting you through every stage of growth. Whether you’re already in the market or thinking about entering private wealth, you can trust their team’s deep expertise in retail alternatives to help you reach your goals.

Learn more: ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Show Notes

00:00 RIT Edge And Heritage

02:49 Maggie Fanari’s Career Path

04:38 Teachers’ Lessons On Allocation

06:04 New Market Paradigm

07:39 RIT Strategy And Track Record

10:36 Backing Top Private Managers

12:31 Co-Invest Playbook

17:27 SpaceX And Public Private Value

21:59 Moats Data And Permanent Capital

26:45 Oversubscribed Funds And Size

28:22 AI Rounds And Valuations

30:05 Fund Size Expansion Debate

31:58 Avoiding FOMO Staying Disciplined

34:00 Private Allocation And Liquidity

35:20 Holding Winners Post IPO

37:36 Retail Investors And Market Structure

39:20 Listed Trusts Discounts And NAV

41:07 Long Term Holders And Asymmetry

43:03 Sentiment Cycles In Private Markets

44:39 Picking Managers And Edge

47:53 AI And Venture Consolidation

50:50 Being A Valuable LP Partner

52:51 Cross Asset Insights One Team

54:43 Risk Geopolitics And Resilience

58:39 Permanent Capital Best Of Both

01:00:18 Closing

Join over 17,000 Substack subscribers & followers and 44,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

We sat down with Mike Trihy, Head of Portfolio Management for the Venture Growth Evergreen strategy at Wellington Management.

We were live from Berlin, which becomes the “capital of private capital” in June as private equity industry leaders make the annual pilgrimage to the city for one of the marquee private equity conferences, SuperReturn Berlin.

With Prosek Partners and former Bloomberg TV journalist Deirdre Bolton as my producer, along with her team, we took over a Tiny Space cabin to hold big conversations with some of the industry’s leading alternative asset managers.

Wellington Management has a rich heritage as an independently owned asset manager. The firm, which has taken a research-driven approach and long-term thinking to active management in public markets and, increasingly, in private markets, is nearing its 100-year anniversary. Wellington has grown to over $1.3T in AUM and is the largest sub-advisor in the world.

Mike joined from Bow River Capital to run Wellington’s Venture Growth Evergreen strategy, which will focus on direct growth and venture investments, secondaries, and select fund investments. Mike brings deep expertise in the evergreen fund management space, co-founding and scaling Bow River’s evergreen private markets platform and working as a portfolio manager at evergreen pioneer Partners Group.

Mike and I had a fascinating discussion about the current state of evergreen funds and the venture and growth investing market. We covered:

The evolution of evergreen private markets funds.

The convergence of public and private investing.

Lessons learned from building and managing evergreen funds at Partners Group and Bow River.

The importance of portfolio construction, liquidity planning, and evergreen fund operations.

Which firms are well-positioned to run and manage evergreen funds?

Partnerships in asset management.

Bio

As lead portfolio manager for the Venture Growth Evergreen (“VGE”) strategy, Mike is responsible for overall portfolio construction and allocation of capital across direct growth and venture investments, secondaries, and select fund investments. He also oversees risk management, liquidity management, and cash flow forecasting for the evergreen fund.

Prior to joining Wellington Management in 2025 Mike was a portfolio manager at Bow River Capital, where he co-founded and scaled their evergreen private markets platform while overseeing the fund’s investment activity across multiple private markets asset classes. Prior to Bow River, he was a portfolio manager at Partners Group where he was responsible for portfolio construction and asset allocation for evergreen products and custom separate account mandates. He started his investment career at wealth-focused listed private equity firm Red Rocks Capital.

Mike graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in finance, and he is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.

Thanks, Mike, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and perspectives on private markets and evergreen funds.

Show Notes

00:00 Live from SuperReturn Berlin

00:24 Meet Mike Trihy

01:35 Evergreens Explained

02:28 Evergreen Vs Drawdown

02:49 Deal Flow Reality Check

03:01 Portfolio Construction First

03:33 Ops And Valuations

03:47 Sales And Flow Forecasting

04:13 Fiduciary Growth Mindset

04:48 Do Firms Have The Tools

05:24 Scale Vs Boutique Tradeoffs

06:25 Deal Volume Constraint

06:53 Should There Be More

07:05 Near Term Shakeout

07:51 Quality Wins Long Term

08:19 Is There A Best Wrapper

08:25 Matching Asset Client Structure

08:41 Interval Fund Fit

09:35 Avoid Liquidity Mismatch

10:01 LP Mix And Herding Risk

11:30 2022 Denominator Effect

11:57 Evergreen Future Adoption

13:51 Public Markets DNA Advantage

15:37 Build Buy Or Partner

17:20 Mega IPOs And Private Value

19:59 DPI Impact And Exit Wave

21:33 Public Vs Private Valuations

23:53 What Happens Faster Slower

25:47 Closing

Join over 16,900 Substack subscribers & followers and 44,000 LinkedIn and podcast followers who are thought leaders and executives from top private markets firms and wealth management like Blackstone, Apollo, Ares, KKR, EQT, Carlyle, Blue Owl, CVC, TPG, Brookfield, Vista, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, BlackRock, Fidelity, iCapital, Franklin Templeton, Nuveen, Hg, Permira, Stonepeak, Hamilton Lane, StepStone, Partners Group, General Atlantic, Hightower, Focus Financial, Corient, Cerity Partners, and more.