The HPScast

This week on the HPScast, host Colbert Cannon talks with Jonathan Tisch, former Executive Chairman of Loews Hotels & Co., Director Emeritus of Loews Corporation, and New York Giants co-owner, about his path from early work in broadcast media to leading multi-billion-dollar hotel and diversified holding companies. Jon outlines how the ethos of hospitality informs his view on leadership and community engagement. He also shares how he navigated industry shocks such as 9/11, the global financial crisis, and COVID-19, and lessons learned about the power of partnership and collaboration in tough times.

Learn more about Jon and the Loews Corporation here. Read The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships here. Book a SoulCycle class, Jon’s Best Idea, here. Watch Colbert’s Best Idea for this week,  Board to Death, a comedy-drama created by  Tufts graduate Jonathan Ames and starring Ted Danson, here.

This week on the HPScast, host Colbert Cannon interviews George Walker, Chairman and CEO of Neuberger Berman, an employee-owned, private, independent investment manager founded in 1939 with approximately 3,000 employees across 27 countries. Neuberger manages $563 billion of equities, fixed income, private equity, real estate, and hedge fund portfolios for global institutions, advisors, and individuals. George discusses the 2009 management buyout of Neuberger Berman from Lehman Brothers, highlighting key leadership lessons that have strengthened the firm's culture and driven growth. He also outlines Neuberger Berman's strategic priorities in the current market environment.

Learn more about George and his work at Neuberger Berman here. Read George’s Best Idea, 1929, written by Andrew Ross Sorkin, here. Watch Season 1 of Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, Task, a 2025 legal drama created by Brad Ingelsby and starring Mark Ruffalo, here.

We’re back with Season 13 of The HPScast. Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Matthieu Boulanger, Managing Director, Head of Europe at HPS Investment Partners. Boulanger traces his career from project finance at Citi, to growing private credit strategies from the ground up at HPS and KKR, as well as his recent return to HPS to lead its European business. He provides a detailed view of the expansion of HPS’s European platform following its transaction with BlackRock and offers a measured outlook on the future of private credit in Europe, with particular focus on direct lending, asset-based finance, and GPLP solutions.

Watch  Colbert’s Best Idea for this week—Anatomy of a Fall, a 2023 French psychological legal drama directed by Justine Triet—here.

The HPScast returns for a special between-season episode with host Colbert Cannon leading a discussion on current credit market trends as we head towards 2026. Learn what we are seeing from a macro perspective and how credit markets could be affected. Our discussion features Vikas Keswani, a Managing Director from our private credit team, and Scott Crocombe, a Managing Director from our liquid credit team, as well as Amanda Lynam, Head of Macro Credit Research with BlackRock’s Private Financing Solutions platform.

To close out Season 12 of The HPScast, host Colbert Cannon revisits some of this season's most memorable moments. We brought on some heavy hitters from across industries, and the country, including: a former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, a Chief Investment Officer of a South Carolina retirement system, a CNBC reporter extraordinaire, and colleagues from across HPS.

The HPScast team thanks our guests and listeners for another great run. We’re taking a short break, but we’ll return soon with all-new conversations in Season 13.

Each season, we devote one episode to a discussion of current credit market trends. This week, host Colbert Cannon is joined by Purnima Puri, an HPS Governing Partner and Head of Public Credit, and Mike Patterson, an HPS Governing Partner and Co-Head of Private Credit. With the magnitude of market volatility currently, the discussion focuses on what they are seeing from a macro perspective and how credit markets could be affected.

This week, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Geoffrey Berg, Chief Investment Officer of the South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission, to discuss his strategic leadership of the system's approximately $50 billion investment portfolio and share insights into private credit as an early adopter of the asset class among peers. Then, we find out what's next for the Southern state’s retirement system. 

Read Geoffrey’s Best Idea, Unreasonable Hospitality, by Will Guidara, here—and listen to Colbert’s earlier conversation with Danny Meyer here. Learn more about Charleston, South Carolina, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Madelaine O'Connell, a leader in HPS's private high-grade business to discuss the evolution of the private placement market and the nuances of private versus public high grade debt. She also talks about her transition from leading the private placements business at Goldman Sachs to joining HPS, and shares her vision for scaling the private high-grade market within HPS.

Learn more about Madelaine and her work at HPS here.  Find a local SoulCycle class near you—Colbert’s Best Idea for this week—here.

This week, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Robert Kaplan, former President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas and Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs, to discuss his career spanning finance and public service. Kaplan reflects on the evolution of Goldman Sachs, his transition from deal-making to management, and the valuable lessons he learned from both Wall Street and academia. He also shares his insights on the interplay between public and private markets, headwinds to fiscal policy, and his outlook on the Fed’s interest rates.

Learn more about Robert Kaplan and his work at Goldman Sachs, here. Read All The Pretty Horses, a novel by Cormac McCarthy—Colbert’s Best Idea for this week—here.

This week, we are looking at trends in the US real estate market, where the delta between debt and equity returns is as small as it’s been in 15 years. Mike Van Konynenburg, President of Eastdil Secured, oversees large, real estate transactions including financings, capital raises, sales, and investment banking transactions for institutional real estate owners and lenders. He joins David Lehman, Head of Real Estate Strategies at HPS, as they discuss the property market, the impacts of current policy, and how data centers could fit into investors’ allocations.