OC Talk Radio

In this episode of Strategic Investor Radio, host Charley Wright interviews Kurt Voldeng of Commerce Asset Management. Mr. Voldeng is both the COO and the CIO of the Memphis-based firm, which specializes in hedge-fund replication strategies. The company replicates hedge-fund strategies without actually owning hedge funds or even their underlying assets. Instead, Commerce categorizes each of the 800+ hedge funds in the HFR Index into one of 26 groups, and then determines the publically traded ETFs that best correlate to the performance of each of those groups. From there, a portfolio of ETFs is built to emulate the weighted performance of all 26 groups, with holdings rebalanced every month.

Brendan Ross is the founder and CEO of Direct Lending Investments, a California-based firm that provides financing for non-bank lenders. Host Charley Wright interviews Mr. Ross in this episode of Strategic Investor Radio, and while the show always aims to highlight “investment strategies you aren’t hearing about elsewhere,” Direct Lending Investments is a particularly unique firm. Indeed, Charley is moved to tell Mr. Ross: “This is totally different from anything we ever hear on this show, and you make total sense in everything you say.”

In this episode of Strategic Investor Radio, host Charley Wright interviews Taylor Lukof, founder and CEO of ABR Dynamic Funds. Mr. Lukof got his investment-industry start in the early 2000s as the youngest member of the American Stock Exchange, where he was a floor specialist for equity options. This experience obviously taught Lukof to appreciate volatility, which he now considers an important asset class onto itself. Indeed, Lukof says now is an important time for investors to look outside the normal investment spectrum of stocks, bonds, and real estate – and volatility is a good place to look.

Dr. Ben Hunt joins host Charley Wright in this episode of Strategic Investor Radio. Dr. Hunt had a great deal of success in his life prior to stepping into the investment arena in 2003: After earning a Harvard PhD in Government, Dr. Hunt was a tenured Political Science professor at NYU and the author of two academic books. From there, he caught the business bug and founded two technology companies and a software firm, before shifting to investment management and serving as portfolio manager of a long/short equity hedge fund. In 2013, Dr. Hunt joined Salient Partners, where he combines his experience as a risk manager, entrepreneur, game theorist, and econometrician. He says his wife jokes that “he can’t keep a job.”

Some think that values are part of an individual’s unchanging core, the essence of who each one of us is. Indeed there may be some ‘hard-wiring’ involved in each of our personal set of values, and we may hold certain values very deeply and for a lifetime. However, just as humans can and do change as a result of experience and learning, values, too, are fundamentally changeable. Here is the key: once our values become conscious, they can be changed. They are subject to individual choice. Understanding how values operate in your life to drive your dreams, decisions, and actions will help you to make more conscious value choices in your life and work

 

We have said that many choices we make are impelled by factors of which we may be unaware. These factors, such as what we are taught as children, or the cultural frameworks we have been brought up in, contribute to creating values we may hold. Some we will be very aware of; others we may not be aware of as a driving force in our lives. Some values, such as those for example having to do with belonging to a group or recognition for our accomplishments, may have been in place so long that they operate below the level of consciousness, and we may not even realize they are working, and energizing—or de-energizing—to us. Being asked a simple question, for example if a boss takes the time to ask “How do you want to be rewarded?” can bring a value like recognition into conscious focus. Not only that, but we may also find in this conscious focus the opportunity to reflect on what recognition means to us (A cash reward? My name announced in a group meeting? My boss taking my spouse and me out to lunch and telling my spouse how much I contribute to the team?)  When a value comes into conscious focus through choice, or through being called into awareness by circumstances, it is equally important that we take the time to understand exactly what that value means to us.

New values may be presented to us by necessity. Adults usually do not consciously seek skills without a reason for doing so. At times, we find ourselves in a situation where something other than what we hold as important comes to the fore. I may not have had to think as much about safety as other parts of my job responsibilities until I am appointed a safety team leader. I quickly find myself having to learn about aspects of workplace safety I never knew, and may come to deeply value safety while spending conscious time and energy understanding it thoroughly. It is not that I never valued safety, and perhaps it was one of the values already in place from childhood instruction; that is, internalized but not finding much place in my conscious awareness. But now it has become more highly prioritized. In my new role, I may additionally decide I need to more highly prioritize the value of informing others because I now recognize that well-presented information contributes to workplace safety. Life situations change, and we may find ourselves with a new value, or find ourselves more highly prioritizing a value as we seek to learn the skills associated with it.

We may be inspired by a life event or by another person to give conscious value to something we never thought about before. Adolescence and early adulthood are times when what we value may go through significant changes. Think, for example of how students often begin to hold very expansive and idealistic values as their understanding of the world begins to expand through education or a widening sphere of experience. These may continue to be values that are held for the rest of one’s life. Having a family calls for a re-prioritization of values, usually involving more attention to finances and to security, safety and health matters, matters that without a family we might not have valued as highly, or now value for very different reasons. Mid-life may present an opport

“Success is not a mystery, it’s a system, a system that can be learned and replicated” This is Darrell Weekes’s mantra.

Now the words dynamic and high energy are not normally words you would associate with a boy from the bush. Straight forward, no fluff, tell it like it is are words that are more likely to be used to describe country folk. Well Darrell Weekes is both. A boy from the bush whose straight forward delivery style earns him praise whenever he speaks. Having presented at hundreds of conferences over the last four years, Darrell is an extremely experienced and professional presenter. To everyone who engages Darrell he makes one promise “when people make an investment to come and listen to me speak I promise to make that investment worthwhile”. Darrell leaves nothing in reserve, when he’s finished you’ll know he’s laid it all on the table.

Everything Darrell shares with his audience he has done. This is hands on experience delivered from the man who did it and experienced it. From creating successful businesses using his “Solution Driven Selling System” to earning bucket loads of referrals by delivering “Exceptional Service” Darrell has created and tested these systems and now he shares them with you.

As an example of how powerful Darrells’ systems are, when he started a small Mortgage Broking business in Canberra he produced ten times the average production for Australian brokers. In a roll out of just one of his business building systems with 40 small business owners the average increase in sales over the three months following the implementation was 73%.

Hugo Gonzalez possesses numerous years of experience as a key financial and operational executive for various corporations, from start-up ventures to Fortune 500 conglomerates.

Hugo’s expertise lies in the Strategy development and implementation, Financial and Operations; leading to areas of Brand Management, Business Development, Accounting Controls, Human Resources, Capital, and Turn-Around Management.

Hugo has founded numerous successful firms including a leading Regional CPA firm based in Irvine, California, a Small Business Capital Firm, Advisory and Strategy Firm, and recently, a Merger & Acquisition firm, located in Southern California.

Hugo has helped start-up and small businesses through the initial challenging years, from establishing a strong structure to their day-to-day operations, and finally to the long term strategic planning. Hugo is a serial entrepreneur who thrives on challenge and impact, builds strong relationships, is sensitive to interests of multiple stakeholders, is a people connector and promotes collaborative team-driven work environments.

Hugo serves in the board of various corporations and not-for-profit organizations. Including, Small Business & Entrepreneurship Institute, a not-for-profit organization that works in coordination with The Kaufman Foundations’ Global Entrepreneur Week and other related Start-up initiatives. Hugo is also an active member of various business, consulting and quality management organizations.

He is an active member of ESGR (Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve) a DOD NFP Organization based in Washington DC and serves other charitable and community based organizations.

Al has more than 25 years of extensive business experience as a senior financial executive and trusted advisor to CEOs and business owners of public and privately held companies. He has been the Chief Financial Officer for companies ranging from startup through to $300 million. Al's industry experience includes retail, hospitality, consumer products, manufacturing and distribution, consulting, and aerospace and defense. He has successfully applied innovative thinking and problem solving, strategic analysis and plan implementation. Al has been called a "realignment CFO" and a "pain reliever" because of his ability to quickly make an impact.

Al's experience as a CFO extends to virtually every aspect of a business's financial and operating needs. In addition to turn-arounds, building, rebuilding and managing financial teams of all sizes and complexity, he has also had direct management responsibility for HR, IT, Credit & Collections, Risk Management, Operations, Contracts, and Customer Service. The commonality has been his ability to work with his peers and mentor teams to achieve the company's goals. He believes, "If you are not serving the customer directly, you should be serving those that are."

Al has successfully managed companies through accelerated growth as well as through downturns. He has had key roles in 25 mergers, acquisitions and divestitures and was the lead in the last 10. He has completed numerous financings and recapitalizations including bank debt, private placements and IPOs. He has successfully developed and maintained financing relationships with banks, investors and other sources of funds.

Other areas of expertise include:

Cash flow and working capital management

Operational evaluation & improvement

Cost and profit analysis/product margin and pricing analysis

Expense reduction and cost containment

Timely and accurate financial reporting, analysis, and presentation

Strategic planning, budgeting, cash forecasting, and financial projections

Development and translation of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) dashboards and understanding the underlying levers available to affect improvements

Business restructuring, turnarounds, and vendor relations

ERP/accounting software review, selection through to implementation

Bank and alternative financing

Human resources and risk management

Banking, CPA, attorney, and insurance relationships

Al brings passion and enthusiasm to his job and the companies he serves. He is a straightforward and detailed communicator who is equally effective with boards, investors, management, and staff. Honesty, integrity, and enjoyment are core values that have led to success throughout his career.

Disney on Icereturns to Southern California with all the classic characters you've come to love plus routines from all the recent Disney movies...and we've got tix and an EXCLUSIVE interview with one of the cast dancers (who plays ARIEL, among others).  FInd out what it's like to live a life "on the ice and on the road" and hear how they travel round the world speading the Disney magic to kids of all ages. Here on Orange County's only communty radio station, www.OC Talk Radio.net.

Peter Lupoff is the founder and CIO of Tiburon Capital Management, a New York City-based event-driven strategy manager and the sub-advisor of the Balter Event-Driven Fund (BEVIX). According to Morningstar, that fund generated five-year annualized returns of 4.86% for the period ending November 30, 2016 – a whopping 193 basis points better than the category average. In this episode of Strategic Investor Radio, host Charley Wright discusses event-driven strategies with Mr. Lupoff, as well as Lupoff’s background in working with “hedge fund legends” like Marty Whitman and Izzy Englander.