Conversations with Mike Milken

“Obviously, we wish it was earlier if China had been more forthcoming and transparent. But I think the important part is that we cannot allow any pandemic or any economic situation currently to cloud our moral responsibility for issues that are already on the ground.”

Whether she’s voting in the Security Council or leading the personnel at the U.S. Mission to the U.N. (USUN), Ambassador Kelly Craft is keenly aware of the national values she represents. For her, it’s a matter of humility – as when she played an integral role in renegotiating the NAFTA framework with our neighbors to the north and south.

“It was a matter of respect for each person's economy,” she tells Mike. “And when you respect each person's economy, Mexico and Canada, and the U S, you know that everybody can work together because it is about a supply chain, and you're only as strong as your weakest link. So, it was really important that this trilateral deal was very strong unilaterally for each country.”

“It's really the first time that you've had challenges and down cycles in the financial side, on the racial side, and health-wise with COVID. … We're at an absolute tipping point from what we are going to do and how the consumer experience is going to be on the retail side.”

When Kenneth Lombard looks at our current confluence of crises, the Executive Vice President and COO of Seritage Growth Properties sees opportunities – especially in the hard-hit brick and mortar retail space. After all, as a past recipient of the National Inner City Economic Leadership Award, he has a proven record of revitalizing business opportunities in urban neighborhoods. He traces his optimism to a strong upbringing.

“Fortunately for me, I had a family that instilled a sense of fearlessness in me and that there are going to be obstacles,” he tells Mike. “You have to keep working hard. ... Integrity has got to be a big part of how you look at how you develop yourself, that sense of honesty, the hard work. We'll all get through this.”

“A sociologist … said that pandemics fracture society along known fault lines. And that is so true. Every single one of the issues that we have historically worked on that are at the core of what we do has been touched and exacerbated by COVID. … It’s energized us.”

For ten years, husband and wife Laura and John Arnold have grappled with some of society’s most intractable problems. Their Houston-based philanthropy, Arnold Ventures, addresses disparities in public finance, health, education, and especially criminal justice, where they hope their evidence-based approach will help drive needed reform. 

“In jails and prisons, we are doing a lot of thinking to try to help prisons understand how to keep prisoners safe, in addition to having the tough conversation about why are there so many people in prison in the first place,” she tells Mike. “Are there people who do not need to be here either because they're at risk [or] because they’re awaiting trial and they're only here because they can't make a relatively small bail amount payment? So, there's lots of work that can be done in reducing prison populations that needs to be done right now.”

“If you have a vision for what America 2.0 post-reset should look like, there will never be a better time to create a business that goes into an entirely new direction. … If you have a vision for something dramatically different, now's the time to do it.”

For Mark Cuban, fortune favors the bold – and there’s no time like the present. As a serial entrepreneur, investor on TV’s “Shark Tank,” and current owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Cuban has always been a keen surveyor of the business landscape. He believes current technology such as robotics and artificial intelligence have enormous potential domestically, as long as we can ramp up our efforts. 

“Whoever controls AI controls the world,” he tells Mike. “We have to recognize that we're not doing this in a vacuum. That other nations are investing to compete, but we're not. So we're falling further behind. We can't build a wall around ourselves for global commerce.”

“The Wall Street Journal last week reported that 41% of the African American businesses have stopped transacting and stopped conducting business and have closed up, which is a true tragedy. They don't have the banking systems, which limited their ability to actually process the Payroll Protection Program loans through the CARES Act.”

With the pandemic revealing greater inequities in existing economic systems, Robert F. Smith is determined to make a difference. He authorized one of Vista Equity Partners’ portfolio companies, Finastra, to process more than 86,000 PPP loans to bolster small businesses in struggling communities. Named by Forbes as one of the “100 Greatest Living Business Minds,” he is also a noted philanthropist: Last year, he famously paid off the student loans of the entire graduating class of the historically black Morehouse College. 

“Seventy percent of African American wealth is actually consumed by student debt; if you alleviate that problem, that creates a massive wealth lift for the entire community,” he tells Mike. “Restore, repair and regenerate these communities filled with Americans that need the opportunity and access to the American Dream.”

“Our policy engagement is very strong everywhere, but … the same way people with preconditions are more vulnerable to the virus, weakened economies are more vulnerable to the economic shock we experience today. So, they need more of our help.”

For struggling economies around the world, the IMF is a lifeline. Since 1944, it has promoted financial stability and sustainable growth to its 189 member countries with zero percent loans and reserves of more than one trillion dollars. As the Fund’s Managing Director, Kristina Georgieva’s mission is to bolster developing economies hit hard by the pandemic while seeking ways to increase equity and security for citizens of all nations.

“Every single day, 400,000 children are born on this planet; they don't choose their race, they don't choose whether they are born in a rich family or a poor family,” she tells Mike. “It's kind of a lottery at the start, but it needn't be a lottery for the future. There has to be clear thinking around equality of opportunity, access to education, to financing, to jobs, so we actually tap into the potential of all these people.”

“Each day you have to answer a series of questions so that you can electronically access the office. If you don't, we'll either send you to one of our testing labs or to a telemedicine doctor. … We have these huge UV chambers. You put all your outerwear, your phones, your shoes, and we can actually UV disinfect, almost anything.”

As CEO of one of Fortune’s "100 Best Companies to Work For," Activision Blizzard’s Bobby Kotick will do whatever is necessary to keep his workforce healthy. After all, his 9,200 employees comprise the world’s most successful standalone interactive entertainment company, with such franchises as Call of Duty, Overwatch and World of Warcraft. With nearly 500 million active monthly players around the world, the company also finds itself as an accelerator of social change. 

“We have a unique way to break down these racial and cultural barriers and really engage people through the lens of a game,” he tells Mike. “It's very different than what you might see in a social network, because the way we connect and engage people is all through joy and fun.”

“It can feel like the world is a colder and riskier place, [but] we've been through these things before, and we generally know that society comes through. We learn lessons. We become stronger over time and create opportunities for personal growth and societal learning that can continue to make the world a better place.”

Chevron has been weathering the vicissitudes of cultural and industrial shifts around the world since it was founded 141 years ago to provide a substitute for whale oil used in lamp lighting. Today, its more than 48,000 employees around the world have emerged stronger than ever from a market that drove oil prices to less than zero, as well a domestic landscape roiled by a resurgent pandemic and social upheaval.

“One of the things I'm really proud of is the heart that our people have,” he tells Mike. “Our employees have donated money from their own pockets. … The stories on our internal social media site, where employees share what they've done are incredibly heartwarming. … We empower people, we encourage people and they move to action based on what the local needs are very rapidly.” 

“Six out of the seven jobs of the future have not been created yet. The future of workplaces and workforces are going to change significantly. The change was gradual, but with the pandemic and in the post‐pandemic era, the changes will be all of a sudden.”

As the world struggles with the vagaries of a pandemic, Ravi Kumar S. is already planning for a transformed workplace. As President of Infosys, his effort begins with finding a new pipeline of formerly underserved workers and then training them for what’s ahead. For him, it’s a way to bring more equity to the workforce and help bring about the kind of world in which he wants his new daughter to grow up.

“I’ve never felt more gratitude for what I have,” he tells Mike. “As humans, we all have to work in striving to bridge the divide between the haves and the have‐nots and strive to raise hope. I've never found myself thinking more about raising hope than I have done so during this crisis.”

“I certainly hope this is a unique moment where we will have profound conversations, not only about our own lessons or our own challenges, but about the future of humanity. … This lockdown gives us the opportunity to have long conversations that otherwise would not have happened.”

Last year, the World Bank Group was busily working on two ambitious goals for its 189 member nations: ending extreme poverty within a generation, and boosting shared prosperity. This year, it has announced it will provide up to $160 billion in financing for COVID-19 over a period of 15 months to help developing countries respond to the health, social and economic impacts of the pandemic. 

“We are projecting negative growth for over 150 countries in 2020,” he tells Mike. “And nearly 80% of the world's informal economy workers, 1.6 billion people, due to the lockdown, have lost their jobs, of which of 714 million are women. So this is really an unprecedented crisis.”