David "Bull" Gurfein - Interdisciplinary Lessons from the Marines (Capital Allocators, EP.10)

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Investing, Capitalallocation, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2017

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

David Gurfein is a decorated Marine Corps Combat veteran whose nickname “Bull” fits the bill. Enlisting at age 17, Bull drove tanks and was an honor graduate from Officer Candidate School while attending Syracuse University. Upon graduation from college, he accepted a commission as a Marine 2nd Lieutenant. Over the subsequent eleven years, Bull served as a combat Infantry Officer, leading Marines in the jungles of Panama, the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and on the fence-line at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He left active duty to earn his MBA at Harvard in 2000, where he was Co-President of his class.

Bull started a business career after graduate school; however, when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, Bull voluntarily returned to active duty. He saw combat action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and served as a Congressional Liaison for the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, and the Special Operations Command.

With a daughter on the way and 25 years of service under his belt, Bull retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Since then, he has applied his leadership and management experience to the business world, focusing on organizational design and business development. His leadership training program, entitled WHOOPASS, has positively impacted start-ups and Fortune 500 companies alike.

Oh, and he took a break from that in 2016 to run for U.S. Congress.

Our conversation discusses principles of leadership, management, and resource allocation, alongside colorful stories of success and failure. Bull's frameworks have clear applicability to anyone overseeing an investment process.

For more episodes, go to capitalallocatorspodcast.com/podcast

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Capital Allocators is brought to you by Ten East, an investment platform for sophisticated investors to access private markets.
0:10.5	Ten East brings benefits of having your own family office without the cost and headaches of doing so.
0:16.8	It's founded and led by Michael LaFelle, former deputy executive managing member of Davidson Kempner.
0:24.2	Michael and his investment team offer members the opportunity to co-invest by offering at their
0:29.1	discretion. Michael and his team source, diligence, and commit material personal capital to each
0:35.3	investment. The opportunities shared on the Ten East platform
0:38.9	offer exposure to private credit, real estate, niche venture and private equity, and other
0:44.5	idiosyncratic investments that typically aren't available through traditional channels.
0:49.2	The principles have over a decade track record of investing in these types of exposures
0:53.5	across more than 350
0:55.7	transactions. Post-investment, the Tennis team conducts ongoing monitoring and reporting,
1:01.8	just as you'd expect from an institutional investment organization. I've known Michael for about a
1:07.0	decade, and after becoming impressed by the quality of 10 East offerings, its research
1:11.6	process, and high-quality investment team, I became an advisor to the organization, an investor
1:17.1	in multiple offerings. You can learn more and join me as a member at 10-east.com. That's the number 10,
1:25.4	east.co.
1:34.0	Capital Allocators is also brought to you by SRS Aquium.
1:37.8	Want to make sure your M&A processes aren't stuck in the past?
1:44.0	How about partnering with a company that's been defining the future of dealmaking for nearly two decades instead. When it comes to M&A
1:46.1	innovation, SRS Aquium has reshaped the way deals get done more than anyone else, streamlining
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1:59.4	online M&A payments, digital stockholder solicitation,
	...

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