Penn Talks: Recent Episodes

Nicholas Angellino

Entrepreneurship is the process of developing, organizing, and running a new business to generate profit while taking on financial risk. Follow along as Anna Monaco and Nicholas Angellino invites entrepreneurs spanning an array of backgrounds and industries. Guests hail from Silicon Valley to Wall Street to their parents garage in Nebraska.

Anna and Nicholas are both students at the University of Pennsylvania. Many episodes will feature questions from audience members and other Penn students, but will also focus on the path from college to the professional world.

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Mr. Crocker has spent more than 20 years in the alternative investments space, serving as a limited partner, general partner and placement advisor. In these roles he has committed capital to over 100 different funds, sponsored the establishment of new limited partnerships as a general partner and assisted in raising capital from institutional investors globally. As a limited partner, Mr. Crocker has served on the advisory boards of a number of private equity buyout and venture capital funds, including Thomas H. Lee Partners, Providence Equity Partners and Phoenix Capital Partners. Mr. Crocker was also the Co-founder and Co-Managing Partner at Matinicus LLC / Snowbridge LLC. Prior to this, Mr. Crocker was a Managing Director in Citi’s Private Funds Group, where he played a leading role in origination, project management and distribution. Prior to joining Citi in 2005, Mr. Crocker was a partner at Capital Z Investment Partners, a leading sponsor of alternative investment managers with $2.5 billion under management. Mr. Crocker built the alternative investment fund of funds business at Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette for $200 million in assets under management in 1996 to over $6 billion in 2000. In these positions Mr. Crocker was involved in fundraising, product development, investment, client services and management of a team of professionals. Mr. Crocker began his career in management consulting at Bain & Co. Mr. Crocker graduated with honors from Harvard College and earned his MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Crocker was also a member of the Men’s Heavyweight and Lightweight Crew team while at Harvard.

Mr. Crocker is currently a Client Specialist for Venture Backed Series F start-up Addepar. Addepar is a software and data platform that helps financial managers to manage even the most complex investment portfolios.

In today's episode with John Crocker:

  1. The Influence of John’s Harvard Experiences

  2. The Influence Business School had on John

  3. Transition from HBS to Career

  4. Being an Private Equity and Alternative Investor

  5. Working at Addepar

6.Personal Goals as Investor

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Ana Martins is a Partner at Atlantico. Atlantico is a Venture Capital firm backing founders who seek to define a better future in Latin America and beyond based out of São Paulo, Brazil. They invest in companies that have shown early signs of product-market fit and are pre-scale. Ana is a graduate of Stanford University with a BA in Political Science and a minor in Engineering. While at Stanford, she co-founded the non-profit Brazil at Silicon Valley. The club was led by Brazilian students from Stanford & UC Berkeley to better connect Brazil to Silicon Valley and transform Brazil’s future through technology and innovation. Ana's previous experiences include Investment Banking at BTG Pactual and apprenticeships at Pear VC and Invus Opportunities.

In today's episode with Ana Martins:

  1. The Influence of Anna’s Stanford Experiences

  2. The Influence leading Brazil at Silicon Valley had on Ana

  3. Transition from Stanford to Career

4. Being an Investor in LatAm

  1. Atlantico

  2. Angel Investing and Personal Goals as Investor

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Ray is a Co-Founder of SECOR Asset Management, a global asset management firm. Ray served as Chief Investment Officer of SECOR’s quantitative businesses. Prior to founding SECOR, Ray was Co-Chief Investment Officer of the Quantitative Investment Strategies (QIS) group at Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM). Before GSAM, Ray worked at Salomon Brothers as head of the Fixed Income Derivatives Client Research Group and member of the Bond Portfolio Analysis Research Group. He also worked in First Boston’s Fixed-Income Portfolio Strategies Group, specializing in asset-liability issues for banks and thrifts, as well as valuation of mortgage-backed securities and their derivatives. He serves on the Board of Trustees at Good Shepherd Services, a New York based social services agency. In addition, Ray is a member of the advisory board of the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Ray earned a B.S. and B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

In Todays Episode with Ray Iwanowski:

1). The Influence Ray’s Wharton/Upenn Experience

a. What moments, experiences, courses, or activities would you say directly contributed to what would later become your career?

b. In hindsight, what are you most proud of your undergraduate self for accomplishing, exploring, or pursuing? What successes did you draw upon in your career?

c. Do you see a major shift in the path from Penn into the world of finance? If so, how? If not, from your perspective, how does one find success in such a competitive industry?

2). The Influence Ray’s Chicago Experience

a. How did you end up at Chicago? What experiences brought you there?

b. How did your time at Chicago shape your view of what quantitative investing is?

c. What type of modeling did you learn?

d. Could you speak to the power of a graduate program on your career for listeners who may be considering the utility of graduate school currently? Do you feel the necessity/power of a graduate degree has changed?

3). Transition from Chicago to Career

a. First Boston/Salomon Brothers → Fixed Income Research

b. Transitioning to Goldman Sachs

c. What were the biggest lessons you learned from experiencing such a level of success and helping to run the industry leading quantitative fund?

4). 2007 “Quant-BloodBath”

a. Would you mind discussing what Global Alpha experienced during the 2007 financial crisis?

b. How did quantitative trading methods fail in the face of such market uncertainty?

c. Could you describe the impact of overcrowding by quantitative funds in similar positions?

d. What were the biggest lessons you learned from experiencing such a level of hardship and fiscal loss after close to eight straight years of success and prosperity for yourself, your fund, and clients?

e. How did this change how you view quant?

5). Secor Asset Management

a. How did you transition from Goldman to being the Co-Founder and CIO of Secor?

6). What Are You Doing Now? Good Shepherds, Robinhood, and Philanthropy