Michael Oliver Weinberg – Improving Alpha:

Improving Alpha: Gregory Brown on Deploying Alternative Research to Aid Institutional Investors.

By Improving-Alpha | March 3, 2025

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Being able to source accurate data across alternative markets is a complex process. Stocks, bonds, and futures offer continuous price updates and greater intelligence for investors. The landscape is evolving, with a growing number of cutting-edge investment researchers enhancing decision-making on policy issues that will help shape private markets investments for the future.

In our latest episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg welcomes Greg Brown, professor of finance at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School and founder of the Institute for Private Capital. Dive into their insightful dialogue as they explore groundbreaking research on the risk-adjusted returns of private funds, dissect GP portfolio deal structures and commitments, unravel the correlation of returns, and debate the potential of real assets as effective inflation hedges.

Further highlights from this discussion include:

What is the Institute for Private Capital and what is its role in furthering alternative investment research.
Greg’s thoughts on the use of public market equivalents (PMEs) to measure benchmarks for private funds vs. simple multiple or IRR.
How does risk figure into the equations around buyouts or VC funds today and how are certain endowments and foundations finding success in the VC space.
Decisions around GP portfolio creation covering deployment of capital, deal size, diversification, how many deals can be handled at once, and how much leverage should be added to the deals.
Real estate’s true value as an inflation hedge and whether historic claims showcasing this fact are truthful or not.
And more.

Connect with Greg Brown:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Greg Brown’s research centers on alternative investments, including hedge funds and private equity funds. He also is a leading expert on financial risk and the use of derivative contracts as risk management tools.

He is the founder and research director of the Institute for Private Capital, faculty director of the Hodges Scholars Program and a member of the Private Equity Research Consortium (PERC) advisory board. Dr. Brown served as the executive director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise from 2015-2023.

His research has been published in leading academic and practitioner finance journals, including The Journal of Finance, The Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, The Journal of Derivatives, The Journal of Portfolio Management and The Financial Analyst Journal. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Alternative Investments.

Dr. Brown serves on the board of directors of the Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) Association.

He previously served as director of research for Amundi Smith Breeden, a global asset management firm specializing in fixed income investments. He has served as a consultant on financial risk and portfolio management for money management firms, the U.S. government, non-profits and Fortune 500 companies.

The information covered and posted represents the views and opinions of the guest and does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Vidrio Financial, and/or our host, Michael Oliver Weinberg. The Content has been made available for informational and educational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional investing advice. Always seek the advice of your financial advisor or other qualified financial service provider with any questions you may have regarding your investment planning.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Robert Wolcott on the Proximity Revolution

By Improving Alpha | February 3, 2025

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Institutional investors are not only concerned with searching for alpha opportunities in this market but how technology can aid in that search over time. In an age of digital transformation, how can investors become more competitive in their allocation decisions, and are they effectively adapting to geopolitical concerns, risk, inflation, and more?

For this next entry into the Improving Alpha podcast series, host Michael Oliver Weinberg is joined by Robert Wolcott, Co-Founder & Chairman TWIN Global, Adjunct Professor of Innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and author of “Proximity”, who brings a fresh perspective on technology innovation and its profound implications on investment strategies.

Robert highlights the following concepts in this episode:

How digital technology is helping us to see greater contours of the market, moving production and provision of value closer to the moment of actual demand.
What are some differences in engaging the ‘Proximity’ revolution for both incumbents and new market entrants, and how Disney presents a prime example for this discussion.
How a company like Axon Enterprises is searching out those alpha (technology) opportunities within the security category, regardless of what the actual implementation might become in the future.
Flexibility in manufacturing and how disruptive technology is pushing manufacturing into a global hybrid model.
The critical role that sustainability and resilience play in creating infrastructure that meets the demands of our modern world.
How investors can apply this revolution to their due diligence strategies by asking more innovation questions vs why we might be recreating something from the 20th century.
And more

Robert’s latest book, Proximity, a way to reshape the way businesses and industries innovate, adapt, and thrive in an ever change world is out now. Learn more about the book here.

Resources:

Proximity: How Coming Breakthroughs in Just-in-Time Transform Business, Society, and Daily Life by Robert C. Wolcott
Energy, Sustainability & Resilience: Lessons From Bhutan & Bangladesh (Forbes article)
The Founding of New England by James Truslow Adams

Connect with Robert Wolcott:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Robert C. Wolcott is Adjunct Professor of Innovation at the Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, and Adjunct Professor of Executive Education at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. From 2010 – 2019, he served as Clinical Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Kellogg. Wolcott won Teacher of the Year from Kellogg’s EMBA program in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

He’s co-founder and chair of The World Innovation Network (TWIN), a global community of nearly 4,000 innovation and growth leaders from over 30 countries and across sectors (business, government, the arts, academia, defense). TWIN gathers 400 delegates for TWIN Global each year in Chicago to explore the future, in addition to smaller gatherings and online sessions. The objective is to build trusted relationships across sectors.

He is a regular contributor for Forbes on the impact of technology on business, society and humanity. His book, Grow From Within: Mastering Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation (McGraw-Hill, 2010) has been published in Chinese and Japanese.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: John Coffey’s blueprint for a shadow SEC and further regulations under a new Trump Administration

By Improving Alpha | January 13, 2025

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In just a few days the second Trump administration will be sworn in to the office of the presidency. There has already been a lot of debate around security regulations and what that might mean for institutional investors. Could we see Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies go higher, how will carbon emissions be regulated and reported to investors, and how will active, index, and quantitative investors be impacted by this new administration.

In our first 2025 episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg sits down with John C. Coffee, Jr., Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law, Columbia Law School to explore these issues while presenting case examples covering Elon Musk’s compensation battles, SouthWest Airlines, and more.

John further highlights his insights on:

The formation and purpose of a shadow SEC to advise on current securities regulation issues and hopefully keep Congress from legislating in a manner that disrupts the actual SEC.
The three major institutional investment groups holding over 70% of US public corporations’ stocks and how they approach policy changes and systemic risk.
what is the right amount of institutional investment intelligence regarding carbon emissions today?
the Delaware Court’s competence on rulings in governance, and corporate law versus other state court approaches.
activist investing and how he came to write, The Wolf at the Door: The Impact of Hedge Fund Activism on Corporate Governance.
And more

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

Connect with John Coffee:

About Our Guest:

A prolific scholar, sought-after speaker, and frequent news commentator, John C. Coffee Jr. is active in several fields and is a recognized leading authority on securities law, corporate governance, white-collar crime, complex litigation, and class actions.

Coffee has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a life fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute and the American Bar Foundation. He has also been repeatedly listed by the National Law Journal on its annual list of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Koray Caliskan on the ‘Data Money’ of cryptocurrency and future applications

By Improving Alpha | December 16, 2024

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Back in the 16th century, when paper money made its debut in Venice, skeptics doubted it could ever replace the clinking of metal coins. Fast forward to today, and we find ourselves seamlessly blending paper, coins, and cryptocurrency. This cutting-edge currency has skyrocketed to a market capitalization of $2-$3 trillion and continues to surge. Just last month, Bitcoin values were on the brink of reaching the monumental $100K milestone.

In our latest Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg sits down with Koray Caliskan, Co-Director, MS Strategic Design and Management, The New School Parsons to discuss more on crypto, taxation, governance, and social innovation.

Koray highlights the following:

why are there losers and survivors in cryptocurrency and how can allocators navigate the nuances of these systems when making strategic asset allocations.
how will the regulation of cryptocurrencies need to evolve for wider adoption and can you tax crypto with normal paper and metal money.
his views on social innovation and why it’s so important for his students to pay attention to when choosing a career path.
where will artificial intelligence and LLMs feature in institutional investing and how are his students applying best practices today.
And more

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

Connect with Koray Caliskan:

About Our Guest:

With 25 years of experience in research and design, Koray is a scientist and designer who works in economies, management, and societies. His latest book is Data Money: Inside Cryptocurrencies and their Communities, Blockchains and Markets (Columbia UP). It is based on his award-winning multi-methods research, which was selected as the Scientific Breakthrough of the Year in Social Sciences and Humanities by the Falling Walls Foundation in 2021. He is also a co-founder of Mamame, a social enterprise that empowers under-represented women’s labor, and a former filmmaker whose work has been shown at the Cannes Film Festival. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Design Strategies and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Cultural Economy.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Scott Chan on ‘Gearing Up’ a Collaborative Model to Mitigate Risks and Generate Returns

By Improving Alpha | November 4, 2024

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Last year, we were honored to have Chris Ailman as a guest on the Improving Alpha podcast. Fast forward 12 months, and lightning has struck twice for the Improving Alpha team, as we welcome Scott Chan, the current CIO of CalSTRS, to the guest chair.

As the second-largest pension fund in the United States and the premier teacher’s retirement fund globally, CalSTRS manages over $340 billion in assets. Handling a portfolio of this magnitude requires a sophisticated asset allocation strategy that seamlessly integrates cost-saving initiatives, maximizes returns, and enhances risk management on a grand scale. To date, Scott’s innovative strategies have resulted in an impressive $1.6 billion in cost savings.

Tune in to the newest episode of the Improving Alpha podcast and discover the insights Scott reveals on:

how he approaches the ‘reverse pyramid’ structure of his professional career, what he’s inherited from Chris’s tenure at CalSTRS, and the strategic allocation priorities he’s set for the future.
navigating the trending opinions on private credit and fixed income, and how it impacts the team’s total portfolio approach.
the CalSTRS collaboration model, and how the model is assisting the team to do more sophisticated transactions to boost alpha, including co-investments and joint ventures.
ESG and his 3-pronged approach to net zero.
his perspective on investment technology and its power to amplify CalSTRS’ vast reservoirs of data and insights, guiding strategic allocation choices.
the current state of interest rates and inflation and whether this period is our new normal or should we expect a ‘reset’ to occur soon.
investing red flags and the concept of diversity of thought and risk management.
and more.

Resources:

Improving Alpha: Christopher Ailman, CalSTRS on Catching the Big Waves in Institutional Investing

Connect with Scott Chan:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Shivaram Rajgopal on Ways to Eliminate Governance Disengagement and Zombie Organizations

By Improving Alpha | September 30, 2024

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If you are a CEO at a large public company, who do you speak with when concerned about strategy, formulation of innovative ideas, or even execution of a plan to scale your business investments? Many believe that unless there’s a large activist event or news story, decision-making is solely your own. Is there a way to bring back active governance and drive engagement from board members and investors?

In this latest installment of the Improving Alpha: Innovation in Investing, ESG, and Technology podcast Michael Oliver Weinberg and Shivaram, Rajgopal, Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing; Chair of the Accounting Division, Columbia University explore the challenges in corporate governance. Shivaram goes into what makes governance so difficult, the impact of corporate boards on the direction of governance, and why governance can be imagined as a slow-burning background fire that isn’t significant enough to spark investor attention.

Additional Shivaram highlights include:

his early background as a chartered accountant and what led him to Columbia Business School.
where do CEOs go if they want to improve their strategy, execution and formulation in governance, especially when it seems there’s no one on the other side listening outside of an activist event.
why are companies in the S&P 1500 becoming zombies (in the economic sense), and getting capital that they don’t deserve instead of someone making the hard decisions to kick out of the index.
what is the right timeframe to hold an investment in today’s market and is private equity superior to public equity to optimize long-term performance.
how can the carrot and stick theory help governance when looking at board structures.
what is causing the Japanese markets to model our investment texts (decades later), and why is this so important to governance.
When looking at Europe, where are the European Uber, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or Tesla, and how the governance code impacts their innovation.
And more!

Resources:

Connect with Shivaram Rajgopal:

LinkedIn: Shivaram Rajgopal
Email: sr3269@gsb.columbia.edu

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Shiva Rajgopal is the Roy Bernard Kester and T.W. Byrnes Professor of Accounting and Auditing at Columbia Business School. He has also been a faculty member at the Duke University, Emory University and the University of Washington. Professor Rajgopal’s research interests span financial reporting, earnings quality, fraud, executive compensation and corporate culture. His research is frequently cited in the popular press, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Fortune, Forbes, Financial Times, Business Week, and the Economist. He teaches fundamental analysis of financial statements for investors, managers and entrepreneurs and a PhD seminar on accounting regulation.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Catherine Ulozas on Innovating a Billion Dollar Endowment

By Improving Alpha | September 9, 2024

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Information overload can occur in even the most skilled institutional investor when considering the amount of managers and intelligence competing for their time and attention. How can a leading endowment CIO or portfolio manager navigate the volume of financial statements, capital calls, risk/reward ratios, and more? How can they mentor junior analysts to find the diamonds in the rough to help generate alpha?

In our latest Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg sits down with Catherine Ulozas, Chief Investment Officer, Senior Vice President, Investment, Drexel University. Catherine shares her extensive background from the early years at ING Direct prioritizing safety in fixed-income investments and how that brought her to the CIO role at Drexel University.

Additional highlights from Catherine’s podcast interview include:

how is Catherine looking at the endowment risk today, especially in light of increased inflation, increasing spending rates by the university, and more.
why was it a critical mission of the endowment to save St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, and how did the $40 million line of credit get paid back in record time.
the innovations that her team is making both on an operational level and through advanced analytics.
how Drexel’s endowment considers ESG and why Catherine believes the “G” tends to drive a lot of progress across the environment and social aspects of this acronym.
positive aspects in real asset investing and the appeal of emerging markets for future asset allocation.
how was Drexel able to overcome the deployment challenges of assets in private markets and what are the red flags that her endowment team uncovers when considering investment opportunities.
and more

Resources:

Quit by: Annie Duke
To Rescue the Republic by Bret Baier & Catherine Whitney
St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital
Aetna

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

Connect with Catherine Ulozas:

About Catherine Ulozas:

With over 30 years of investment experience, Catherine Ulozas is a senior executive who has managed pools of capital for endowments, insurance companies, the largest US thrift, and a state pension fund. Catherine is the Chief Investment Officer at Drexel University and has continued to improve the Drexel Endowment’s quality and returns, scoring in the top 10% in the Wilshire Consulting Foundations and Endowment Universe for the last 5 years.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: TC Wilson on Advancing the Practice of Good Medicine through Better Asset Allocation Strategies

By Improving Alpha | July 30, 2024

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Today there’s tremendous focus around the practice of good medicine, the advancement of healthcare innovations, and positive patient outcomes. One company that embodies these characteristics and provides services to the healthcare industry is The Doctor’s Company. The Doctors Company began in 1976 during a crisis period in medical malpractice claims that were skyrocketing. Formed out of historic legislation for the time, and starting with only 450 members this organization has grown to over 90,000 members.

As the nation’s largest physician-owned medical malpractice insurance company it takes a steady hand and solid grasp of the balancing that needs to occur in both the underwriting and asset allocation areas of the business.

Join Michael Oliver Weinberg, host, Improving Alpha Podcast, as he sits down with TC Wilson, Chief Investment Officer, The Doctors Company. Learn more about TC’s journey and the balancing of investments and underwriting to help generate alpha.

TC highlights the following:

the generation of alpha opportunities across US investment grade and non-traditional investments and how they differ from an endowment or foundation.
how he’s looking at private credit and private equity and where the innovation and creativity lie today.
how The Doctors Company integrates ESG considerations and supports California’s climate and carbon initiatives in asset allocation strategies, governance, monitoring, and due diligence.
what does the organization known as California Organized Investment Network, (COIN) do for environmental benefits in California?
how does the challenging regulatory environment impact TC’s diversification strategies in managing his shop? Does he believe that they might be getting penalized prematurely for other players’ bad market moves?
steps for identifying red flags in investment strategies and culture.
And more

Resources:

The Doctors Company
California Organized Investment Network (COIN)
Body by Science by: John R. Little & Doug McGuff

Connect with TC Wilson:

LinkedIn: TC Wilson

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Chief Investment Officer and Senior Vice President TC Wilson joined The Doctors Company as its first Chief Investment Officer in 2017. Mr. Wilson is responsible for the development, management, and oversight of the company’s strategic investment program. He also ensures that overall investment and growth objectives are met in support of the company’s underwriting profile and operating results. He contributes to The Doctors Company’s strategic growth plan as it relates to investment review and assessment of new partnerships and opportunities. On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Wilson oversees the company’s investment portfolio with the goal of preserving and growing surplus. He also serves as Chairman of The Doctors Company’s 401(k) Committee. Prior to joining The Doctors Company, Mr. Wilson served as Head of Institutional Consulting for The Optimal Service Group (OSG), an investment consultant that specializes in investment advice to the medical malpractice industry. At OSG, he was the lead investment consultant to The Doctors Company from 2000 through 2017. Mr. Wilson has nearly 30 years of investment and consulting experience, including his initial five-year stint with one of the nation’s leading benefits consulting firms in Richmond, Virginia.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Chris Wiggins Exploring and Exploiting the Value of Artificial Intelligence

By Improving Alpha | July 8, 2024

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Allocators face a barrage of ideas and debates around the use of artificial intelligence and large language models, better known as LLMs. How can huge amounts of investor data be transformed and enriched to solve challenges in asset allocations and improve an investment team’s strategy? Better yet, have we accumulated enough ‘scar tissue’ in artificial intelligence to understand what AI gets wrong and is easily corrected, versus what is instantaneously correct and becomes actionable intelligence?

In our latest episode of the Improving Alpha podcast, host Michael Oliver Weinberg sits down with Chris H. Wiggins, Chief Data Scientist, The New York Times and Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, to dive deeper into the fundamentals of data science, dashboarding, and KPIs.

Further highlights from Michael’s discussion with Chris include:

in a crowded field of AI adopters, where does the advantage lie today? With the new disruptors in a given industry or the incumbents?
what are the forces behind data science and how does the framework of descriptive data sets, predictive models, and prescriptive solutions help inform those wishing to leverage AI or LLMs?
when adding a data scientist to an investment team, what should the hiring organization be on the lookout for, before extending an offer?
the ‘shocking’ acceptance of the AI problem.
AI’s impact on the labor force in the next few years.
from an investment play is it better to buy into the AI craze and the deep learning networks, or is the real ‘gold rush’ centered around the requirements necessary to expand artificial intelligence usage via data centers, people who train the models, and the data contained in these models?
Listen now to find out more.

Resources:

The Silo Effect by: Gillian Tett
Algorithms to Live By by: Brian Christian and Tom Griffiths
How Data Happened by: Chris Wiggins and Matthew L. Jones
Data Science in Context by: Alfred Z. Spector, Peter Norvig, Chris Wiggins, and Jeannette M. Wing

Connect with Chris Wiggins:

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

About Our Guest:

Chris Wiggins is an associate professor of applied mathematics at Columbia University and the Chief Data Scientist at the New York Times. At Columbia he is a founding member of the Department of Systems Biology, the executive committee of the Data Science Institute (http://datascience.columbia.edu/), and the Institute’s education and entrepreneurship committees. He is also an affiliate of Columbia’s Department of Statistics and a founding member of Columbia’s Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics (C2B2). He is a co-founder and co-organizer of hackNY (http://hackNY.org), a nonprofit that since 2010 has organized once-a-semester student hackathons and the hackNY Fellows Program, a structured summer internship at NYC startups. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia he was a Courant Instructor at NYU (1998-2001) and earned his PhD at Princeton University (1993-1998) in theoretical physics. In 2014 he was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society and is a recipient of Columbia’s Avanessians Diversity Award.

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.

Improving Alpha: Olivier Toubia and the Dark Side of Artificial Intelligence

By Improving Alpha | June 24, 2024

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In an age of artificial intelligence, (AI) many allocators are realizing that humans alone, or software alone, can’t match or exceed the gains that occur when software and human expertise combine. Layer that into the ability of generative AI to do something better, faster, and more cheaply, and investors can begin to see a game-changing impact on business operations.

Join Michael Oliver Weinberg, host of the Improving Alpha: Innovation in Investing ESG, and Technology podcast and Olivier Toubia, Glaubinger Professor of Business Marketing Division, Columbia Business School, for a deep dive into how modern advancements, particularly generative AI, are reshaping the landscape of allocation strategies and more. Olivier shares his journey from early beginnings in math and engineering to the evolution of data science and how new analytical techniques (machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models), can be leveraged to better understand humans and optimize business operations.

Further highlights that Olivier shares:

the +20 years of thought leadership and insight around innovation that went into his Columbia Business School course, Foundations of Innovation.
what are some of the granular applications for artificial intelligence as it relates to Wall Street and other allocators.
the training of artificial intelligence models and the output guardrails that get included in human stereotypes.
can we remove human biases from training data when humans are tagging or labeling data that may be aligned to political affiliations, education, personal experiences, or more?
emerging research of brainstorming with generative artificial intelligence and what is happening with screening or rating of the ideas that are pulled through brainstorming.
And more

Resources:

Connect with Olivier Toubia:

Olivier Toubia is the Glaubinger Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research focuses on various aspects of innovation, including preference measurement and idea generation. Specifically, he combines methods from social sciences and data science, to study human processes such as motivation, choice, and creativity. He currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief at the journal Marketing Science. He teaches a course on Foundations of Innovation and the core marketing course. He received his MS in Operations Research and PhD in Marketing from MIT.

Connect with Michael Oliver Weinberg:

The release date may not correspond to the recording date.