Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

David Lyon is Managing Director and Head of Capital Solutions at Neuberger Berman, where he oversees $10 billion of AUM and deploys $2-3 billion each year originating large scale financing solutions to premier sponsor-backed companies. Over three decades, David was the first arbitrage analyst at Och-Ziff in the mid 1990s, an associate at one of the then largest private equity firms in the late 1990s, and a fundamental, distressed debt investor at quant hedge fund DE Shaw through the GFC. His experiences offer a deep understanding of both sides of the balance sheet, which he brought together in hybrid capital solutions over the last decade.

Our conversation traces his journey, lessons learned along the way, and perspectives on today's private markets. We then discuss the need for flexible capital solutions to address private equity liquidity challenges, competitive differentiation in the space, and the process for making it happen across sourcing, creating solutions, and managing risk. Along the way, David shares his refreshingly honest views on investor expectations, leveraged capital structures, good and bad investments, and incentives that help navigate an increasingly crowded marketplace.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Ted breaks down a recent viral video to highlight three important interviewing techniques shared at Capital Allocators University.

Read Ted's blog here.

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Jay Ripley is the Head of Investments and Deputy Managing Partner at Global Endowment Management, or GEM, an endowment-style outsourced CIO overseeing $12 billion. Jay joined GEM in 2014, following six years in private equity where he developed an analytical rigor and mindset of an owner-operator. GEM's Co-CIO Matt Bank joined me on the show last year for a broader discussion of the firm, and that conversation is replayed in the feed.

Our conversation dives into manager selection, particularly with early-stage funds. We discuss Jay's entry into the business, transition from GP to LP, and GEM's approach to identifying and backing emerging managers across buyouts, venture capital, and hedge funds. Jay shares insights on the evolving landscape for independent sponsors, the challenge of manager selection amid dispersion, and the art of staying early without chasing scale.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Matt Bank is the Deputy Chief Investment Officer at GEM, an OCIO that manages $12 billion for forty clients. GEM was founded in 2007 by investment leaders at The Duke Endowment and Duke University Investment Management Company.

Our conversation covers Matt's path to investing under recent guest David Salem and lessons learned about risk and governance while under his tutelage. We then turn to Matt's move to GEM and its positioning in the OCIO industry. We cover GEM's approach to asset allocation and manager selection, and close with Matt's thoughts on active and passive investing, venture capital, hedge funds, and drivers of success going forward.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

This Sponsored Insight features Dave Thornton, the Co-Founder and CEO of Vested, a venture secondaries platform that provides liquidity to the long tail of startup employees whose stock options often go abandoned or ignored and seeks to deliver diversified, attractively priced exposure to the top 20% of venture-backed startups.

Our conversation covers Dave's background bridging entrepreneurship and finance, the dynamics of employee stock options, and the development of Vested's investment strategy. We discuss sourcing deals, predicting success of start-ups with a quantitative model, constructing portfolios, and avoiding risks. We close by touching on the future of liquidity and indexing in venture capital.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Jeff Aronson is Co-Founder and Managing Principal of Centerbridge Partners, a $43 billion alternative investment firm he started in 2005 after two decades at Angelo Gordon. Jeff's career spans forty years of investing across credit and private equity through multiple market cycles, giving him a front-row seat to the evolution of the alternatives industry. Our conversation covers Jeff's path from law school to distressed investing, lessons learned under mentors John Angelo and Michael Gordon, and the founding of Centerbridge with Mark Gallogly to bridge the worlds of private equity and credit. We discuss the firm's distinctive model of investing on both sides of the balance sheet in sector teams, building culture and compensation systems to reinforce collaboration, and adapting strategy through changing credit environments. Jeff also shares his perspectives on late-cycle market behavior, the shifting dynamics of private credit, partnerships with insurers and banks, and the challenge of staying differentiated as alternatives become mainstream. From our sponsor, Morningstar Embrace the global language of investment data Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Mike Trigg and Sanjay Ayer are Portfolio Managers at WCM Investment Management, a $120 billion investor in growth stocks, where Mike also serves as Co-CEO. I've had the opportunity to chronicle the growth of WCM over the years in conversations with Paul Black, Mike, Sanjay, and other members of the team. Paul first joined the show in 2018 when WCM managed $25 billion, and Mike last appeared four years ago with Paul, describing a piece they had just written entitled How to Build a $100 billion Money Manager. That podcast marked a near-term peak in assets for the firm and subsequently offered a great case study in humility, adaptation, and evolution.

In this conversation, we unpack how WCM navigated its most difficult stretch of performance in a long time – what they learned from it, and how they came out stronger on the other side. Mike and Sanjay discuss changes to their investment process, like putting the trajectory back in moat trajectory and searching for the cult in culture, retooling the research funnel, integrating AI as a research partner, and expanding into private markets. As always with WCM, a common thread throughout our discussion is doubling down on the firm's core values to think different, get better, and serve others.

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Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Paul Black and Mike Trigg from WCM Investment Management are both past guests on the show who have taken an investment philosophy focused on culture and moat trajectory to turn a once struggling boutique into a $100 billion powerhouse. Paul came on the show a few years ago when WCM had quietly grown to $25 billion in assets, and Mike joined a year ago to dive into their research process. Their colleague Mike Tian shared another perspective earlier this year when he described applying WCM's moat trajectory discipline to investing in China. In this continued exploration of WCM, we start with the truly unique facts about the firm's rebirth a decade ago and turn to key features of its success, including embracing change, the importance of culture - alongside some characteristics of toxic cultures, hiring practices, telling the truth, integrating new team members, managing turnover, and transitioning leadership to the next generation. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989. With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul's trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought. Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)

Morgan Housel is a bestselling author, partner at Collaborative Fund, and Board member of Markel. Morgan's work focuses on the intersection of human behavior and financial decision making. His first book, The Psychology of Money, has sold 10 million copies since releasing five years ago and is already one of the best-selling investment books of all time. His second, Same as Ever, explores human behaviors that never change, and is rapidly approaching 1 million copies sold. Our conversation discusses Morgan's latest work, The Art of Spending Money: Simple Choices for a Richer Life. I wanted to get him back on the show to share his thoughts on a subject that affects us all. But I wasn't expecting to have my mind turning on how Morgan's insights about envy, aspiration, and contentment also apply to the assessment of money managers and corporate executives. His recently released book is another tour de force, and I suspect, once again, will soon hit the best seller list. From our sponsor, Morningstar Embrace the global language of investment data Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership

Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (⁠https://thepodcastconsultant.com⁠)