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

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.

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 unique 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.
• Taking a family office mindset and applying that investment mindset for investors in RIT.
• 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.

This podcast was recorded on 15 June 2026, and therefore all RIT data is provided as at 31/05/2026.

Show Notes
00:42 Meet Maggie Fanari

03:44 Teachers’ Pension Roots

04:51 Top Down Meets Bottom Up

05:50 Allocating In New Paradigm

06:15 Diversification Returns

07:02 Volatility Creates Opportunity

07:22 What Makes RIT Unique

08:08 Compounding With Downside

09:41 Brand Opens Doors

10:05 Backing Emerging Managers

11:57 Co-Invest Importance

12:36 Returns And Realizations

13:22 Great Co-Investor Playbook

15:02 Building AI Theme Exposure

16:06 Sourcing Deals Like SpaceX

16:37 Public Private Value Split

20:09 Public Themes And Sovereignty

20:58 Moats And Terminal Value

24:06 Permanent Capital Edge

25:07 Oversubscribed Fund Access

26:46 Underwriting And Discipline

27:17 Why AI Needs Capital

27:49 Anthropic Growth Math

28:15 Databricks Scale Comparison

28:41 Can Funds Get Bigger

30:22 FOMO And Chasing

30:47 Portfolio Allocation Guardrails

31:47 Permanent Capital Advantage

32:13 Right Sized Private Exposure

32:51 Liquidity And Realizations

33:28 Owning Winners At Scale

34:11 Private To Public Hold

34:41 Re Underwriting Post IPO

35:38 Retail Investor Impact

36:20 Public Market Liquidity Needs

37:57 Why Investment Trusts Work

38:56 Discounts As Margin Safety

40:08 How Shareholders Allocate

41:03 Sentiment Shifts In Cycles

42:02 What Makes Great Managers

43:14 Manager Edge Examples

45:02 AI And Finding Leaders

46:56 Consolidation And Differentiation

47:51 Being A Great LP Partner

48:50 Macro Lens As Edge

49:42 Private Signals Inform Public

50:48 Culture One Team One NAV

51:28 Risk And Scenario Analysis

52:59 Multipolar World Investing

54:14 Geopolitics In Diligence

55:10 Permanent Capital Best Of Both

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 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.
• How the market may shake out and why structure must match the asset, the client, and the liquidity terms. 
• LP composition, evergreens vs. drawdowns across wealth and institutions, and the role of partnerships. 
• What the potential wave of mega IPOs could mean for DPI, exits, and private market fundraising.

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

00:12 Meet Mike Trihy

02:06 Defining the Perfect Evergreen

02:27 Evergreen vs Drawdown DNA

02:42 Deal Flow Isn’t Everything

03:01 Portfolio Construction Focus

03:20 Cashflow Planning Mindset

03:33 Operations and Valuations

03:47 Sales and Flow Forecasting

04:03 Regulation and Complexity

04:11 Fiduciary Growth Discipline

04:46 Do Firms Have the Toolkit

05:20 Scale vs Boutique Nuances

05:42 When Bottom Up Fails

06:18 The Deal Flow Constraint

06:44 Should There Be More

07:00 Shakeout and Quality Wins

08:07 No One Best Wrapper

08:28 Matching Assets and Clients

09:43 LP Mix and Herding Risk

11:34 Evergreens Future in Wealth

13:21 Public Markets DNA Advantage

14:56 Partnerships and Mega IPOs

17:07 Private Markets Stay Private

18:52 DPI and Exit Wave Impact

20:17 Public vs Private Valuations

22:21 What Happens Faster Slower

24:08 Closing