The HPScast

Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Nicholas Gartside, Chief Investment Officer and member of the Board of Management at Munich RE. Nicholas breaks down what it was like to sit in an investing seat as the Head of Global Fixed Income at Schroder Investment Management during the global financial crisis in 2008. Then, we hear about Nicholas’ transition to manage a €250 billion insurance portfolio at Munich RE. He shares how he maneuvers a multi-asset portfolio anchored heavily in long-duration fixed income assets through turbulent markets. And Nicholas lends his perspective on how Munich RE, as a member of the United Nations’ Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, is engaging meaningfully with companies to make ESG initiatives integral to corporate culture.  

Learn more about Nicholas Gartside’s tenure at Munich RE here. You can check out our guest’s Best Idea, the novel A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor, here. Read the novel Munich by Robert Harris, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

On this week’s episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Faith Rosenfeld, Chief Administrative Officer at HPS Investment Partners. Faith recounts the many roles she took on during her 15-year tenure at Goldman Sachs and how one of those roles led her to taking a “blank sheet of paper” approach. Then, Faith discusses her leap into entrepreneurship as a Founding Partner of The Beacon Group, a private equity and advisory firm later acquired by JP Morgan Chase. She shares how business ownership further broadened her unique set of skills and prepared her to join HPS, then Highbridge Principal Strategies, as one of its first-ever employees. We talk about the evolution of the firm to today – and look ahead to how it is integrating ESG strategies from a private credit perspective and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in its talent.

Learn more about Faith Rosenfeld's tenure at HPS here. Find a link to order Faith’s first Best Idea, the memoir Lost and Found by Kathryn Schutz here. And watch her second Best Idea, 14 Peaks: Nothing is Impossible here. You can find Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, Michael Lewis’ Liar's Poker, here.

We’re back with Season 8 of The HPScast. Join us as host Colbert Cannon sits down with Hugo Nathan, a Founding Partner of Beaumont Nathan, an art advisory firm based in London and New York. Hugo shares how he found his way into the alluring world of international art trading, and his formative early years at Simon Dickinson. Hugo shares stories from his 15-year tenure at the firm as he rose through its ranks, eventually being named President. Then, we discuss his decision to strike out on his own, alongside now partner, Wentworth Beaumont, to form their international art advisory and market intelligence firm, Beaumont Nathan. Hugo offers keen insights into entrepreneurship and how to do well in an industry built on relationships. He also shares his recent work with HPS Investment Partners' to help build out its diverse, and highly thoughtful art collection, including some of his favorites by both accomplished artists such as Alexander Calder and McArthur Binion — and emerging artists like Jordan Nassar.

Learn more about what Hugo Nathan is working on at Beaumont Nathan here. Check out Hugo’s Best Idea, The European Fine Art Fair, here. And discover works by British painter Cecily Brown, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.
 

This week marks the end of Season 7 of The HPScast. Join host Colbert Cannon as he looks back at some key moments from the season. We hear key insights from titans across industries – from commercial real estate to English football, plus more than a few masters of analytics working to enhance everything from risk assessment to global literacy. 

We’ll be back in the second half of 2023 with all new episodes. Until then, catch up on any conversations you might have missed. Or try out one of the many Best Ideas shared in each episode. You can find links to those in the show notes of each episode.

Host Colbert Cannon speaks with Deji Davies, Head of European Loan Trading at J.P. Morgan. We discuss his experience managing J.P. Morgan’s par and stressed trading operation through market volatility. He shares how he balances a foundational understanding of corporate credits against a commitment to remaining nimble as markets evolve in the short term. Deji also shares his background as a semi-professional soccer player, or footballer for our international audience, at clubs including Boreham Wood and Slough Town. Then, we discuss his most recent appointment as Chair of the Inclusion Advisory Board at The Football Association and how he plans to lead the charge for greater representation and more accessibility in the sport.

Learn more about Deji Davies tenure at JP Morgan here and his new position Chair of the Football Association Inclusion Advisory Board here. You can check out our guest’s Best Idea, Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection by Dr. John Sarno, here. Or read Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

Join host Colbert Cannon in conversation with Jae S. Yoon, Chief Investment Officer of New York Life Investment Management and Chairman of New York Life Investment Asia. Jae shares how he turned a proclivity for mathematics into quantitative analysis roles in risk management for the Asia offices of firms like Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan. We hear how he navigated turbulent times such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis. We then pivot to discuss Jae’s role as a macro manager for New York Life Investment Management, the asset management business of New York Life Insurance. He shares how he uses everything from historical events like the Great Inflation of the 1970s to conversations with cab drivers to build a robust understanding of the local markets that shape our global economy.    

Learn more about Jae S. Yoon’s role at New York Life Investment Management here. Check out the menu at Oiji MI, Colbert’s Best Idea for the week, here.

This week, host Colbert Cannon sits down with friend and colleague Michael Fenstermacher, a Managing Director and the Co-Head of North American Core Senior Lending at HPS Investment Partners. We talk about his early days at Bank One, where he got his start in credit lending. He walks us through Bank One’s eventual merger with J.P. Morgan and how he decided to make the move to the latter’s New York City office during that transition. We discuss the diversity of learning opportunities and exposure to investment banking that Michael steeped himself in during that time before coming to HPS in 2008. He shares what it was like to join the firm’s direct lending arm amid the global financial crisis. Then, he offers a look into the evolution of the direct lending landscape in relation to the broadly syndicated market and how current market  volatility is impacting the space.

Learn more about Michael Fenstermacher’s tenure at HPS Investment Partners here. You can check out our guest’s Best Idea, The Cook Political Report, here. Watch The League, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

Join host Colbert Cannon for a conversation with Geetha Murali, the CEO of Room to Read, a global non-profit organization that focuses on working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments to improve literacy and gender equality in education. Geetha shares how she’s used her biostatistics background to help grow the organization's reach to now serve 32 million children across 21 countries. She discusses how the global pandemic pushed her team to find new ways of reaching communities both online and offline amid shutdowns that cut off their primary channel of distribution - schools. She also delves into how the binary between for-profit and nonprofit organizations is becoming a thing of the past with the increase in impact investing and ESG frameworks across the board.

Learn more about Geetha Murali’s tenure at Room to Read here. Learn more about Room to Read and how to donate here. You can check out our guest’s Best Idea, Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, here. Read Circe by Madeline Miller, Colbert’s Best Idea for this week, here.

On this week’s episode, host Colbert Cannon sits down with Patrick McGinnis, a venture capitalist, podcast host and international best-selling author who, in 2004, coined the popular term FOMO, or fear of missing out. We hear the origin story of the phrase, which Patrick first started using amongst friends at Harvard Business School after suffering from an extreme bout of it in the choice-rich environment. He tells us how that mentality led him to reevaluate how we make decisions more effectively. We also hear how Patrick weathered the 2008 financial crisis at AIG before joining its investing arm spinoff PineBridge Investments, and eventually starting his own investment and advisory firm, Dirigo Advisors, working with fast growing companies, corporations and international organizations. 

Learn more about what Patrick McGinnis is working on here. Listen to his podcast FOMO Sapiens here.

Host Colbert Cannon sits down with Aldo Mazzocco, the Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Generali Real Estate SpA for a discussion full of lessons for business and life. 

Aldo shares his path to real estate investment as he moved from general manager of a construction company to eventually run Beni Stabili SpA. There, he more than doubled the Italian real estate company's portfolio before overseeing its merger with Foncière des Régions to create what is now Covivio. Then, Aldo discusses his move to Generali Real Estate, where he was tasked with modernizing the business and creating a viable third party asset management strategy. He talks about the challenges of building something new in a business more than 190 years old. Aldo also shares how he managed his team during the Covid-19 crisis as it roiled the commercial real estate industry, drawing deeply from his past handlings of the Lehman Brother crisis, the European sovereign debt crisis and Italy’s triple dip recession. And he offers up one incredibly sound piece of advice sourced from the Dolomites in northeast Italy that still guides him today.           

Learn more about Aldo Mazzocco’s tenure at Generali Real Estate here. You can find out more about Generali’s philanthropic housing initiative, The Human Safety Net, here.