Masters in Business

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Robert Arnott, the founder and chairman of the board of Research Affiliates LLC. Arnott plays an active role in the firm’s research, portfolio management, product innovation, business strategy and client-facing activities. As of December 2020, $157 billion in assets were managed worldwide using investment strategies developed by Research Affiliates.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with John Schlifske, who is chairman, president and chief executive officer at Northwestern Mutual. He rose through the ranks after having joined the company in 1987 as an investment specialist. Northwestern Mutual has more than $300 billion in total assets and $31 billion in revenues, and underwrites more than $2 trillion in life insurance.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Shirl Penney, who is the founder of Dynasty Financial Partners, a leading integrated platform services company for independent wealth-management advisory firms. Penney currently serves as Dynasty's president and CEO and is a member of its board of directors. The firm has over $60 billion in assets on its platform.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Gary Chropuvka, who recently joined the quantitative asset management firm WorldQuant as president. He was previously the co-head of the quantitative investment strategies team at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with legendary venture-capital investor Bill Gurley, who has spent more than 15 years as a general partner at Benchmark Capital. Prior his work in venture capital, Gurley spent four years on Wall Street as a top-ranked research analyst, including three years at Credit Suisse First Boston focusing on personal computer hardware and software. He was the lead analyst on the Amazon IPO. He is also the author of the long-running Above the Crowd blog, which focuses on the evolution and economics of technology businesses.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Jeff Immelt, who is a venture partner at the global venture capital and private equity firm New Enterprise Associates (NEA). Prior to joining NEA in 2018, Jeff was the ninth chairman of GE and served as chief executive officer for 16 years. He has received 15 honorary degrees and numerous awards for business leadership, and chaired the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness under the Obama administration. His new book is “Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company,” a memoir of leadership in times of crisis.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with the financial theorist and retired neurologist William J. Bernstein, who co-founded the investment management firm Efficient Frontier Advisors and has written several books on finance and economic history. His titles include “The Birth of Plenty: How the Prosperity of the Modern World Was Created,” “A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World,” and “Masters of the Word: How Media Shaped History.” He was also the 2017 winner of the James R. Vertin Award from CFA Institute. His latest book is “The Delusions of Crowds: Why People Go Mad in Groups.”

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Jean Hynes, Wellington’s incoming CEO, on rising through the ranks, managing one of the world’s largest asset managers, and investing in health care in the days of Covid. She manages the $51 billion Vanguard Health Care Fund.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Doug Braunstein, founder and managing partner at Hudson Executive Capital, which has underwritten several successful SPAC offerings and manages $1.6 billion in assets. Braunstein previously held several roles at JPMorgan Chase — including working directly with Jamie Dimon as chief financial officer and member of the executive committee — and served as head of JPMorgan’s Americas investment banking and global M&A.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Ben Inker, the head of asset allocation at GMO, which manages about $60 billion in assets. In his nearly three decades at GMO, Inker has served as an analyst for the quantitative equity and asset allocation teams, as a portfolio manager of several equity and asset allocation portfolios, as a co-head of international quantitative equities, and as CIO of quantitative developed equities. He is also a member of the GMO board of directors and a CFA charterholder. 

 Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Kevin Landis, who is CEO and chief investment officer of Firsthand Capital Management. Landis founded Firsthand in 1994 and has since become one of the nation's best-known technology investors. He has been making venture capital investments in primary transactions since 1998, focusing on the technology and cleantech sectors. He has over two decades of experience in engineering, market research, product management and investing in the technology sector.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with legendary investor Ron Baron, who is the chairman, CEO and portfolio manager at Baron Funds. He founded Baron Capital Management and Baron Capital Inc. in 1982, and boasts more than a half century of research experience. Today, Baron Funds is known for its long-term, fundamental, active approach to growth investing; it has $49 billion in assets under management. 

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Andrew Beer, who serves as the managing member at Dynamic Beta investments LLC (formerly branded Beachhead Capital Management) and is co-portfolio manager of the firm's investment strategies. Beer has more than 25 years of experience in the alternative investment business. For more than a dozen years, his focus has been identifying strategies to match or outperform portfolios of leading hedge funds with low fees, daily liquidity and less downside risk. He started in the hedge fund industry in 1994, when he joined the Baupost Group as one of six generalist portfolio managers working for Seth Klarman.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Adam Karr, a portfolio manager at Orbis Investment Management and head of the firm’s U.S. division.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Sébastien Page, author of 2020's "Beyond Diversification: What Every Investor Needs to Know About Asset Allocation" and head of T. Rowe Price's multi-asset division, which manages $363.5 billion. Page is also a member of T. Rowe Price's asset allocation committee and management committee. He was previously an executive vice president at Pimco and a senior managing director at State Street Global Markets.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Dave Welling, CEO of Mercer Advisors, a Denver-based RIA that manages more than $21 billion. Welling's nontraditional career path involves experience in consulting, private equity and technology, which has given him a unique perspective on the financial services business.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Jeff Poggi, co-CEO of McIntosh Group, the legendary manufacturer of premium audio equipment. Despite the pandemic, the company has notched its best year for sales in its 70-year history. Prior to joining McIntosh Group, Poggi — an engineer by training — was at Harman International and Bose Corporation, and earned an MBA from Duke University.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Tom Slater, who is head of the U.S. equities team and a decision maker on long-term global growth portfolios at the U.K.-based investment firm Baillie Gifford.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Mike Swell, co-head of global fixed income portfolio management at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM), where he is responsible for co-leading the global team of portfolio managers that oversee multi-sector portfolios. He joined the firm in 2007 as a managing director and head of structured products. Swell manages over $700 billion dollars in fixed income assets for GSAM.

Bloomberg Opinion columnist Barry Ritholtz speaks with Catherine Keating, the chief executive officer of BNY Mellon Wealth Management and a member of the BNY Mellon Executive Committee, the company’s most senior leadership group. Prior to joining BNY Mellon, Keating was the chief executive officer of Commonfund and held a variety of senior positions at J.P. Morgan over two decades. She has been named one of the most powerful women in finance and one of the most powerful women in banking by American Banker, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. BNY Mellon has $2 trillion dollars in assets under management.