Private Capital

Jennifer Prosek has built a powerhouse communications firm by focusing on asset management.  She asked herself, "Why does the financial industry not care about its brand, and why are they so on the back foot about everything?"  I was particularly keen to talk to her about how firms struggle to differentiate, especially as formerly low-profile parts of the industry, such as private equity funds, now look to expanding across the wealth channel and begin to look more like consumer brands.  We talk about how she built her firm from small beginnings; how family offices should think about their story;  being prepared for a crisis in advance; educating financial advisors; how to go from high-level awareness down the funnel to actual ROI; how to navigate Milken and Davos; and the future of AI in communications.

Jennifer Prosek is the founder and managing partner of Prosek Partners, a leading integrated marketing and communications firm with offices in nine cities around the world. The firm was named the best financial communications and marketing firm by PRovoke Media in 2023. Jennifer was also listed personally on The Wall Street Journal’s “Most Influential Decision Markers” list in 2023 and 2024.  She is the author of two books, “Army of Entrepreneurs” and “Raising Can-Do Kids.” Jennifer is on the board of the Mount Sinai Health System and the Museum of the City of New York and she received her MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in English Literature from Miami University. 

Jen is also known for her pithy sayings, and we managed to get a new one from her.  Please enjoy my conversation with Jennifer Prosek.

“Reaching for Retail” Prosek report:  https://www.prosek.com/news/prosek-report-reaching-for-retail-reveals-private-capital-firm-brands-remain-in-early-stage-of-development/

Army of Entrepreneurs:  https://www.amazon.com/Army-Entrepreneurs-Empowered-Workforce-Exceptional/dp/081443696X/

Raising Can-Do Kids:  https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Can-Do-Kids-Children-Fast-Changing-ebook/dp/B00O2BKKYE/

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

Substack: https://circulus.substack.com/

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Zoe Cruz is a prominent figure in the financial services industry, known for her significant contributions and groundbreaking achievements as one of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street. She was named one of the Forbes top 50 women in business four years in a row.  With a career spanning over 25 years at Morgan Stanley, where she served as Co-President, Cruz played a pivotal role in managing major revenue-generating businesses, starting with her taking charge of the FX desk in 1993. Her expertise and leadership have established her as a key player in the finance sector.  Cruz transitioned to founding her own asset management firm, Menai Financial Group. This move not only highlights her resilience but also her belief in the potential for growth and opportunity that can come from financial innovation.

Zoe Cruz moved to the US from Greece at age fourteen and is a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Business School.  As we engage in this discussion with Zoe Cruz, we will explore her insights on leadership, inflection points in market cycles, why Morgan Stanley hired James Gorman, the current dangers of hidden leverage, and the bridges from TradFi to DeFi.

Menai Financial:  https://menai.io

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Michael Weisz has a real knack for finding unconventional opportunities and a strong entrepreneurial spirit.  He cut his teeth in real estate, but quickly found his nuanced understanding of mis-priced risk prepared him for creative investments like litigation and receivable finance and strategies like loans to professional athletes during lockouts.  We talk about the development of the Yieldstreet platform, how they think about the wide variety of offerings they have from fine art to CLO’s, the democratization of finance, and the international scaling of the firm.

Michael is the Founder and CEO of Yieldstreet, the leading private market investing platform, with more than 500k members and $5.7 billion invested.

An award-winning entrepreneur, he co-founded Yieldstreet in 2015 with an ambition of providing individual investors access to curated private market assets typically reserved for institutions. As CEO, Michael leads Yieldstreet’s strategic vision to make alternatives a fundamental piece of investor portfolios.

Before Yieldstreet, Michael held a variety of positions across the specialty finance spectrum, including founding Soli Capital. Previously, Michael was Vice President at a New York-based credit opportunities hedge fund with $1.2B under management.

WEBSITE:  https://www.yieldstreet.com/

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is the CEO of Circulus Group an educational forum for family offices, and the host of the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Today’s guest is Ted Seides from Capital Allocators podcast.  I first did a print interview with Ted exactly seven years ago, when he had just completed his first book So You Want to Start a Hedge Fund? and had just started his podcast.  Since then he has written two more books, Capital Allocators and today’s topic Private Equity Deals and now has one of the top investment podcasts in the world, with over 400 episodes.  Private Equity Deals is a set of engaging case studies derived from his podcast series, and is an excellent and detailed read, delving deeply into fifteen different deals. 

Ted Seides is the host of Capital Allocators, which includes podcasts, gatherings and advisory.  He was formerly co-founder of Protege Partners, which was a leading multi-billion dollar hedge fund seeder, where he was President and co-CIO.  Ted is also well known for his famous bet with Warren Buffett, a charitable wager pitting hedge funds against the S&P 500.  Ted began his career under the tutelage of David Swensen at the Yale University Investments office.  Ted graduated with honors from Yale and received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

I’m grateful to Ted for getting me into podcasting.  He told me it was fun and easy and you get to talk to really interesting people, and he was absolutely right. Please enjoy my conversation with Ted Seides.

Private Equity Deals:  https://www.amazon.com/Private-Equity-Deals-dealmaking-professionals/dp/1804090735

Capital Allocators on Apple Podcasts:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/capital-allocators-inside-the-institutional/id1223764016

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: circulus.substack.com

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

Greg Fleming is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Rockefeller Capital Management, a role he has held since the firm, formerly known as Rockefeller & Co., launched in March 2018.

Greg and I discuss the pivotal Lehman weekend in September of 2008 when he was instrumental in the sale of Merrill Lynch to Bank of America, his thoughts on organic growth and mergers in wealth management, the founding of Rockefeller Capital with Viking and building on the legacy of the Rockefeller family office, growing from $18 billion to $140 billion in six years, the importance of horizontal connectivity in a large organization and his belief that nice guys can finish first.

Prior to Rockefeller, Greg was the President of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management and Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Before joining Morgan Stanley in 2010, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Merrill Lynch, and previously ran Merrill’s Global Investment Banking business. Greg joined Merrill Lynch as an investment banker in 1992. He had also been a principal at Booz Allen Hamilton.  Greg is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Colgate University with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Please enjoy my conversation with Greg Fleming.

WEBSITE: https://www.rockco.com/bios/gregory-j-fleming/

If you like these discussions, please subscribe or leave a review.

NOTE: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice. Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://circulus.substack.com/

REQUEST AN INVITE TO OUR FALL SUMMIT:  https://forms.gle/YNesjsJb8rwuzkW5A

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Ken Kencel is the President & CEO of Churchill Asset Management, a $50 billion dollar platform serving over 700 institutional clients.  He shared valuable insights on the growing private credit market, the evolution of the industry, his first job at Drexel, working at Carlyle and then going out on his own to start Churchill from scratch.  We also discuss the nuances of the art of the covenent and finish with Ken’s desert island discs.

Ken started his career in M&A at Drexel Bernham Lambert, founded the high yield finance business at Chase Securities, and was head of leveraged finance at RBC as well as Indosuez Capital.  He was president and CEO of Churchill Financial group, which was sold to Carlyle where he served as a Managing director before starting Churchill Asset Management.  Ken graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown and has a JD from Northwestern.

Please enjoy my conversation with Ken Kencel.

WEBSITE: https://www.churchillam.com

If you like these discussions, please subscribe or leave a review.

NOTE: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice. Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://circulus.substack.com/

We are hosting our first family office event in New York on September 19th, 2024.  If you are are a single family office and would like to attend, you can request an invite below.  We are happy to have Steve Tananbaum of GoldenTree, Zoe Cruz of Menai Financial and Torsten Slok of Apollo joining us, and will be covering private equity, fintech and the global macro outlook.  I hope you can join us.

REQUEST AN INVITE TO OUR FALL SUMMIT:  https://forms.gle/893q6qEXZEvVigSM7

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Jason Schwarz is Deputy Chief Executive Officer and President at Wilshire, which currently manages over $100 billion in assets and advises on $1.3 trillion.  Jason was raised in a legal family, but his path diverged from the expected, fueled by a desire to carve his own niche. He told me, “I think you see this with sons and daughters of successful parents," he mused. "One path is to follow in the same direction, the other is to go in one's own direction. And I chose that."

This decision led him westward, where he immersed himself in the ever-evolving realm of investments, including a side trip to Hanoi.  We talk about what makes an effective consultant, the burgeoning OCIO business, what he learned from legendary founder Dennis Tito, and the transformation Wilshire underwent following its acquisition by Motive and CC Partners, where Schwarz played a pivotal role in streamlining previously siloed divisions.

Jason joined Wilshire in 2005 and has held a number of increasingly senior roles within the firm, including establishing Wilshire as a leading provider of investment solutions for financial intermediaries, advisors and their clients and ultimately overseeing all of the firm’s business segments. Jason holds a BA in Government from Hamilton College and an MBA from the Marshall School of Business.

Please enjoy my conversation with Jason Schwarz.

WEBSITE: https://www.wilshire.com/

If you like these discussions, please subscribe or leave a review. 

NOTE: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice. Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Anthony Scaramucci, is the founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital and the SALT Conference.  We had a wide ranging and candid conversation about his new book, his path from Port Washington to the White House, navigating the cutthroat world of Wall Street and politics, adapting his investment style to survive, and the importance of non-transactional networking. 

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital and founder and chairman of the SALT conference.  Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. Earlier, he worked in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs.

Scaramucci briefly served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank and as White House Communications Director in 2017. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a board member of the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation. He is the author of five books.and he holds a BA  in Economics from Tufts University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Please enjoy my conversation with the always engaging Anthony Scaramucci.

SkyBridge Capital:  https://www.skybridge.com/

X: @Scaramucci

From Wall Street to the White House and Back: The Scaramucci Guide to Unbreakable Resilience

If you like these discussions, please subscribe or leave a review.

NOTE: This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice. Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly

Carin-Isabel Knoop is the founder and executive director of the Harvard Business School Research and Case Writing Division.  This conversation was spurred by two things, one that I found out on the Business Breakdowns podcast last year that Harvard Business School Publishing is larger than Forbes, and two that I’ve also always been curious about how case studies are actually written.  Anyone who has done security or competitive analysis will appreciate the level of detail that goes into a case.

This is similar to the great conversation I had last year with Paul Edelman, who has developed psychological tests to find talent for leading hedge funds.  I would encourage you to listen to that one if you haven’t, Paul is great at breaking down conceptual thinking.

Cases are used to teach decision making and business reasoning for analysts, business owners, consultants and investors, but what are the decisions that go into the cases themselves and why are they such a good tool for teaching this mode of thought?  What I found was intriguing and in some ways pleasantly surprising, and Carin was great fun to talk to.  Please enjoy our discussion.

Carin-Isabel Knoop is the Executive Director of the Harvard Business School Case Research and Writing Group which she began in 1995.  Previously she was a consultant at McKinsey and Price Waterhouse Coopers.  Carin has her bachelors summa cum laude in Government, Economics and International Relations from the University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Harvard Business school with honors.  She is also a very active writer on Medium and where she writes about creating better workplaces.

https://carinisabelknoop.medium.com/

Scott Sperling is the Co-CEO of Thomas H. Lee Partners.  We had an excellent conversation about his time at Harvard Management Company under legendary figures like Walter Cabot and Jack Meyer, his thoughts on the evolution of private equity, the growth of THL, how the firm is structured, his top metrics and how to find new areas of growth.

Scott is Co-CEO and co-chair of the firm’s management committee.  Prior to joining Thomas H. Lee Partners, Scott was, for more than a decade, managing partner of the affiliate of Harvard Management Company that managed all alternative asset classes for Harvard University’s endowment fund. Before that he was a Senior Consultant with the Boston Consulting Group.

Scott is involved with a number of charitable and non-profit organizations. He is Chairman of MassGeneralBrigham, the Parent of the Harvard teaching hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham & Women’s Hospital. He is Chairman Emeritus of the CitiCenter for Performing Arts and Wang Theater.

NOTE:  This podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only.  Anything said by the guests or host should not be construed as legal or investment advice.  Thanks for listening.

Joe Reilly is a family office consultant, and the host of the Private Capital Podcast as well as the Inheritance Podcast. 

FOLLOW JOE: https://twitter.com/joereillyjr

WEBSITE: https://www.circulus.co/

INHERITANCE PODCAST:   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-inheritance-podcast/id1644964

If you like this show, do me a favor and send it to someone you think would enjoy it.  Just copy the link into an email or text.  I appreciate it.

©2024 Joe Reilly