Steven Galbraith – In the Boardroom (Capital Allocators, EP.48)
Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry
Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert
4.8 • 806 Ratings
🗓️ 16 April 2018
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One common refrain across my conversations has been the importance and subtleties of effective governance in making optimal investment decisions. Alongside Steven Galbraith’s incredible career as an analyst, strategist, portfolio manager, and entrepreneur in the asset management business, he has served on as many Boards as anyone I know. I imagine many of you have heard Steve’s story, but if not, you may want to have a listen to the very first episode of Capital Allocators before diving in here.
Our conversation today starts with an update on Steve’s personal investment in the Narragansett Beer Company and moves into a practical discussion inside the Board rooms of each of his current seats that range across a university, a large family office, a public company, a government agency, and two early stage fintech companies. We touch on time allocation, governance structure, Board composition, adding value, the politics of Boards, and the motivation of Board members.
We also get an update on Steve’s family office, that he’s managing alongside his wife Lucy, a seasoned distressed debt investor, and we close with our brief, contrary outlook on the baseball season.
Steve’s perspective and insights on the real world of Boards is second to none, and this conversation is as full of gems as our first one.
Learn More
Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com
Write a review on iTunes
Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides
For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast
Show Notes
2:45 – Update on Narragansett Brewery
2:53 – How Passion Investors Helped Revive Narragansett Beer
4:28 – Narragansett in the White House
5:19 – With all of the boards that he serves on, how does he manage his time
7:34 – How much time do these boards assume Steven is investing in them
9:32 – Highest functioning board
11:46 – Maintaining stability between the board and investment team
16:29 – What Warren Buffet had to say about the Tufts endowment
17:45 – What are the board dynamics in a family office
22:22 – Overview of for-profit boards
26:12 – Is the familial relationships of board members another way an investment committee could construct a board
26:56– Could a university or foundation create a board like this with close familial ties amongst members
28:46 – Optimal board structure of a foundation
29:57 – Steve’s time in government serving on a board
32:52 – Board of startups and early stage companies
35:02 – A look at Steve’s family office
37:20 – What do the analytics of financial companies look like 5-10 years from now
38:35 – Looking at the quality of analytics he currently gets from his outsourced team compared to larger firms he has worked with
39:37 – What is Steve seeing in the markets
40:42 – What is the most interesting idea that’s come across Steve’s plate in the past year
44:32 – Politics of boards and what drives them
48:36 – Closing Questions
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 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.O. |
| 1:33.4 | Capital Allocators is also brought to you by SRS Aquium. |
| 1:37.2 | Want to make sure your M&A processes aren't stuck in the past? |
| 1:43.6 | How about partnering with a company that's been defining the future of dealmaking for nearly two decades instead? |
| 1:46.0 | When it comes to M&A innovation, |
| 1:52.7 | SRS Aquium has reshaped the way deals get done more than anyone else, streamlining processes for maximum efficiency and minimum headaches. Professional shareholder representation, online |
| 1:59.2 | M&A payments, digital stockholder solicitation, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.