Latest Interviews
Showing 136–150 of 355 transcripts.
Clear all filters- Milken Institute30 min
New Directions and Opportunities for Resilient Disaster Recovery | Finance Forum 2025
Kristen Fanarakis, Lynette Bell, Tom Hoban, Nuin-Tara Key
The Truist Foundation is leading a strategic shift from reactive disaster relief to proactive resilience by committing $725 million over three years to Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. This initiative prioritizes small business recovery by reducing capital access timelines from 60 days to 10 days and advocates for standardized building codes alongside new tax incentives to incentivize structural upgrades. Experts further propose adopting a "risk curve" framework and leveraging regional public-private partnerships to sustain long-term funding for climate adaptation and infrastructure hardening.
- Milken Institute33 min
Opportunity Zones 2.0 and Next Generation Public-Private Partnerships | Finance Forum 2025
Rachel Reilly, Simone Joy Friedman, Michael Novogradac, Toby Rittner, Ja'ron Smith, Simone Friedman, Mike Novogratik
Facing an impending 2025 expiration, policymakers and community leaders are rallying to reform Opportunity Zones through a "2.0" framework that prioritizes permanent status, mandatory impact reporting, and a shift from real estate speculation to operating businesses. Success stories in locations like Harrisonville, South Carolina, demonstrate that layering federal tax incentives with state conformity, workforce training, and technical assistance can generate substantial local employment and economic stability. As the program's future takes shape, experts advocate for an integrated toolbox approach that combines Opportunity Zone equity with tools like New Markets Tax Credits and CDFI lending to maximize capital deployment in underserved communities.
- The Economist20 min
In sickness and in stealth: threats to America’s CDC
Rosie Bloor, Jason Palmer, Rebecca Jackson, Josh Roberts, David Benin
Following the inauguration of the Trump administration, the CDC has faced severe operational disruption through Executive Orders targeting DEI initiatives, a mass termination campaign involving 750 employees, and the imposition of restrictive communication protocols by the acting director and DOGE-affiliated entities. Simultaneously, silver market dynamics have shifted as institutional demand surged with Russia adding reserves to holdings and industrial requirements for solar manufacturing drove a 50% increase in consumption, outpacing gold in recent returns. In the entertainment sector, a resurgence of live album releases has emerged among major artists like Dua Lipa and The Cure, driven by post-pandemic appreciation for raw performance energy and a strategic pivot away from the studio-centric production models that dominated the late 20th century.
- Milken Institute36 min
Incentivizing Investment in Innovative Technologies | Finance Forum 2025
Karen Kornbluh, Doug Arent, Jennifer Hankins, Jigar Shah, Maggie Switek
A panel of experts from the NREL Foundation, Tulsa Innovation Labs, and the Milken Institute discussed strategies to compress multi-decade innovation timelines into three-to-five-year cycles for clean energy and AI deployment. Speakers highlighted the critical need to shift from linear financial incentives to unconventional cross-sector partnerships, warning that failing to rapidly scale domestic manufacturing risks transferring intellectual property to competitors like China. The consensus emphasized that accelerating grid capacity through virtual power plants and regulatory agility is essential to unlocking private capital and ensuring U.S. economic growth.
- Milken Institute37 min
Sovereign Wealth Funds: Lessons for the US | Finance Forum 2025
Caitlin MacLean, Victoria Barbary, Angela Rodell, Tarek Shoukri, Kaitlyn McLean
The U.S. Treasury Department is currently soliciting private sector input to design a national Sovereign Wealth Fund using a blank-slate approach for capitalization and investment mandates. Drawing on global best practices and case studies like the Alaska Permanent Fund, the proposed framework emphasizes independent governance to insulate decisions from political cycles while targeting strategic sectors such as critical minerals and AI. With further concept papers expected in the spring, the initiative aims to establish a bipartisan structure that catalyzes high-cost infrastructure deployment without crowding out private commercial activity.
- Milken Institute40 min
New Pathways to Help Forgotten America | Finance Forum 2025
Rich Ditizio, Marla Blow, Van Jones
A panel at the Milken Institute, featuring Skoll Foundation's Marla Carter and Amazon Web Services' Dan Price, analyzes the structural retreat of the U.S. public sector and the subsequent necessity for private capital and technology to solve social challenges. The discussion details strategic pivots in philanthropy toward complex capital stacks, highlights specific tech interventions in criminal justice and infrastructure, and reframes diversity initiatives as economic imperatives rather than moral obligations. Looking forward, the speakers outline a new "Center for Advancing the American Dream" to document mentorship narratives while urging the integration of AI and community access to navigate a rapidly changing technological landscape.
- Milken Institute29 min
Community Infrastructure Building Blocks: 10,000 Communities Initiative | Finance Forum 2025
Rachel Halfaker, Andreas Karelas, Jane Brady Knight, Amanda Li, Tony Pipa
High demand for rural economic revitalization faces significant deployment barriers, including insufficient project scale, limited local capacity, and traditional financing models that exclude non-profits lacking credit scores. To overcome these hurdles, successful strategies now employ blended capital stacks, direct pay provisions from the Inflation Reduction Act, and digital platforms that automate underwriting to reduce overhead on small-ticket clean energy investments. By shifting narratives toward rural agency and utilizing community financial institutions, stakeholders aim to establish a permanent, self-sustaining asset class that drives long-term wealth creation and strengthens national competitiveness.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
FedEx founder & chairman Fred Smith on transforming global logistics
FedEx founder Fred Smith established a revolutionary hub-and-spoke logistics network grounded in military matrix management and the "People, Service, Profit" philosophy to scale operations globally while retaining key talent. Under his leadership, the integration of real-time tracking with a massive air and ground fleet enabled the company to handle approximately six percent of U.S. GDP and provide unique economic data insights into consumer trends. Today, Smith emphasizes that maintaining defensible competencies in artificial intelligence and digital transformation is critical for navigating the rapid market shifts that threaten legacy business models.
- Milken Institute44 min
Building Smart Health Ecosystems: Shaping the Future of Health Care | Middle East and Africa Summit
James Bethell, Helmy Eltoukhy, Helmut Schuehsler, Geetha Tharmaratnam
Healthcare panelists identify the transition to patient-centric smart ecosystems as essential for shifting from reactive symptom treatment to proactive, personalized prevention, yet they note that entrenched fee-for-service models in Western markets like the US currently impede the adoption of existing clinical guidelines. While immediate gains are achievable through strict implementation of current protocols and breakthroughs like FDA-approved liquid biopsies, radical transformation is projected to occur most rapidly in emerging markets such as the Middle East and Africa where legacy infrastructure is absent. To overcome funding gaps and scale these innovations globally, experts advocate for the development of unified regulatory frameworks and the mobilization of patient capital from multilateral institutions to support long-term health infrastructure projects.
- Milken Institute40 min
AI: A Multiplier or a Divider? | Middle East and Africa Summit 2024
Sarah Yaseen, Nicole Valentine, Prem Akkaraju, Kate Kallot, Rohan Patel, Grant Verstandig
Leading AI practitioners including Prem Sacharczyk, Kate Turrell, and Rohan Seth convened to analyze the projected $4.4 trillion capital influx into global sectors while debating strategic frameworks for ethical deployment and workforce adaptation. The panelists utilized historical figures to illustrate their visions for AI's role in balancing creative liberation against risks like asymmetric power and the erosion of junior skill acquisition. Ultimately, the discussion emphasized immediate self-regulation through sanitized data practices and infrastructure investment in emerging markets to mitigate potential harms while accelerating innovation in science and industry.
- Milken Institute41 min
Global Investment Outlook: Investing in a Shared Future | Middle East and Africa Summit
Dan Murphy, His Excellency Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi, Katie Koch, Tony Minella, Anne Walsh
A panel of senior investors from Mubadala, TCW, Eldridge, and Guggenheim analyzed the global outlook for 2025, highlighting Abu Dhabi's emergence as the world's leading sovereign wealth hub alongside deep skepticism regarding current equity valuations and credit market risks. While participants identified structural opportunities in private rescue financing, asset-backed finance, and real assets like data centers, they simultaneously warned of crowding in private credit, potential volatility from compressed spreads, and geopolitical headwinds that could disrupt stability. Despite these concerns, major firms maintain a strategic bias toward the U.S. market due to its superior risk-reward profile, anticipating that fiscal pressures and policy shifts under a potential Trump administration will drive specific trading ranges for treasuries and inflation management.
- Milken Institute41 min
The Private Credit Playbook| Middle East and Africa Summit 2024
William Kelly, Carmen Alonso, Mathew Douglass, Stephen J. Ketchum, Drew McKnight, Bill Kelly, Matt Douglas, Steve Ketchum
The private credit market, currently valued at $2 trillion, is projected to double by 2030 as it absorbs capital from shrinking bank balance sheets while expanding into niche asset classes like litigation and intellectual property finance. Institutional investors are increasingly utilizing interval funds and Business Development Companies to access high-yield opportunities in mid-market and Latin American sectors, though rising pick-up risks and a looming maturity wall present distinct challenges. Despite concerns over capital oversupply, industry experts maintain that the asset class offers structural stability compared to traditional banking, with substantial undrawn equity capital poised to drive continued growth through the next decade.
- Milken Institute38 min
Harnessing the Rising Tide of Digital Finance | Middle East and Africa Summit 2024
Nicole Valentine, Olugbenga (GB) Agboola, Melvin Deng, Gal Krubiner, Caroline D. Pham
Moderated by Nicole Valentine of the Milken Institute, a panel featuring QCP's Melvin, Pagaya's Gal, Flutterwave's Gb, and CFTC Commissioner Caroline Pham examined the convergence of digital assets, AI-driven lending, and African payment infrastructure. The discussion highlighted a strategic shift from skepticism to innovation, featuring QCP's GCC expansion, Pagaya's $25 billion private credit impact, and Flutterwave's development of interoperable cross-border systems that position Africa as a global payment hub. Commissioner Pham further outlined the CFTC's new digital asset taxonomy and regulatory partnerships designed to facilitate 24/7 settlement and align US policy with global financial standards.
- Milken Institute42 min
Energy Transition: Critical Minerals, Climate Tech, & Policy Shifts | Middle East and Africa Summit
John Defterios, His Excellency Majid Al Suwaidi, Lucie Berger, Frank Fannon, Oskar Lewnowski, Bob Wilt, Majid Al Suwaidi
Launched by the UAE, the $30 billion Alira Initiative seeks to mobilize $250 billion in private capital by 2030 to bridge the investment gap in the Global South, where 85% of current transition funding flows to the North. The program targets critical bottlenecks in the energy supply chain, specifically addressing the decade-long permitting delays and geopolitical concentration of critical minerals that currently hinder gigafactory development. By combining a de-risked investment structure with a focus on modernizing the mining sector's public image, the initiative aims to secure a resilient, technology-driven future for clean energy while challenging the dominance of existing supply chains.
- Milken Institute31 min
A Conversation with Arthur Brooks on Global Prosperity | Middle East and Africa Summit 2024
Arthur Brooks, Shikha Jain, Conrad Kiechel
At the 6th Annual Milken Institute Middle East and Africa Summit, Harvard professor Arthur Brooks defined happiness as a science-driven pursuit anchored by faith, family, friendship, and merit-based work rather than the accumulation of wealth or status. Brooks detailed how strategic philanthropy, limited social media usage, and deep existential reflection serve as critical mechanisms for sustaining mental well-being and strengthening marital bonds. His presentation concluded with a call for global leaders to adopt personal mission statements that prioritize serving others, effectively transforming professional success into a vehicle for collective human fulfillment.