As the whole financial system started coming unglued, banks wouldn't lend to other banks.

The ability to obtain liquidity became problematic for companies, for banks, for other things.

We were able to approach banks and buy tens of billions of bank debt at a time at deeply discounted prices.

We started accumulating enormous amounts of corporate debt.

Not all of it was distressed.

It was just the seller was freaking out, the markets were freaking out, so we're buying

good paper at discounted prices.

That moment it became clear to us that the provision of capital to levered companies

is the other side of the coin of providing equity in levered situation.

Private credit and private equity were two sides of the same coin.

We were the first folks to come out of the GFC saying, well, we should have private credit

business and a private equity business under the same roof.

I'm Ted Seides, and this is Capital Allocators.

My guest on today's show is Scott Kleinman,

co-president of Apollo Asset Management.

Scott joined Apollo in 1996 as its 13th employee and has spent nearly three decades helping build the firm into nearly a trillion-dollar alternative asset manager

and retirement powerhouse. Our conversation traces Apollo's evolution from a value-oriented

private equity boutique to an integrated platform investing across the capital

structure at scale. We discussed the firm's core philosophy of excess return per unit of risk,

its post-GFC expansion into private credit and retirement services, and why origination,

and not capital, has become the key constraint on its growth. We also explore Scott's

transition from dealmaker to firm-wide leader, touching on culture, incentives, communication, and

...