The HPScast

Join host Colbert Cannon in conversation with Will Mesdag, a Senior Advisor to HPS. We’ll hear about his 21-year career at Goldman Sachs, where he spanned various locations from New York to Frankfurt, and caught the eye of former US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. We discuss his transition to founding Red Mountain Capital Partners in 2005. We also learn about his work with the Equity Alliance to invest in diverse fund managers.    

To learn more about Equity Alliance, visit the website here.

Check out Will’s Best Idea, the book Wilmington's Lie by Pulitzer Prize winner David Zucchino, here. Learn more about Colbert’s Best Idea, the book The Anarchy by William Dalrymple, here.

In this episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Tracy Blackwell, CEO of U.K.-based Pension Insurance Corporation. We learn about her transition from Goldman Sachs to helping start PIC, a U.K.-based defined benefits scheme liabilities insurer. We gain insights on the two trillion pounds market and its trajectory. We also hear how Tracy led her fast-growing team through the global pandemic and beyond.

Check out Colbert's Best Idea, Tony Kushner's Angels in America here, now streaming on HBO Max.

Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett, a self-described American trapped in an Englishman's body who’s become one of the most prominent football (read: soccer, for our less Anglocentric listeners) commentators in the U.S. We hear how he and co-host Michael Davis turned a niche football podcast into a primetime show scooped up by ESPN. We also hear about Roger’s love affair with the America that he dreamed of while growing up in Liverpool in the 80s, and his path to becoming a U.S. citizen.

Roger's new book, (Re)born in the USA, is now available wherever books are sold. Learn more about the  book here. Listen to Roger's podcast, Men in Blazers, here.

Check out Roger's Best Idea, music programming from Australian radio station triple j here. You can find more on Colbert's Best Idea, the beloved New York local bookstore, The Strand, here. 

Colbert Cannon sits down with Dick Parsons, Senior Advisor at Providence Equity and former CEO of TimeWarner. We hear about his work as legal counsel to President Gerald Ford, and his eventual transition out of the courtroom and into the boardroom as CEO of Dime Savings Bank and later TimeWarner. We discuss how he navigated Citigroup as their Board Chair through the calamitous financial industry post-2008 and talk about leading under duress. We also learn about Dick’s efforts with Equity Alliance to help level the playing field regarding access to capital.

To learn more about Equity Alliance, visit the website here. 

Check out Dick's Best Idea, the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson here. And be sure to stream David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO Max here.

In this episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Megan Colligan, President of IMAX Corporation. We hear about Megan’s career path from Wall Street, to political campaigns, to the film industry. We also consider the future of theaters post-pandemic. And for horror film buffs, we learn about the unique strategy Megan used to promote the most profitable movie of all time, Paranormal Activity.

You can watch Colbert’s Best Idea, Edge of Tomorrow, on Amazon, YouTube, or other streaming platforms.

We’re back for Season 3 of The HPScast. Host Colbert Cannon speaks with Richard Fisher, the former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. We’ll hear about his role in shaping economic policy under President Carter and as the U.S. Trade representative to President Clinton’s administration. We also discuss his decade-long tenure at the helm of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.  

Learn more about Richard’s term at the Dallas Fed here. You can check out Richard’s podcast, Coffee with the Greats, here. Listen to musician Robert Earl Keen, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

We’re closing out Season 2 of the HPScast with a look back. Host Colbert Cannon remembers some of the best moments from his conversations with all of our guests in the second half. We’ll be back with all new episodes coming Summer 2021.

In this special episode, Colbert Cannon and HPS CEO Scott Kapnick sit down with Dr. Wayne Frederick, President of Howard University. We’ll hear how Dr. Frederick applies his problem solving techniques in the operating room to navigate challenging times more broadly, and the importance of building real relationships in the fight for economic and social parity.  We’ll also learn about Howard University’s new partnership with HPS to help students better prepare for careers in business and finance.

You can find out more about the HPS Center for Financial Excellence at Howard University School of Business here. Take a listen to the BBC's podcast In Our Time that we discussed here.

In this episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with David Ross, Chief Executive Officer at the Ardonagh Group. We’ll hear about David’s first steps into the insurance business and how he creates a culture of accountability and trust in his firm. We also learn how he applied those lessons to the difficult task of turning around Towergate.
 

You can find out more about Patrick Radden Keefe and his book Say Nothing here.

Host Colbert Cannon speaks with Gary Stead, a Managing Director at HPS based in Australia. In this episode, we’ll hear about Gary’s various M&A roles spanning the globe from Sydney to Singapore, and his evolution from being a banker to being an investor. We also get into the role of direct lending in the bank-dominated Australian market and what Gary sees on its horizon.

Try out Colbert’s go-to recipe for his Aussie-inspired dessert, the Pavlova, here.