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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
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Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. We've got a great guest with us to kick off the four o'clock hour.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we do.
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Speaker 3: Let's get into it. We've got Marcus Shaw joining us now president and CEO at All Finance.
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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us, Marcus.
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Speaker 4: Thanks so much, Molly.
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Speaker 1: So I'm going to.
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Speaker 3: Talk you up a little bit here, because you know that's what we do with all of our guests. We've got to hype them, especially if you're here with us in the studio. So, so you at All Finance are helping students at HBCUs explore a future in finance. All Finance is a ninety million dollar, ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people of color in private equity. Tim, you want to tell us more about why Marcus was here last week.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I want to talk a little bit about the structure of All Finance, and we've got a lot of time with you, so we're going to really get into the weeds here. Marcus got some huge backers Apollo Aris oak Tree talk a little bit about the structure of the organization of the company.
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Speaker 4: Tim, thanks so much so.
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Speaker 5: All Finance is a nonprofit that was seeded by Ares, oak Tree and Apollo really to address what we believe are unfortunate underrepresentation in the alternative investment industry. That's private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, all of your non traditional investment asset classes. And so those three companies decided that in the wake of George Floyd and a lot of the racial conversations that were happening back in twenty twenty one, that they wanted to actually commit to solving the problem by developing a broader pool of talent from historically black colleges and universities.
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Speaker 2: So I'm so glad you brought up the history here because we spent a lot of time on our program and here at Bloomberg News as well, going through the promises that companies made in the wake of the twenty twenty protests after the murder of George Floyd, and also the pushback, especially in recent months to these DEI efforts as well, which have been well documented according to changes in company filings as well. I'm wondering if you're still seeing the same support from these companies that you were seeing four years ago.
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Speaker 5: So absolutely we're continuing to see that support, not only in terms of dollars, but in support in terms of commitment from the professionals that work there. And from my perspective, this is really about talent, no matter what business you're in, whether you're in the news business, you're in tennis, you're an athlete, no matter what you are, what you want to see is the.
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Speaker 4: Best talent, totally right. And tennis is actually.
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Speaker 5: A perfect example where over time we've seen diversification in that sport bring about better play on the side, in.
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Speaker 3: The women's side, right on the semi.
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Speaker 5: Finals exactly when I was young, you know, it was your American players were probably your better players. And then you started to see your European players start to become better players. You started to see South American players become better players. I mean, women's tennis has been flips men's cennis for probably the last twenty years in a way that you haven't seen. So gender equity has created more value in the sport than you ever saw before. And you know, of course a history of incredible Black and Latino and Asian players that have really eclipsed the sport.
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Speaker 4: And broad value.
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Speaker 5: And so if we can do that in sports, which is the ultimate meritocracy, why shouldn't we do it in other arenas.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. No, that's a great point, and I want to wade into so much more of this tennis discussion, but I also don't want to risk directic here because I so easily could. So I will, you know, apply some self restraint. Bring it back here.
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Speaker 1: Marcus.
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Speaker 3: You were in New York City last week for a workshop with the more than one hundred fellows as All Finance is about to announce your fourth core cohort. Sorry marks year four of the initial ten year commitment by Apollo Aris and O Tree. As Tim mentioned, tell us about this trip in the city this week and what's up been going on.
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Speaker 5: So this week, the week coming up, we'll have over one hundred of our fellows beginning their internship. We graduated thirty seven, many of whom are headed into the world of alternatives or investment banking as a pipeline. Others that are headed into blue chip consulting firms that feed information and work with firms in the alternative investment industry. So we continue to find incredible success with graduating students into the industry with a higher level of investment acumen, a higher level of financial services acumen and context for how this industry fits into.
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Speaker 3: The world, and do they stay in the industry. Do you have like you know some can you share with us, like how their careers progress and you know what's like the I guess attrition, so speak Yeah, so you.
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Speaker 5: Know, we have early signals. We graduated our first class last year. We had fourteen seniors that graduated. All of those seniors are still working in and around the industry. They're finding early success.
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Speaker 4: At their firms.
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Speaker 5: I think one thing that we all know is the first year of being an analyst in financial services is very, very tough.
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Speaker 4: You know.
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Speaker 5: I think it's equivalent to being a resident in medical school or maybe you know your first week at boot camp in the Armed forces.
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Speaker 4: It's tough whether no matter what your background is.
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Speaker 5: So I think what we're seeing is success because students feel more comfortable, they've built relationships, they have understanding of what the workplace looks like, and so we've been able to galvanize some of the risk that students normally would experience by building this incredible network around them.
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Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of backgrounds, a little more about you. You spent twenty years in nonprofit. In finance, you were at Height Analytics, Piedmont Investor Advisors, Bank of America Securities. I want to know why alternatives, of all parts of the finance ecosystem, all parts of Wall Street, why is private equity and alternative investments the place you wanted to focus on for all finance.
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Speaker 5: It's a great question, and I think, as with other things, the evolution of an industry breeds interests and breeds innovation. When I came out of business school, sales and trading cash sales and trading inequities.
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Speaker 4: Was in incredibly important.
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Speaker 5: I mean, you saw people want coming out of business school that wanted to be a trader on a cash equities desk. You saw people that were traditional fixed income roles. You fast forward twenty or twenty five years to where we are now. The most interesting, the most erudite people on Earth are working in alternatives. They're working in private equity, They're working in private credit. Private credit is an industry subsector of alternatives that we've seen incredible growth in just three years from the beginning of this organization to where we are now we have students that are going into private equity direct and landing private market deals in the credit space that didn't know about it when they started college.
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Speaker 3: You're really timed it perfectly with that.
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Speaker 4: Well, you know, timing is everything, right, Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I mean no, you totally nailed it exactly with you know, private credit. How that is like really just blown up onto the scene in recent years. You know, talk about as well, how much this even just affects you know more like not in the alternative space, but just you know, regular Wall Street banks and like what if anything, if you have a relationship with increasing diversity at mainstream, more mainstream financial firms.
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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's all part of the ecosystem. And traditionally in alternatives, folks would go through analyst programs at a traditional bult racket bank, they go through associate recruiting, and they would then find their way into a private equity firm or a private creditut real estate or infrastructure. What we're seeing now, and some of this is just a supply and demand dynamic. Some of this is the growth of the industry that many alternative investment firms are starting their own analyst programs because they need talent earlier or again, this is not strictly about diversity.
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Speaker 4: This is about talent.
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Speaker 5: It's you know, I use the analogy of sports a lot, because they're wins and losses. In sports, it's ones and zero. It's fairly binary. If we look at success in the business world the same way, we'll recognize that bring talent from all corners of the earth, from all experiences will increase our outcomes. And so for banks, I think they started to see this early on, but as their clients right, some of these alternative investment shops are doubling.
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Speaker 4: Down on that. I think banks are encouraged to do the same.
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Speaker 2: Absolutely, Marcus, stick with us. We're going to do some news and then we're gonna come back with Marcus Shop president and CEO over at Alt Finances here in the studio talking all about the ninety million dollar ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people of color when it comes to private equity. Let's get right back to Marcus Shop president and CEO over at All Finance. They've got a ninety million dollar ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people from people of color in a private equity Marcus. I want to talk about your background and then how it plays into what you're doing at ALT Finance. We were just talking. You have a dual degree from Georgia Tech, but also an HBCU Morehouse, Yes, in electrical engineering and mathematics. Mathematics, and then you went off and got an MBA over at Duke Yep. Talk a little bit about HBCUs and why you're focused on HBCUs as the pipeline for all finance.
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Speaker 5: So HBCUs are an important part of the fabric of this country. They have produced leaders in this country for the past one hundred and fifty years, and I mean the and when you're talking about diversity and bringing talent, about defining a strategy specifically around HBCUs is critical to success. In fact, HBCUs it's a federal designation under the Civil Rights Act, right, So this is about identifying students at schools that have historically produced leaders and bringing them into the economy. One of the things that I experienced in Morehouse, and you know, my time there was something that I look upon as the finest years of my life, is that really you go to that school to be bred as a leader. That's the focus. If you want to be a great warfighter, you go to the Service Academy. You want to be a great physician, you go to John Hopkins. You want to be a great tech leader, you go to Stanford or you know wherever. But if you really want to learn how to lead, Morehouse was a great school for me, and so I look at that school and my time there as really development in leadership, and not just leadership of people that look like me, but leadership of all people because it creates an opportunity for you.
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Speaker 2: Did you feel like when you were getting your MBA and you were around a bunch of people who were basically in school to become leaders, you were a step ahead of them.
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Speaker 4: Yeah.
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Speaker 5: I mean I think for me it was because of the experiences, the lived experiences that I had. More House was part of that. But the human element, right, My background traditionally was engineering as an engineer, and went to business school and fell into finance and financial assets. For what we covered for a long time is what you guys talk about in earnings. But the more complicated and honestly the more important asset is humans.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 5: Why do humans do what they do? How do they make decisions? How do they think about risk and ultimately everything else is a derivative of that. So being able to bring that experience to dupe to the future School of Business, having some of that developed at Morehouse, having some of that developed my parents. My father was a military officer, my mother was a school teacher. It's basically eighteen years of a lesson in how to deal with people. I went to a Quaker school, how to deal with people peacefully?
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Speaker 4: Right, It really.
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Speaker 5: Creates a pathway for you to think about how to solve big problems, like what we're doing at All Finance.
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Speaker 3: So tell us then, if you're right now a student at an HBCU, how do you get involved with All Finance, Like where is the connection?
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Speaker 5: You know?
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Speaker 3: At what level of your studies and is this going to help you also get an internship before a job? Like how does the process work?
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Speaker 4: Yeah? So All Finance Number one.
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Speaker 5: I would point everybody to our website Allfinance dot com. That'salt FI n A n CE dot com.
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Speaker 4: There you can learn more about our program.
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Speaker 5: So we have two programs that we run and really put our focus on today. One is our Fellowship, which is a multi year program focused on students at eight of our partner HBUs, Clark Atlanta University, Moorhouse College, Spelman College, Howard University, North Carolina, and t FAM you Hampton University, and Morgan State.
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Speaker 3: So that was eight accounted eighth, Yeah, got them.
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Speaker 5: So we have eight schools that we work with directly. Our program has quickly become one of the standout co curricular programs at those schools, and so students apply to that. We just went for our fourth round or our fourth cohort, and we have fifty seven incredible students from all eight of those schools that are joining our platform. But if you're at one of the other one hundred or ninety four, HBC use that exists, or they're one hundred and fourds, so ninety six I'm sorry, HBC use that exists. We have a platform called the All Finance Institute, which we partnered with the Warden School of Business at University of Pennsylvania to develop a co curricular digital platform that give students access to both non academic and academic content supporting their development in finance, investments and alternate investments.
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Speaker 2: We should note that just last month, the first cohort of the program have started their full time positions, Yeah, Apollo, Aris, Carlisle, Lizard, Oak Tree, PCG, Deloit, Goldman, Wells Fargo, among others. It's only been a few weeks. Yeah, but what's the feedback? What are you hearing?
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Speaker 5: So, I think the thing that's most important and that makes me feel the greatest sense of purpose in what we've done, is that students feel prepared that when they are going through their training platforms, when they're getting on the desk, that they don't feel like they're stepping into an environment with which they're unfamiliar. Now, you know, that's a privilege that many of us don't have, right no matter what your background is. But for students that are incredibly gifted, that are coming from backgrounds are incredibly prepared, being able to step into an environment and feel a greater sense of belonging that you can be successful there, minimizes risk, maximizes the risk adjusted return and ultimately will lead to success.
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Speaker 3: And these are students that are in full time positions and internships both all.
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Speaker 4: Of the above, all of the above.
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Speaker 2: Are you getting gender diversity because there's a challenge on Wall Street. Yes, when it comes to the balance of men and women. And I'm wondering if you see that in private equity as well outside of your program.
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Speaker 4: So that does exist outside of our program.
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Speaker 5: They're fantastic organizations like Girls who Invest incredible shout outs to the work that they're doing. We actually have a few Girls who Invest fellows also in our program, so there doesn't need to be competition amongst groups that are trying to increase the talent pool.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 3: Intersectionality, as we say, the intersectionality, Mali, great word, thank you.
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Speaker 4: The intersectionality is really where.
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Speaker 5: The recipe for success can be multiplied, right in terms of what all finance is doing. And this is a byproduct of working with HBCUs where there is an over representation of women and on HBCU campuses. Black women are one of the highest and fastest educated group of people in the United States, and so the fact that they show up on HVCU campuses is really a win win. Forty five percent of the women in our program, or forty five percent of the fellows in our program are women, which I would put that number up against any financial services firm.
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Speaker 3: I wouldn't think it's anywhere near fifty to fifty.
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Speaker 5: Right, And so by working with an organization like all finance, not only are you getting incredible diverse talent, but you're also making sure that you're getting well trained women.
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Speaker 3: Totally. Yeah, I mean what are I mean, what do you hear specifically from the women then as far as their feedback and coming into some of these workplace settings.
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Speaker 4: It's a challenge, right.
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Speaker 5: I think that you know, number one, being a minority, but also being a gender minority or being a woman not a gender minority in the grands game, because I think there's there's there is are challenges, and a lot of those challenges are culture driven, right, and the firms aren't a monolith. Some firms have really strong inclusive cultures. I like to think that our partners areas Oasture and Apollo have incredibly inclusive cultures and have done very very well and continue to do well in welcoming women into the workplace. But the industry in and of itself has had challenges.
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Speaker 2: Why do you think that you've been so successful when it comes to the gender balance with the fellows compared to the recruiting at some of these firms.
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Speaker 5: We're very intentional about it. I mean, if something, if there is a pool and I see that we don't have what I believe is a representative number of women in the pool. We put more effort into recruiting really great women into our program.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 5: Then once you're in the program, we put a lot of effort into making sure that everybody has the shared time to grow and develop. Right, that we don't let time. We try not to let people dominate time.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 5: We try not to let the natural inertia of a male dominated industry culture its way into our program.
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Speaker 4: Right.
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Speaker 5: We believe that our program is a position of growth for men and for women, for sophomores, for juniors and seniors, and that in order for us to maximize the total output of what we're trying to do, we have to make sure that we allow maximum opportunity for everybody that's involved.
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Speaker 3: Last thirty here for you, Marcus. So this marks year four of the initial ten year commitment by those three founding firms. What are we looking at for the next ten years they sign up for more.
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Speaker 5: Look, I think they appreciate what we're doing, but the reality is the burden of what we're doing should not follow on three firms. There are thousands of firms that are doing this across the globe. We'd love to have global reach, but they're firms right here in New York City, right around this office that would benefit from a partnership with All Finance.
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Speaker 2: And you'd accept that partnership right away. Very import Are you getting incoming?
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Speaker 4: We are getting incoming.
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Speaker 5: The proof is in the putting, as one of our HBCU presidents said, and I thought I might get that tattooed on me, but he said, you've proven the concept, right, We've proven the thesis. We get a significant amount of inbound calls with people interested about how to you know.
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Speaker 4: Work with our fellows.
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Speaker 5: But I think the reality is the returnal and investment is happening for the firms that made the commitment.
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Speaker 4: We cannot do.
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Speaker 5: This for free, and so we want other firms to make a commitment as well.
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Speaker 2: And I imagine next time you're with us, we might have some more firms who have signed on. Well, if you're a regular viewer or a listener of our program, you know that we love checking in with mayors around the country because they've got a front row seat to what's happening in this economy.
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Speaker 3: That's right, And one of those mayors who's a go to for us none other than Maddie Parker of Fort Worth, Texas. Maddie joining us now on Zoom. Hey Maddie, how's it going today?
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Speaker 1: Good? How are you guys? Thanks for having me on again.
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Speaker 3: We're so happy to have you back, you know, I am. We've we've talked a bit about Texas in the program already today and excited to have you to talk a little bit more about it. To close us out here that you've called fort Worth one of the utest growing cities in the country. Why is it from going down to Fort Worth? Tell us about all the great things that are happening down there.
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Speaker 6: Oh, there's too much to talk about on a short program, But I think it's honestly just quality of life. I'm sure as you study markets across the country, it's the same thing.
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Speaker 1: In business.
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Speaker 6: People are following companies they really subscribe and believe in their future. And I think that's the same thing for our community here in Fort Worth. I joke a lot that people vote with their feet when they want to live and move somewhere differently, and especially post pandemic, people really rethought what it looked like to live in their cities and large metropolitan areas of the United States definitely have seen a benefit. None bigger than North Texas seem to be the third largest metro area and Fort Worth is the fastest growing large city in the country. And there's a lot of great things happening here to talk about, Maddie.
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Speaker 2: I got to ask if I find myself once again in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, as I do many times, Yes, am I going to hear your voice on the loud speaker again?
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Speaker 1: Absolutely? You know I kind of joke, Tim.
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Speaker 6: I've told Mary Johnson this in Dallas, as you know, we co the airport that we probably need to re record on days when there's bad weather or you're step there, because I can imagine if you are in the airport for a length of time and you hear us on repeat, we're not helping ourselves.
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Speaker 2: Well, I will say my experience is there thus far have been good.
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Speaker 6: Hey.
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Speaker 2: One thing I did want to talk to you about, and you know I was going to go here is politics, because I ask you about it each and every time you're on our program. On the national level, I think it's fair to say a lot of folks would say that the political climate nationally is just absolutely toxic right now? What is the challenge that that makes it for you to actually get things done if you do have an R or a D next to your name as a mayor?
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Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I think, first of all, and for Worth, we're incredibly lucky you do not run for mayor as a Republican or a Democrat.
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Speaker 1: You don't identify party when running.
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Speaker 6: People certainly know that I'm a Republican, but you don't carry that as the leading force in your decision making, and frankly, you wouldn't be an effective mayor if that was the case. You have to consensus build and bring people together every single case. It's everything single Tuesday to get to yes on any particular issue you use the right word. It is really toxic at federal and state level. And I'm really thankful right now this is where my public service has me and getting to really work with my colleagues on council, really across the entire community.
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Speaker 1: Where this ends, I don't know.
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Speaker 6: I feel strongly personally that the polarization of our country is damaging, not just for our politics, but how we move forward as a community here in Fort Worth, as Texas, as a successful state, we are now eighth largest economy in the entire world, and then what's happening nationally, But we are only hindered by the toxic fighting you find. And lastly, I would just say that when I talk to business leaders about this, this is not how you conduct business.
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Speaker 1: This is not how a boardroom runs.
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Speaker 6: You have to reach across the aisle, and I still remain hopeful we can get there, but this last round of primaries in Texas definitely didn't lend any hope.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point.
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Speaker 3: I wanted to talk to you a bit more about the economy there that you mentioned, Maddie, because it is obviously such a huge topic going into the election this year. What is the sense that you get from your constituents as well as business leaders in the community about how the local economy is varing?
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Speaker 6: The number one thing people talk about, and when you look at even small local polls is what the economy and the cost of inflation going to the grocery store, housing affordability, gas prices, the wage compression people are experiencing is not kept up with the level of the economy growth, And so what does that mean locally? It just means people talk about it a lot more, and they're really voting with their pocketbook first and foremost. I think this election nationally will really come down to the economy at the end of the day unless something else drastic changes. I know that our geopolitical situation, obviously the war in Gaza is not helping people and losing sleep at night. But I think at the end of the day here in Fort Worth, people are talking about the economy and it is hard because unfortunately a lot of people in elected office, they lose touch with reality.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: And I will say.
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Speaker 6: Fortunately for me, you know, I'm a four year old mother of three children, and my reality is the same as probably your reality in terms of just trying to balance family life and work life. And I know what the grocery bill looks like, just like the mom and dad down the street from me. And so I really do attempt to bring that reality and understand when we're forming our own city budget, to meet people where they are and understand that their their budgets are stretched, and we need to kind of act the same way as well here in the city of Fort Worth.
00:23:29
Speaker 3: It's really the same story. It's playing out across all of America right now. But you know something unique that you have at least is that you know, to talk about this magnet production, how you're trying to bring that back home, and how this is so critical to EV's electric vehicles. That is tell us about how that's you know, so critical to the Fort Worth economy.
00:23:51
Speaker 1: Well, this is a.
00:23:52
Speaker 6: Huge partnership with between MP Materials. I believe I talked about their innovation and company on the last time I was on the on the show with you guys, and of course Hillwood and Rosscrow Junior and his company seeking out in P Materials to be here in the city of Fort Worth and manufacture their batteries here, memory magnets here in the city, which is incredibly exciting. You may or may not be aware that IMP Materials received a Department of Energy award almost sixty million dollars to help towards their construction of America's first fully integrated.
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Speaker 1: Magnet manufacturing facility here in the city of Fort Worth.
00:24:25
Speaker 6: So to be first is very exciting because this is the forefront of what our economy is going to take moving forward, as we understand, to try to on shore a lot of this manufacturing need, we have to start with the basics and right now it is these batteries and how they're manufactured in other countries across the globe. And I'm incredibly proud of the City of for Worth leading the way and really leaning into the private sector innovation that MP Materials is brought to the City of Fort Worth. But we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for our development partner in Hillwood leading the way, and what they've accomplished here is quite magnificent.
00:24:57
Speaker 2: A Mayor Parker, of the criticisms that folks in Washington get is that they don't represent demographically the age and gender of their constituents. So I got to ask you, as one of the youngest female mayors in the country, about your future political ambitions. What's next for you?
00:25:18
Speaker 1: I just try to survive. My kids just got out for summer, so right now.
00:25:21
Speaker 6: It's the logistics of trying to get them to and from camp and all the things that go with that. Right, I try to live life in the moment. I'll be honest and try it to give you a cliche answer, I truly don't know.
00:25:30
Speaker 2: But would you would you consider going into state politics? Would you consider going into national politics?
00:25:37
Speaker 6: I think our political system would have to look different For me, I don't really have an interest in trying to run in our primary, and I've been pretty honest about this. Is no disrespect to friends and colleagues that choose to do that, but the things that you have to do and say in that primary process, I just don't identify with Right now, Mayor parktter comes from a mayor.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: Mayor Parker, we have to wrap it up. We love it when you join us. Thanks so much for joining us on also for your candor. Certainly appreciate that Maddie Parker, mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, joining us from none other than Fort Worth on this Wednesday afternoon. It's Bloomberg Business Week. That's Molly Smith. I'm Tim Stenebeck.
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
00:00:07
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebek on Bloomberg Radio. We've got a great guest with us to kick off the four o'clock hour.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, we do.
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Speaker 3: Let's get into it. We've got Marcus Shaw joining us now president and CEO at All Finance.
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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us, Marcus.
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Speaker 4: Thanks so much, Molly.
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Speaker 1: So I'm going to.
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Speaker 3: Talk you up a little bit here, because you know that's what we do with all of our guests. We've got to hype them, especially if you're here with us in the studio. So, so you at All Finance are helping students at HBCUs explore a future in finance. All Finance is a ninety million dollar, ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people of color in private equity. Tim, you want to tell us more about why Marcus was here last week.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, So, I want to talk a little bit about the structure of All Finance, and we've got a lot of time with you, so we're going to really get into the weeds here. Marcus got some huge backers Apollo Aris oak Tree talk a little bit about the structure of the organization of the company.
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Speaker 4: Tim, thanks so much so.
00:01:09
Speaker 5: All Finance is a nonprofit that was seeded by Ares, oak Tree and Apollo really to address what we believe are unfortunate underrepresentation in the alternative investment industry. That's private equity, private credit, real estate, infrastructure, all of your non traditional investment asset classes. And so those three companies decided that in the wake of George Floyd and a lot of the racial conversations that were happening back in twenty twenty one, that they wanted to actually commit to solving the problem by developing a broader pool of talent from historically black colleges and universities.
00:01:45
Speaker 2: So I'm so glad you brought up the history here because we spent a lot of time on our program and here at Bloomberg News as well, going through the promises that companies made in the wake of the twenty twenty protests after the murder of George Floyd, and also the pushback, especially in recent months to these DEI efforts as well, which have been well documented according to changes in company filings as well. I'm wondering if you're still seeing the same support from these companies that you were seeing four years ago.
00:02:15
Speaker 5: So absolutely we're continuing to see that support, not only in terms of dollars, but in support in terms of commitment from the professionals that work there. And from my perspective, this is really about talent, no matter what business you're in, whether you're in the news business, you're in tennis, you're an athlete, no matter what you are, what you want to see is the.
00:02:33
Speaker 4: Best talent, totally right. And tennis is actually.
00:02:35
Speaker 5: A perfect example where over time we've seen diversification in that sport bring about better play on the side, in.
00:02:42
Speaker 3: The women's side, right on the semi.
00:02:45
Speaker 5: Finals exactly when I was young, you know, it was your American players were probably your better players. And then you started to see your European players start to become better players. You started to see South American players become better players. I mean, women's tennis has been flips men's cennis for probably the last twenty years in a way that you haven't seen. So gender equity has created more value in the sport than you ever saw before. And you know, of course a history of incredible Black and Latino and Asian players that have really eclipsed the sport.
00:03:15
Speaker 4: And broad value.
00:03:16
Speaker 5: And so if we can do that in sports, which is the ultimate meritocracy, why shouldn't we do it in other arenas.
00:03:22
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, that's a great point, and I want to wade into so much more of this tennis discussion, but I also don't want to risk directic here because I so easily could. So I will, you know, apply some self restraint. Bring it back here.
00:03:36
Speaker 1: Marcus.
00:03:37
Speaker 3: You were in New York City last week for a workshop with the more than one hundred fellows as All Finance is about to announce your fourth core cohort. Sorry marks year four of the initial ten year commitment by Apollo Aris and O Tree. As Tim mentioned, tell us about this trip in the city this week and what's up been going on.
00:03:54
Speaker 5: So this week, the week coming up, we'll have over one hundred of our fellows beginning their internship. We graduated thirty seven, many of whom are headed into the world of alternatives or investment banking as a pipeline. Others that are headed into blue chip consulting firms that feed information and work with firms in the alternative investment industry. So we continue to find incredible success with graduating students into the industry with a higher level of investment acumen, a higher level of financial services acumen and context for how this industry fits into.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: The world, and do they stay in the industry. Do you have like you know some can you share with us, like how their careers progress and you know what's like the I guess attrition, so speak Yeah, so you.
00:04:38
Speaker 5: Know, we have early signals. We graduated our first class last year. We had fourteen seniors that graduated. All of those seniors are still working in and around the industry. They're finding early success.
00:04:49
Speaker 4: At their firms.
00:04:50
Speaker 5: I think one thing that we all know is the first year of being an analyst in financial services is very, very tough.
00:04:57
Speaker 4: You know.
00:04:57
Speaker 5: I think it's equivalent to being a resident in medical school or maybe you know your first week at boot camp in the Armed forces.
00:05:04
Speaker 4: It's tough whether no matter what your background is.
00:05:07
Speaker 5: So I think what we're seeing is success because students feel more comfortable, they've built relationships, they have understanding of what the workplace looks like, and so we've been able to galvanize some of the risk that students normally would experience by building this incredible network around them.
00:05:23
Speaker 2: Okay, speaking of backgrounds, a little more about you. You spent twenty years in nonprofit. In finance, you were at Height Analytics, Piedmont Investor Advisors, Bank of America Securities. I want to know why alternatives, of all parts of the finance ecosystem, all parts of Wall Street, why is private equity and alternative investments the place you wanted to focus on for all finance.
00:05:46
Speaker 5: It's a great question, and I think, as with other things, the evolution of an industry breeds interests and breeds innovation. When I came out of business school, sales and trading cash sales and trading inequities.
00:05:59
Speaker 4: Was in incredibly important.
00:06:00
Speaker 5: I mean, you saw people want coming out of business school that wanted to be a trader on a cash equities desk. You saw people that were traditional fixed income roles. You fast forward twenty or twenty five years to where we are now. The most interesting, the most erudite people on Earth are working in alternatives. They're working in private equity, They're working in private credit. Private credit is an industry subsector of alternatives that we've seen incredible growth in just three years from the beginning of this organization to where we are now we have students that are going into private equity direct and landing private market deals in the credit space that didn't know about it when they started college.
00:06:38
Speaker 3: You're really timed it perfectly with that.
00:06:40
Speaker 4: Well, you know, timing is everything, right, Yeah.
00:06:44
Speaker 3: I mean no, you totally nailed it exactly with you know, private credit. How that is like really just blown up onto the scene in recent years. You know, talk about as well, how much this even just affects you know more like not in the alternative space, but just you know, regular Wall Street banks and like what if anything, if you have a relationship with increasing diversity at mainstream, more mainstream financial firms.
00:07:06
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's all part of the ecosystem. And traditionally in alternatives, folks would go through analyst programs at a traditional bult racket bank, they go through associate recruiting, and they would then find their way into a private equity firm or a private creditut real estate or infrastructure. What we're seeing now, and some of this is just a supply and demand dynamic. Some of this is the growth of the industry that many alternative investment firms are starting their own analyst programs because they need talent earlier or again, this is not strictly about diversity.
00:07:38
Speaker 4: This is about talent.
00:07:40
Speaker 5: It's you know, I use the analogy of sports a lot, because they're wins and losses. In sports, it's ones and zero. It's fairly binary. If we look at success in the business world the same way, we'll recognize that bring talent from all corners of the earth, from all experiences will increase our outcomes. And so for banks, I think they started to see this early on, but as their clients right, some of these alternative investment shops are doubling.
00:08:06
Speaker 4: Down on that. I think banks are encouraged to do the same.
00:08:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Marcus, stick with us. We're going to do some news and then we're gonna come back with Marcus Shop president and CEO over at Alt Finances here in the studio talking all about the ninety million dollar ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people of color when it comes to private equity. Let's get right back to Marcus Shop president and CEO over at All Finance. They've got a ninety million dollar ten year effort to reduce the underrepresentation of people from people of color in a private equity Marcus. I want to talk about your background and then how it plays into what you're doing at ALT Finance. We were just talking. You have a dual degree from Georgia Tech, but also an HBCU Morehouse, Yes, in electrical engineering and mathematics. Mathematics, and then you went off and got an MBA over at Duke Yep. Talk a little bit about HBCUs and why you're focused on HBCUs as the pipeline for all finance.
00:09:06
Speaker 5: So HBCUs are an important part of the fabric of this country. They have produced leaders in this country for the past one hundred and fifty years, and I mean the and when you're talking about diversity and bringing talent, about defining a strategy specifically around HBCUs is critical to success. In fact, HBCUs it's a federal designation under the Civil Rights Act, right, So this is about identifying students at schools that have historically produced leaders and bringing them into the economy. One of the things that I experienced in Morehouse, and you know, my time there was something that I look upon as the finest years of my life, is that really you go to that school to be bred as a leader. That's the focus. If you want to be a great warfighter, you go to the Service Academy. You want to be a great physician, you go to John Hopkins. You want to be a great tech leader, you go to Stanford or you know wherever. But if you really want to learn how to lead, Morehouse was a great school for me, and so I look at that school and my time there as really development in leadership, and not just leadership of people that look like me, but leadership of all people because it creates an opportunity for you.
00:10:18
Speaker 2: Did you feel like when you were getting your MBA and you were around a bunch of people who were basically in school to become leaders, you were a step ahead of them.
00:10:24
Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:10:25
Speaker 5: I mean I think for me it was because of the experiences, the lived experiences that I had. More House was part of that. But the human element, right, My background traditionally was engineering as an engineer, and went to business school and fell into finance and financial assets. For what we covered for a long time is what you guys talk about in earnings. But the more complicated and honestly the more important asset is humans.
00:10:49
Speaker 4: Right.
00:10:49
Speaker 5: Why do humans do what they do? How do they make decisions? How do they think about risk and ultimately everything else is a derivative of that. So being able to bring that experience to dupe to the future School of Business, having some of that developed at Morehouse, having some of that developed my parents. My father was a military officer, my mother was a school teacher. It's basically eighteen years of a lesson in how to deal with people. I went to a Quaker school, how to deal with people peacefully?
00:11:17
Speaker 4: Right, It really.
00:11:20
Speaker 5: Creates a pathway for you to think about how to solve big problems, like what we're doing at All Finance.
00:11:25
Speaker 3: So tell us then, if you're right now a student at an HBCU, how do you get involved with All Finance, Like where is the connection?
00:11:34
Speaker 5: You know?
00:11:34
Speaker 3: At what level of your studies and is this going to help you also get an internship before a job? Like how does the process work?
00:11:40
Speaker 4: Yeah? So All Finance Number one.
00:11:42
Speaker 5: I would point everybody to our website Allfinance dot com. That'salt FI n A n CE dot com.
00:11:49
Speaker 4: There you can learn more about our program.
00:11:51
Speaker 5: So we have two programs that we run and really put our focus on today. One is our Fellowship, which is a multi year program focused on students at eight of our partner HBUs, Clark Atlanta University, Moorhouse College, Spelman College, Howard University, North Carolina, and t FAM you Hampton University, and Morgan State.
00:12:09
Speaker 3: So that was eight accounted eighth, Yeah, got them.
00:12:13
Speaker 5: So we have eight schools that we work with directly. Our program has quickly become one of the standout co curricular programs at those schools, and so students apply to that. We just went for our fourth round or our fourth cohort, and we have fifty seven incredible students from all eight of those schools that are joining our platform. But if you're at one of the other one hundred or ninety four, HBC use that exists, or they're one hundred and fourds, so ninety six I'm sorry, HBC use that exists. We have a platform called the All Finance Institute, which we partnered with the Warden School of Business at University of Pennsylvania to develop a co curricular digital platform that give students access to both non academic and academic content supporting their development in finance, investments and alternate investments.
00:13:00
Speaker 2: We should note that just last month, the first cohort of the program have started their full time positions, Yeah, Apollo, Aris, Carlisle, Lizard, Oak Tree, PCG, Deloit, Goldman, Wells Fargo, among others. It's only been a few weeks. Yeah, but what's the feedback? What are you hearing?
00:13:20
Speaker 5: So, I think the thing that's most important and that makes me feel the greatest sense of purpose in what we've done, is that students feel prepared that when they are going through their training platforms, when they're getting on the desk, that they don't feel like they're stepping into an environment with which they're unfamiliar. Now, you know, that's a privilege that many of us don't have, right no matter what your background is. But for students that are incredibly gifted, that are coming from backgrounds are incredibly prepared, being able to step into an environment and feel a greater sense of belonging that you can be successful there, minimizes risk, maximizes the risk adjusted return and ultimately will lead to success.
00:13:58
Speaker 3: And these are students that are in full time positions and internships both all.
00:14:02
Speaker 4: Of the above, all of the above.
00:14:04
Speaker 2: Are you getting gender diversity because there's a challenge on Wall Street. Yes, when it comes to the balance of men and women. And I'm wondering if you see that in private equity as well outside of your program.
00:14:15
Speaker 4: So that does exist outside of our program.
00:14:18
Speaker 5: They're fantastic organizations like Girls who Invest incredible shout outs to the work that they're doing. We actually have a few Girls who Invest fellows also in our program, so there doesn't need to be competition amongst groups that are trying to increase the talent pool.
00:14:33
Speaker 4: Right.
00:14:33
Speaker 3: Intersectionality, as we say, the intersectionality, Mali, great word, thank you.
00:14:38
Speaker 4: The intersectionality is really where.
00:14:42
Speaker 5: The recipe for success can be multiplied, right in terms of what all finance is doing. And this is a byproduct of working with HBCUs where there is an over representation of women and on HBCU campuses. Black women are one of the highest and fastest educated group of people in the United States, and so the fact that they show up on HVCU campuses is really a win win. Forty five percent of the women in our program, or forty five percent of the fellows in our program are women, which I would put that number up against any financial services firm.
00:15:15
Speaker 3: I wouldn't think it's anywhere near fifty to fifty.
00:15:17
Speaker 5: Right, And so by working with an organization like all finance, not only are you getting incredible diverse talent, but you're also making sure that you're getting well trained women.
00:15:27
Speaker 3: Totally. Yeah, I mean what are I mean, what do you hear specifically from the women then as far as their feedback and coming into some of these workplace settings.
00:15:37
Speaker 4: It's a challenge, right.
00:15:38
Speaker 5: I think that you know, number one, being a minority, but also being a gender minority or being a woman not a gender minority in the grands game, because I think there's there's there is are challenges, and a lot of those challenges are culture driven, right, and the firms aren't a monolith. Some firms have really strong inclusive cultures. I like to think that our partners areas Oasture and Apollo have incredibly inclusive cultures and have done very very well and continue to do well in welcoming women into the workplace. But the industry in and of itself has had challenges.
00:16:14
Speaker 2: Why do you think that you've been so successful when it comes to the gender balance with the fellows compared to the recruiting at some of these firms.
00:16:25
Speaker 5: We're very intentional about it. I mean, if something, if there is a pool and I see that we don't have what I believe is a representative number of women in the pool. We put more effort into recruiting really great women into our program.
00:16:41
Speaker 4: Right.
00:16:41
Speaker 5: Then once you're in the program, we put a lot of effort into making sure that everybody has the shared time to grow and develop. Right, that we don't let time. We try not to let people dominate time.
00:16:53
Speaker 4: Right.
00:16:53
Speaker 5: We try not to let the natural inertia of a male dominated industry culture its way into our program.
00:17:01
Speaker 4: Right.
00:17:02
Speaker 5: We believe that our program is a position of growth for men and for women, for sophomores, for juniors and seniors, and that in order for us to maximize the total output of what we're trying to do, we have to make sure that we allow maximum opportunity for everybody that's involved.
00:17:16
Speaker 3: Last thirty here for you, Marcus. So this marks year four of the initial ten year commitment by those three founding firms. What are we looking at for the next ten years they sign up for more.
00:17:26
Speaker 5: Look, I think they appreciate what we're doing, but the reality is the burden of what we're doing should not follow on three firms. There are thousands of firms that are doing this across the globe. We'd love to have global reach, but they're firms right here in New York City, right around this office that would benefit from a partnership with All Finance.
00:17:47
Speaker 2: And you'd accept that partnership right away. Very import Are you getting incoming?
00:17:52
Speaker 4: We are getting incoming.
00:17:53
Speaker 5: The proof is in the putting, as one of our HBCU presidents said, and I thought I might get that tattooed on me, but he said, you've proven the concept, right, We've proven the thesis. We get a significant amount of inbound calls with people interested about how to you know.
00:18:09
Speaker 4: Work with our fellows.
00:18:10
Speaker 5: But I think the reality is the returnal and investment is happening for the firms that made the commitment.
00:18:16
Speaker 4: We cannot do.
00:18:17
Speaker 5: This for free, and so we want other firms to make a commitment as well.
00:18:20
Speaker 2: And I imagine next time you're with us, we might have some more firms who have signed on. Well, if you're a regular viewer or a listener of our program, you know that we love checking in with mayors around the country because they've got a front row seat to what's happening in this economy.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: That's right, And one of those mayors who's a go to for us none other than Maddie Parker of Fort Worth, Texas. Maddie joining us now on Zoom. Hey Maddie, how's it going today?
00:18:44
Speaker 1: Good? How are you guys? Thanks for having me on again.
00:18:47
Speaker 3: We're so happy to have you back, you know, I am. We've we've talked a bit about Texas in the program already today and excited to have you to talk a little bit more about it. To close us out here that you've called fort Worth one of the utest growing cities in the country. Why is it from going down to Fort Worth? Tell us about all the great things that are happening down there.
00:19:07
Speaker 6: Oh, there's too much to talk about on a short program, But I think it's honestly just quality of life. I'm sure as you study markets across the country, it's the same thing.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: In business.
00:19:14
Speaker 6: People are following companies they really subscribe and believe in their future. And I think that's the same thing for our community here in Fort Worth. I joke a lot that people vote with their feet when they want to live and move somewhere differently, and especially post pandemic, people really rethought what it looked like to live in their cities and large metropolitan areas of the United States definitely have seen a benefit. None bigger than North Texas seem to be the third largest metro area and Fort Worth is the fastest growing large city in the country. And there's a lot of great things happening here to talk about, Maddie.
00:19:45
Speaker 2: I got to ask if I find myself once again in the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, as I do many times, Yes, am I going to hear your voice on the loud speaker again?
00:19:54
Speaker 1: Absolutely? You know I kind of joke, Tim.
00:19:57
Speaker 6: I've told Mary Johnson this in Dallas, as you know, we co the airport that we probably need to re record on days when there's bad weather or you're step there, because I can imagine if you are in the airport for a length of time and you hear us on repeat, we're not helping ourselves.
00:20:10
Speaker 2: Well, I will say my experience is there thus far have been good.
00:20:13
Speaker 6: Hey.
00:20:13
Speaker 2: One thing I did want to talk to you about, and you know I was going to go here is politics, because I ask you about it each and every time you're on our program. On the national level, I think it's fair to say a lot of folks would say that the political climate nationally is just absolutely toxic right now? What is the challenge that that makes it for you to actually get things done if you do have an R or a D next to your name as a mayor?
00:20:40
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I think, first of all, and for Worth, we're incredibly lucky you do not run for mayor as a Republican or a Democrat.
00:20:45
Speaker 1: You don't identify party when running.
00:20:48
Speaker 6: People certainly know that I'm a Republican, but you don't carry that as the leading force in your decision making, and frankly, you wouldn't be an effective mayor if that was the case. You have to consensus build and bring people together every single case. It's everything single Tuesday to get to yes on any particular issue you use the right word. It is really toxic at federal and state level. And I'm really thankful right now this is where my public service has me and getting to really work with my colleagues on council, really across the entire community.
00:21:17
Speaker 1: Where this ends, I don't know.
00:21:20
Speaker 6: I feel strongly personally that the polarization of our country is damaging, not just for our politics, but how we move forward as a community here in Fort Worth, as Texas, as a successful state, we are now eighth largest economy in the entire world, and then what's happening nationally, But we are only hindered by the toxic fighting you find. And lastly, I would just say that when I talk to business leaders about this, this is not how you conduct business.
00:21:43
Speaker 1: This is not how a boardroom runs.
00:21:45
Speaker 6: You have to reach across the aisle, and I still remain hopeful we can get there, but this last round of primaries in Texas definitely didn't lend any hope.
00:21:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a good point.
00:21:55
Speaker 3: I wanted to talk to you a bit more about the economy there that you mentioned, Maddie, because it is obviously such a huge topic going into the election this year. What is the sense that you get from your constituents as well as business leaders in the community about how the local economy is varing?
00:22:13
Speaker 6: The number one thing people talk about, and when you look at even small local polls is what the economy and the cost of inflation going to the grocery store, housing affordability, gas prices, the wage compression people are experiencing is not kept up with the level of the economy growth, And so what does that mean locally? It just means people talk about it a lot more, and they're really voting with their pocketbook first and foremost. I think this election nationally will really come down to the economy at the end of the day unless something else drastic changes. I know that our geopolitical situation, obviously the war in Gaza is not helping people and losing sleep at night. But I think at the end of the day here in Fort Worth, people are talking about the economy and it is hard because unfortunately a lot of people in elected office, they lose touch with reality.
00:23:01
Speaker 1: And I will say.
00:23:02
Speaker 6: Fortunately for me, you know, I'm a four year old mother of three children, and my reality is the same as probably your reality in terms of just trying to balance family life and work life. And I know what the grocery bill looks like, just like the mom and dad down the street from me. And so I really do attempt to bring that reality and understand when we're forming our own city budget, to meet people where they are and understand that their their budgets are stretched, and we need to kind of act the same way as well here in the city of Fort Worth.
00:23:29
Speaker 3: It's really the same story. It's playing out across all of America right now. But you know something unique that you have at least is that you know, to talk about this magnet production, how you're trying to bring that back home, and how this is so critical to EV's electric vehicles. That is tell us about how that's you know, so critical to the Fort Worth economy.
00:23:51
Speaker 1: Well, this is a.
00:23:52
Speaker 6: Huge partnership with between MP Materials. I believe I talked about their innovation and company on the last time I was on the on the show with you guys, and of course Hillwood and Rosscrow Junior and his company seeking out in P Materials to be here in the city of Fort Worth and manufacture their batteries here, memory magnets here in the city, which is incredibly exciting. You may or may not be aware that IMP Materials received a Department of Energy award almost sixty million dollars to help towards their construction of America's first fully integrated.
00:24:23
Speaker 1: Magnet manufacturing facility here in the city of Fort Worth.
00:24:25
Speaker 6: So to be first is very exciting because this is the forefront of what our economy is going to take moving forward, as we understand, to try to on shore a lot of this manufacturing need, we have to start with the basics and right now it is these batteries and how they're manufactured in other countries across the globe. And I'm incredibly proud of the City of for Worth leading the way and really leaning into the private sector innovation that MP Materials is brought to the City of Fort Worth. But we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for our development partner in Hillwood leading the way, and what they've accomplished here is quite magnificent.
00:24:57
Speaker 2: A Mayor Parker, of the criticisms that folks in Washington get is that they don't represent demographically the age and gender of their constituents. So I got to ask you, as one of the youngest female mayors in the country, about your future political ambitions. What's next for you?
00:25:18
Speaker 1: I just try to survive. My kids just got out for summer, so right now.
00:25:21
Speaker 6: It's the logistics of trying to get them to and from camp and all the things that go with that. Right, I try to live life in the moment. I'll be honest and try it to give you a cliche answer, I truly don't know.
00:25:30
Speaker 2: But would you would you consider going into state politics? Would you consider going into national politics?
00:25:37
Speaker 6: I think our political system would have to look different For me, I don't really have an interest in trying to run in our primary, and I've been pretty honest about this. Is no disrespect to friends and colleagues that choose to do that, but the things that you have to do and say in that primary process, I just don't identify with Right now, Mayor parktter comes from a mayor.
00:25:56
Speaker 2: Mayor Parker, we have to wrap it up. We love it when you join us. Thanks so much for joining us on also for your candor. Certainly appreciate that Maddie Parker, mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, joining us from none other than Fort Worth on this Wednesday afternoon. It's Bloomberg Business Week. That's Molly Smith. I'm Tim Stenebeck.
