SALT Talks

After serving many years in Afghanistan and Iraq, General McMaster was on the receiving end of policies and strategies disconnected from the reality on the ground. The tendency to view strategy only through one’s own lens can be described as “strategic narcissism,” where we don’t consider the influence other players have on an outcome. This calls for a shift towards “strategic empathy.” “Empathy is really our ability to consider, in particular, the ideology, the emotions, and the aspirations that drive and constrain the other.” 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

David Halpert is the founder & chief investment officer of Prince Street Capital, a specialist emerging and frontier market asset management firm based in New York and Singapore. With 30 years of experience researching and investing in the developing world, David coined the term ‘Digital Decolonization’ – a new paradigm for assessing investments in emerging and frontier markets, unveiling the concept in a 2019 white paper.

Mark Matthews is Head of Research Asia Pacific for Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd., an appointment he has held since June 2011. His research coverage comprises single stock, sector and select country analysis. In addition, he is a member of the bank’s investment committee, which determines asset allocation recommendations to clients.

“There is a sense really all over the world, including in the United States, that cross border technology companies playing such a big role in people's lives, whether their financial lives or their social and political lives, is problematic.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Nathan Gelber, the founder and Chief Investment Officer of Stamford Associates Limited. Stamford was launched in 1984 with the vision to materially improve the traditional investment consulting model for UK pension schemes with a focus on providing superior investment solutions, generating superior risk-adjusted returns and establishing effective governance structures. It has subsequently grown to become a leading international investment consultancy firm.  

Behavioral psychology has only more recently entered the mainstream. At Stamford, though, behavioral psychology professionals have been used to better understand investment professionals and their decision-making process. Analytics are combined with in-person observations during the employee-hiring process as well as the day-to-day work environment. “Psychologists have 14 criteria which they are interested in; those include curiosity, independent thinking, and the willingness to go against the crowd and not be a follower.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Michael Schmidt is a Washington correspondent for the New York Times, covering national security and federal investigations. He was part of two teams that won Pulitzer Prizes in 2018 — one for reporting on workplace sexual harassment issues and the other for coverage of President Donald Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia.

It remains an open question as to whether the government institutions can be repaired following a Trump presidency. Perhaps his most lasting legacy will be his role in remaking the courts with young, conservative judges.

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Zulfiquar Ghadiyali is the Executive Director of Directions Investment Holding Company (DIHC), under the chairmanship of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Sultan bin Hamdan Al Nahyan. Ghadiyali’s family business spans across Asia and the Middle East in the fields of real estate, hospitality and general trading.

Growing up in India in a family involved in major construction projects provided early exposure to the real estate business. It also developed early an ability to manage the politics of a project. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Kurt Andersen is the bestselling author of the novels Heyday, Turn of the Century, and True Believers. He contributes to Vanity Fair and The New York Times and was the host and co-creator of Studio 360, the Peabody Award–winning public radio show and podcast. He also writes for television, film, and the stage. Andersen co-founded Spy magazine, served as editor in chief of New York, and was a cultural columnist and critic for Time and The New Yorker. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College.

In the 1970s, a subtle yet radical shift took place in American politics that culminated in Reagan’s election. A pro-business vision of the economy displaced the working class policies of FDR’s New Deal. This set the stage for the next 30-40 years of policy consensus that ultimately drove the economic inequality we see today. “I was a little oblivious to and indifferent to the systemic change in the economy that had happened around it, starting in the seventies… I didn't realize until I went back and did the research that had been not the beginning, but the end of a decade of strategic work of CEOs and rich billionaires and libertarians.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

John O. Brennan, served as director of the Central Intelligence Agency from March 2013 until January 2017, following a long career in U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism. As director, he was responsible for intelligence collection, analysis, covert action, counterintelligence, and liaison relationships with foreign intelligence services. 

Division among Americans on issues ranging from taxes to climate change creates opportunities for people and groups both foreign and domestic to weaken the United States’ standing in the world. Cyber tools have become more powerful in their ability to deceive and distort the truth. “They want to sow chaos and confusion here in the United States, really undermining our ability to fulfill our global responsibilities as well as to grow economically, politically and militarily.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Peter Gleysteen is the CEO of AGL Credit. Before AGL he had two prior employers, JPMorgan Chase and CIFC, a loan asset manager he founded. More recently he built CIFC Asset Management into a leading private debt manager with $13B in AUM, serving as founder and CEO from 2005-2014.

Syndicated bank loans are a non-traditional asset class in that they’re not securities, but loans, meaning they’re not sold on an exchange. Its appeal to long-term investors go up when interest rates are high and see most retail investors sell when rates drop. Because of the unstandardized nature of bank loans, each one is customized by the regional bank. “It's also one of the reasons why the returns are so high because compared to almost anything else, there's a lot of excess return in bank loans.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Sarah Kunst is the managing director of Cleo Capital. Sarah is an investor and entrepreneur who has worked at Apple, Red Bull, Chanel & Mohr Davidow Ventures. She is also a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine. She founded LA Dodgers backed Proday and has served as a senior advisor at Bumble where she focused on Bumble Fund, their corporate venture capital arm. She is also on the board of the Michigan State University Foundation endowment. 

Growing up middle class in a 300-person Michigan town, it was understood that to go out and achieve more would require hard work. Early career positions offered exposure to tech-heavy hitters like the Winklevoss twins and Jack Dorsey. Insatiable curiosity in their work and the Silicon Valley industry eventually provided the opportunity to break through as an emerging fund manager, raising a $3.5M venture fund in 2018. “That was the second largest, first time fund by a black woman, VC in America ever. Three and a half million, I'm not misspeaking.”

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci. 

Christopher Toomey, a partner of a top NYC-based Private Wealth Management team managing ~$5 billion in client assets. Their clients include high net worth individuals, family offices, foundations and organizations, money management principals, institutional money managers, small-cap banks and offshore investors. 

With regard to tech stocks, “there’s a reason why tech companies have outperformed so dramatically.” They are changing how we do business and live our lives, all while maintaining pristine balance sheets. These businesses are here to stay, but they are comparatively expensive. Depending on the election, there may be sell-offs later on in the year to take advantage of potentially lower tax rates. 

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To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit salt.org/talks

Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.