Alt Goes Mainstream: The Latest on Alternative Investments, WealthTech, & Private Markets

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

What happens when you bring Tokyo-Neapolitan style pizza to New York? 

You get one of the hottest new reservations in a city full of top restaurants and pizza spots.
 

Are there similarities between pizza and asset management? 

Different styles of pizza appeal to different people. Same in asset management. But there is one constant: the way the pizza is made matters.

At Pizza Studio Tamaki, the Tokyo-Neapolitan pizza is made with acclaimed pizzaiolo’s Subasa Tamaki’s dough flown in directly from Japan. Every detail matters. Every flavor is unique. And it all blends together into a unique pizza experience.

That’s something Nomura Asset Management International is aiming to do in the U.S. with both public and private markets.

We recently sat down at Pizza Studio Tamaki for a live podcast with Nomura Asset Management International CEO Shawn Lytle, with the wealth channel in the audience, to discuss pizza, patterns in asset management, and private markets. 

Shawn’s deep experience working for a number of the industry’s largest asset managers and understanding of what the wealth channel needs across public and private markets set the table for a great discussion on the evolution of asset management, how culture impacts how firms work with the wealth channel, and how to bring an international brand into the U.S. market.

We ate the pizza while we podcasted, and we even did a pizza rating. Spoiler alert, PST was really good. So was the podcast.

Bio

Shawn is Chief Executive Officer of Nomura Asset Management International, where he is responsible for overseeing the business, investment teams, and strategies for clients. He joined Nomura Asset Management as part of Nomura’s acquisition of Macquarie Asset Management’s US and European public investments business in 2025. He also serves as the President of Nomura Funds (formerly, Macquarie Funds) and oversees registered vehicle governance in the US and Europe. Shawn is a member of the Nomura Asset Management International Executive Committee.

He has more than 30 years of asset management experience. Before joining Macquarie in 2015, he held several management and equity investment roles at UBS Asset Management and various roles at J.P. Morgan Asset Management.

Shawn is a member of the Investment Company Institute (ICI) Executive Committee. He is also a board member of OppNet and Philadelphia Financial Scholars, in addition to being the former Chairman of the National Association of Securities Professionals (NASP).

He earned a Bachelor of Science in marketing from The McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

Thanks, Shawn, for sharing your expertise, wisdom, and passion about asset management and private markets.

Show Notes

00:00 Tokyo Pizza Meets NYC

01:07 Ultimus Fund Solutions Sponsor Message

02:05 Meet Shawn Lytle

02:18 Why Japanese Pizza Studio Tamaki

05:09 Four Firms Four Cultures

06:10 Craftsmanship And Consistency

06:52 Bringing Nomura To US

07:21 What Great Managers Share

09:00 Choosing The Right Partner

10:29 Curated Menus Fewer Managers

12:50 Beta Is Free Alpha Matters

13:48 Nomura Platform Advantages

15:39 Winning In Japan ETFs

17:11 Sports Marketing Lessons

22:29 Private Markets Next Wave

27:59 Pizza Rating And Wrap Up

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast dives into the world of data and decision-making in private markets. 

We were in the studio with private markets polymath Jeb Altonaga. Jeb is SVP, Head of Business Development in Private Markets at Arcesium, where they have built a financial management data platform aimed at solving the data normalization problem across public and private markets.

Jeb’s multihyphenate background puts him in a position to see the data challenges for GPs and LPs alike from all different angles as Arcesium works to take unstructured data and turn it into structured data and insights to help asset managers run their businesses more efficiently and serve LPs better.

Jeb’s background spans Citadel, where he was Head of Relationship Management & Operations in Asia-Pacific, to being an LP as the COO at Blue Pool, a large family office based in Asia, to running capital formation and as COO at Australian activist investment firm Sandon Capital. He joined Arcesium in August 2025 to spearhead the execution of business strategy and the product roadmap for Arcesium’s software solutions in private markets.

We had such a fascinating discussion given the various vantage points that Jeb has had in private markets. We covered:

• How to think about data normalization and why it matters.
• Where and when transparency makes sense.
• Which asset classes may benefit from less transparency.
• What secondary markets might do to transparency in private markets.
• What a tradable market in private markets could look like.
• The evolution of private credit’s market structure.
• What Jeb would make more efficient about private markets.
• Why it’s important to be a lifelong learner.

Bio

Jeb Altonaga leads business development for Arcesium’s Private Markets segment, drawing on over 25 years in alternative investments, capital formation and funds management. He founded Clearglass Capital Partners, a private capital advisory firm, and previously served as COO at Sandon Capital in Sydney and Partner & COO at Blue Pool Capital (& Pinyin) in Hong Kong and began his buy-side career at Citadel Investment Group in Chicago. Jeb holds an MBA from NYU Stern and has served on the board of Hedge Funds Care Asia.

Thanks, Jeb, for sharing your wisdom, expertise, and passion about public and private markets.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Alt Goes Mainstream

01:25 A Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions

02:22 Jeb’s Career Path and Lessons

04:05 Why Jeb Joined Arcesium

04:40 From Loan Tapes to AI

06:33 Building in Private Markets

07:26 The Missing Middle Layer

08:55 Do GPs and LPs Want Standards

10:38 LPs Must Drive Change

11:33 Family Office Perspective

14:23 AI Adoption for Different Generations

18:11 Private Markets Need a Desktop

21:02 APIs versus SFTP plumbing

23:25 Evergreens and Secondaries Push Transparency

28:49 Secondaries as Portfolio Tool

29:11 Transparency vs Information Edge

29:48 Private Equity Transparency Limits

30:10 Why Private Credit Opens Up

31:48 Market Structure Highway Analogy

33:08 Tech Stitching Private Data

34:14 Golden Source Data Layer

35:19 Arcesium Intelligence Agents

35:39 Front to Back Platform Buildout

36:50 Why Firms Differ on Same Stack

39:27 Tech First Culture as Edge

41:04 Private Credit Marketplace Debate

43:41 Liquidity Mismatch and Gates

46:24 Secondary Trading Tech Readiness

47:37 Security Master Fix and Wrap

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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

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 in 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.

Show Notes

00:00 Introduction

01:14 Message from Ultimus Fund Solutions, Our Sponsor

02:44 Josh Career Origins

03:55 Real Estate Scale Shifts

04:51 Understand Demographics and Mega Trends

05:35 Senior Housing Supply Gap

07:12 Housing Turnover and Storage

08:24 Data Models Across Sectors

09:21 Data Driven Allocation Lens

09:57 Four Drivers of Returns

12:16 Timing Bets and Liquidity

15:17 Lessons Learned From Building In Brazil

18:06 Invitation Homes Data Ops

19:44 Clarion Data Science Edge

21:06 Quant Meets Relationships

22:11 Asset Class Specialists 

23:16 Industrial Demand Megatrends

23:32 Ecommerce Trillion Wave

24:16 Efficiency And Taller Warehouses 

4:58 Robotics Power Premium

26:54 Infrastructure Constraints 

29:44 Why Not Data Centers

34:27 Supply Glut More Sellers

33:10 Liquidity Supply Imbalance

36:12 Evergreen Fund Playbook

39:26 Portfolio Rotation Discipline

41:16 Career Advice and Wrap Up

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

Editing and 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 the firm (and one of its portfolio companies, 1X) that is looking to fund Europe’s first €1T company. 

Christian has been one of the leaders in the alternative asset management industry. 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.
• How Christian’s “why not” attitude can take Europe’s technology ecosystem to the next level.

Come for the conversation with Christian, stay until the end to meet NEO.

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.

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

02:35 Welcome Christian Sinding

02:40 Nordic Edge on Innovation

05:38 EQT Origins and DNA

08:01 Inspiring Change Not Control

08:36 Full Potential Planning

10:46 Troika Model Explained

13:42 Winning After the IPO

16:14 Capital Markets Playbook

20:56 Why Venture and Growth

28:44 Europe’s Innovation Gap

28:56 Politics Push Reform

29:37 Why Europe Can Win

30:47 Building Bigger Markets

31:18 A European Nasdaq Dream

32:28 From Local To Global

33:36 Founder Ambition Shifts

34:40 Lovable Trillion Dollar Vision

35:32 EU Inc And Capital Reforms

36:56 Private Longer Needs Capital

37:52 Scaleup Europe Fund Explained

39:53 What Makes It Different

43:02 Defining Success And Flywheel

46:47 The “Why Not” Mentality

48:58 Some Time With NEO, The 1X Robot

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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

Welcome back to the Alt Goes Mainstream podcast.

Today’s podcast unpacks 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 Co-Head of Global 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.

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

03:02 A No Star Culture

04:03 How Culture Is Sustained

04:43 Ritz-Carlton Analogy

05:23 No Star Culture

05:29 Culture Shapes Investing

05:54 Platform Resources Edge

06:24 Capital Markets Bench

06:41 Macro And Ops Experts

06:52 Making Resources Work

07:52 Consistency And Process

08:40 Evolving Value Creation

08:46 Gardner Denver / Ingersoll Rand Case

09:25 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

13:08 Problems Are Global

14:28 Underwriting Culture Risk

15:12 Leadership Makes It Work

16:00 Ownership Done Right

17:06 BBEO Origins

19:10 Early Mistakes Learned

19:30 Scaling To 85 Companies

19:59 CoolIT Exit Results

20:48 Closing The Wealth Loop

21:12 Financial Literacy Journey

21:45 Truck Loan Lesson

23:39 Building Resilience Stack

24:15 Exit Support Package

24:37 Industry Adoption

25:40 Ownership Works Launch

27:04 Street Loan Cautionary Tale

28:00 Why Share The Playbook

30:02 Taking Ownership Global

30:56 International Rollout

31:31 Local Culture Differences

32:15 State Of Private Equity

32:40 Is Software Dead

33:09 KKR Software Approach

34:26 AI At Portfolio Scale

34:55 One Hundred Thirty Tests

35:35 Buying The Fear Trade

35:49 Accounting Is Not Dead

37:08 Closing Thoughts

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email info@ultimusfundsolutions....

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.

“We are enormously boring by design”: From the World Bank to building a $60B infrastructure investing behemoth

[00:00:00–00:16:19]

Sadek has been investing in a category, infrastructure, that he calls “invsible until it’s missing.” He’s brought experience as an economist at The World Bank and running Morgan Stanley Infrastructure as CEO to bear as he has built out I Squared into a leading infrastructure investment firm.

Some notable quotes from this chapter:

“You open your tap water, you never think where the water comes from … So you take a lot of that for granted.”

“For better or worse, it may say something about us being enormously boring, but the only thing we do is infrastructure.”

“With the boom in AI, and the need for power and data centers … add another five-plus trillion dollars that will need to be invested in transmission lines, power generation, data centers, fiber optics and all sorts of infrastructure.”

No free lunch: ownership, regulation, and the ghost of Flint

[00:16:19–00:32:40]

U.S. infrastructure has shifted from private ownership to overleveraged municipalities. Sadek breaks down what has gone wrong with different infrastructure investment models around the world by dissecting who owns an asset, who manages it, who regulates it, and why collapsing those three roles into one is exactly what happened in Flint, Michigan.

Some notable quotes from this chapter:

“I’m sorry to say, but there’s no free lunch. Whether it’s a public good or not, that public good requires inputs, produces an output, and someone has to pay for it.” 

“There are three things that matter when you think about infrastructure: the ownership of the asset, who manages it, and who regulates it. If the entity that owns, manages, and regulates it are the same, you have a problem.”

“They managed it, they regulated it, and they owned it. So if I wanted to complain to the regulator … the manager is the regulator. But the real owner is the manager who’s also the regulator.” (Sadek on what happened in the Flint, Michigan water crisis).

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is

[00:32:40–00:51:06]

Sadek takes us inside I Squared’s investing playbook. He discusses why they walked away from a Norwegian gas deal promising 14-15% returns, and why regulatory risk is the hardest thing to underwrite. Sadek also shares where he believes value is created in the next decade.

If it’s too good to be true, then it’s probably not true. And that, for me, is rule number one.” 

“How can you make a return of 14%, 15% on something which is a hundred percent regulated and where you take very little risk? That, to me, doesn’t exist.” 

“The adoption of AI technology is probably the single biggest opportunity we see in infrastructure over the coming years.”

Fishing in a different pond: the mid-market and the democratization of infrastructure

[00:51:06–01:07:19]

Sadek explains how a firm that has a $15B fund to deploy still focuses on the “mid-market,” why banks have abandoned the $50-100M loan, and why individual investors can play a role in financing assets that they use every day.

“Our funds could be $15B in size … people say, “You’re joking, right? That’s not mid-market” And the answer is, well, no, it is … because we invest globally.”

“I hope the day comes where most airports in the US are not owned by funds, but they’re publicly listed. Instead of being owned by a municipality, you and I can buy the shares of that company.”

“If regulators are not paid, they’re not incentivized to do a good job.”

Onshoring, national security, and what drives Sadek

[01:07:19–01:17:15]

Sadek shares why private capital can help fill the gap for funding infrastructure needs as growing government debt makes it harder for governments to keep footing the bill. He also discusses the case for onshoring beyond politics and what motivates him. 

“Private capital will per force play a critical role if you want to maintain sustainable economic growth rates. If you want lower per capita income, if you want higher unemployment … then don’t have the private sector invest in it.”

“I can think of two reasons [for onshoring] that have nothing to do with politics: national security, and supply chain issues."

“What drives me is to be able to produce something that people find useful, that people use to better their lives. And if you can do that in any small way, I think that’s enormously rewarding.”

Bio

Dr. Sadek Wahba is Chairman and Managing Partner of I Square Capital, an independent global infrastructure investment manager based in Miami, Florida, with $60 billion in assets under management.

He has worked at Morgan Stanley where he was the CEO of Morgan Stanley Infrastructure, a global platform for infrastructure investment and as an economist at The World Bank. Sadek is an advocate for transformative approaches to infrastructure investment and a frequent commentator about the need for more investment in infrastructure to promote sustainable economic growth. He was a presidential appointment to the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, which advises the White House on reducing the physical and cyber risks and improving the security and resilience of critical infrastructure in the U.S. He was part of the expert committee on the World Economic Forum’s first report on global infrastructure investments and was named Global Infrastructure Personality of the Year twice, as well as Global Infrastructure Personality of the Decade, by Private Equity International (PEI). He frequently appears on Bloomberg, CNBC, Nasdaq, and other networks, including Op-eds in the Financial Times and other leading journals.

He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University, an M.Sc. in economics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a B.A. in economics from the American University in Cairo. He is a published author on economic research and one of his publications was selected by MIT as one of their 50 most influential papers in the last 50 years His book Build: Investing in America’s Infrastructure published by Georgetown University Press published in 2024 is in its second printing.

Sadek is a Senior Fellow at the Development Res...

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 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.

Show Notes

00:00 Introduction

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

02:26 David’s Career Shift to Credit

06:07 Sponsor Finance Market Gap

10:56 Unitranche Origins

12:47 Crisis As Catalyst

14:25 Distressed Value Lens

16:21 What Makes A Good Business

19:39 Relationships And Game Theory

21:26 Capital Isn’t Proprietary

25:39 Being First Call

26:21 Managing Growth Carefully

27:29 Fundraising Versus Opportunity

28:08 Only The Paranoid Survive

29:17 Staying A Specialist

29:45 Capacity And Performance

32:47 Scale As Advantage

36:23 Raising Capital Follows Winners

37:12 Future PE Picks Few Lenders

37:52 Credit Partner as A Signal

38:37 Doing Homework on Sponsors

39:02 Big “n” Investing Mindset

39:16 Risk Real vs Perceived

41:30 Press Noise and Redemptions

42:22 Darwinian Moment Ahead

42:54 Why Terms Improve Next

44:42 Portfolio Stress Reality Check

47:51 Junior Debt Trouble Spot

48:10 Underwriting the Manager

51:06 Ask the Why

52:00 What Keeps You Up at Night

54:13 Culture of Constructive Doubt

54:57 Testing Analytical Thinking

55:53 Building the Wealth Channel

56:45 Early Days Wealth Fundraising

58:11 Diversifying the Investor Base

01:00:45 Decades Mindset and Focus

01:01:35 Specialization and Infrastructure

01:02:39 More of the Same 

01:03:21 Adjacencies Like GP Secondaries

01:03:42 Continuation Vehicles Rationale

01:05:22 Psychology and Relationships

01:06:48 Problem Solving Builds Trust

01:07:51 Authenticity Over Tactics

01:09:23 Closing Reflections

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 busin...

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 it means to be a relative value investor and how Davidson Kempner navigates different sectors, markets, geographies, and asset classes.
• 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.

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

03:36 Career Roots At Goldman

05:16 Discovering Davidson Kempner

06:13 Three Generations Of Leadership

06:42 Family Office DNA

08:23 Investing In Complexity

10:44 Where Complexity Pays

12:20 Liquid Versus Private Feedback

13:37 Macro Shifts And Deglobalization

16:01 Finding Edge In Less Crowded Markets

17:28 Private Capital Indigestion

18:47 Capital Solutions Playbook

20:48 Building Operating Capabilities

25:59 Allocator Shift In Credit

31:26 Hedge Funds Return

32:12 Post GFC Lessons

32:48 Fees Volatility Gating

33:13 Evergreen Vehicle Design

34:04 Liquidity Over Leverage

34:15 Leverage Risk Explained

35:14 Semi Liquid Marking Issues

35:36 Flows Back To Hedge Funds

36:26 Wealth Channel Education

37:14 Merger Arb Basics

38:34 Global Credit Toolkit

39:18 Portfolio Velocity Risk

40:58 Investment-Led Ownership

43:43 Scale Competition Edge

44:28 Restructuring Repayment Focus

45:43 Building Wealth Business

54:07 Firm Vision And DNA

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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

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 spoke 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.
• Why secondaries is 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 wisdom, 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.

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

03:11 Ardian Culture And Fit

03:45 Secondaries Partnership Model

04:45 Building US Wealth Business

05:59 Evergreen Liquidity Mindset

07:26 Educating Advisors And Clients

09:02 Brand And Leadership Support

10:13 Authenticity In Sales

11:28 Listening And Curiosity

12:29 Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean You Should

13:31 Getting Firmwide Buy In

14:11 Wealth Channel Challenges

14:47 Closing Thoughts

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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

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 solutions 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.

Show Notes

00:04 Live from Franklin Templeton RIA Field Trip

00:07 Meet Dave Donahoo

02:31 Lehman Day One Story

03:15 Thrown Into the Phone Queues

03:37 Teacher Call and Investor Fear

04:53 Start With the End Client

05:26 From T Rowe to Blackstone

05:53 Blackstone Wealth Playbook

07:18 Why Franklin Was the Fit

08:09 Traditional Manager Advantages

09:09 Platform Synergies in Wealth

10:16 Challenges of Going Private

10:36 Brand Transformation Story

11:44 Internal Alignment and Change

12:16 What the Brand Should Signal

12:50 Specialist Managers Philosophy

13:44 Building Perpetuals the Right Way

14:13 Defining the Right Structure

15:44 Evergreen Structure Depends

16:09 Secondaries Structure Choice

18:10 Infrastructure Partnership Model

20:02 Preserving Investment Cultures

21:50 Data and AI Cross Collaboration

24:17 Macro Insights Across Platforms

25:47 Product Innovation Roadmap

27:06 Private Markets in 401k Plans

27:53 What Model Portfolios Mean

29:06 What RIAs Want Most

30:21 Client Service and Honesty

A Word from Our Sponsor, Ultimus

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 at ultimusfundsolutions.com or email [email protected].

We thank Ultimus for their support of alts going mainstream.

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