Latest Interviews
Showing 1906–1920 of 1,930 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs22 min
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute Co-founder: Talks@GS Session Highlights
Amory Lovins and his partners present a 2050 energy roadmap that projects the U.S. system can achieve 75% renewable penetration while expanding the economy 2.6-fold without new inventions or congressional action. This strategy leverages advanced biofuels, vehicle ultralighting, and distributed generation to reduce costs by $5 trillion compared to business-as-usual scenarios while eliminating reliance on oil, coal, and nuclear power. By shifting utility business models to service-based pricing and integrating smart grid technologies, the proposal envisions a resilient, decentralized energy infrastructure capable of delivering surplus electricity and decoupling safety from vehicle mass.
- Milken Institute43 min
Commercial Diplomacy: A Conversation With U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, acting as the chief commercial advocate, outlined a strategy to bridge the business community and the administration by prioritizing legislative reforms on trade promotion, patent litigation, and corporate taxation to restore global competitiveness. The Department leverages its four-pillar framework to maximize data utility from agencies like the National Weather Service while deploying 108 Export Assistance Centers and diplomatic missions to advance U.S. interests in Asia, Africa, and Europe. Simultaneously, the administration focuses on critical infrastructure cybersecurity standards and international tax reform to unlock trillions in stranded capital and stimulate domestic investment.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Anne Hubert, Viacom Media Networks SVP: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Anne Hubert, Lindsay Drucker Mann
Goldman Sachs' "Millennial Insights" initiative analyzes how the 92-million-strong cohort is reshaping global markets through their tech-driven consumption, delayed life milestones, and demand for transparency. Despite facing economic headwinds like student debt and housing barriers, this generation is driving a shift toward the sharing economy, urban living, and strategic value-based spending that is forcing institutional adaptation. As these millennials enter their peak earning years, the firm anticipates a profound economic impact that will further accelerate trends in sustainability, e-commerce, and intergenerational influence.
- Y Combinator28 min
Grace Garey Speaks at Female Founders Conference 2015
Watsi CEO Rachel founded the world's first global crowdfunding platform to connect individual donors directly with patients in need, overcoming systemic inefficiencies in traditional aid by ensuring 100% of donations fund care without administrative fees. Since launching in August 2010, the organization has grown from a $10,000 crisis intervention into a Y Combinator-backed entity that has raised over $3.5 million to treat 4,000 patients across 20 countries. By prioritizing transparency and removing donor restrictions, Watsi facilitates rapid, life-saving interventions for cases such as the siblings in Guatemala and Getu in Kenya while pioneering a universal monthly giving model.
- Y Combinator22 min
Kimberly Bryant Speaks at Female Founders Conference 2015
Founded in 2011 by an accidental social entrepreneur, Black Girls Code launched in the Bay Area to shift girls of color from technology consumers to creators while addressing a sharp decline in their computer science degree attainment. The organization has since expanded to eight chapters across the U.S. and South Africa, training approximately 3,000 students and raising over $125,000 through aggressive fundraising targets to reach its 2040 vision of educating one million girls. By prioritizing culturally sensitive mentorship and hiring teams more skilled than the founder, the nonprofit aims to level the playing field and ensure technology reflects the nation's shifting demographic majority.
- Goldman Sachs23 min
Ray Kelly, Former NYPD Commissioner: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Former NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the first officer to rise from a cadet to the agency's top leadership, details his tenure's establishment of the first municipal counterterrorism bureau and the surveillance of major events like the 2010 Times Square bombing attempt. Kelly critiques a 2011 ruling on racial profiling as evidentiary flawed and warns that current oversight measures and the refusal to appeal could shift policing from proactive crime prevention to reactive responses, a strategy he links to a reduction of 9,300 murders over two decades. With ISIS cited as an escalating global threat, Kelly advocates for the continued use of data-driven security initiatives like the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative while balancing privacy concerns through automatic data deletion protocols.
- Goldman Sachs30 min
Admiral William McRaven: Talks at GS Session Highlights
William McRaven, Admiral William McRaven, Jack
In this strategic briefing, the speaker analyzes the evolution of ISIS from Al-Qaeda in Iraq, warning that unchecked regional instability could cascade to threaten U.S. allies like Jordan and necessitates a coalition strategy involving ground advisors rather than airstrikes alone. Drawing on personal command history of high-stakes missions including the raid on Osama bin Laden, the former three-star admiral emphasizes the importance of political consistency, detailed operational planning, and the human reality of special operations families supported by the SEAL Foundation. The presentation concludes with a call for long-term nation-building in Iraq and sustained global intervention to prevent spillover instability from Africa, underscoring the moral and strategic necessity of addressing conflicts in Mali, Somalia, and Nigeria.
- Goldman Sachs39 min
Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan and Lloyd Blankfein: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Timothy Dolan, Lloyd Blankfein, Cardinal Timothy Dolan
Archdiocese of New York Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan leads a strategic restructuring that closes 55 parishes and 59 schools to redirect $392 million toward active social services while managing a linguistically diverse flock across three boroughs. Facing tensions between traditional doctrine on marriage and modern pastoral needs, Dolan balances doctrinal integrity with Pope Francis's inclusive approach to ensure the church remains spiritually vibrant despite demographic shifts. Concurrently, he champions religious freedom against government mandates and establishes new communication offices to engage younger generations, aiming to strengthen faith communities by prioritizing dynamic ministry over maintaining vacant facilities.
- Goldman Sachs22 min
Barrister and Philanthropist Cherie Blair with GS' Dina Habib Powell: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Cherie Blair, Dina Habib Powell, Dena Powell
Former barrister Cherie Blair discusses her transition from a thirty-six-year partnership with Prime Minister Tony Blair to leading her own international law firm while detailing her foundation's work in fostering female economic empowerment across developing nations. By leveraging mobile technology to support small-scale entrepreneurs in countries like India and Nigeria, the organization aims to bridge the global gender gap in economic participation, which she argues is essential for GDP growth and national stability. Blair contrasts historical legal barriers she faced, such as systemic discrimination during her pupillage, with modern evidence that women reinvest 90% of resources into their communities, positioning financial independence as a critical smart business imperative.
- Y Combinator31 min
Andrew Mason at Startup School SV 2014
Launched by Eric Lefkofsky, Groupon evolved from the struggling The Point platform into the world's fastest-growing company after achieving rapid product-market fit with its daily deal model. Despite facing intense global competition and receiving lucrative acquisition offers from Yahoo and Google, the board rejected these opportunities to prioritize independent growth, a strategic decision that Lefkofsky later viewed as superior to the short-term pressures of the company's subsequent IPO. Reflecting on these experiences, Lefkofsky now applies a disciplined, values-first operational framework to his new venture, Detour, emphasizing long-term conviction over immediate data-driven compromises.
- Y Combinator27 min
Kevin Systrom at Startup School SV 2014
Stanford student Kevin Systrom leveraged a bias towards action to pivot his failed location app, Burbn, into Instagram after identifying a core user need for photo filtering during a photography course in Florence. This strategic shift to a minimalist mobile photography platform, combined with a community-first hiring philosophy and a global time-zone launch strategy, enabled the service to reach massive scale within days despite early infrastructure limits. Systrom's journey highlights a successful transition from building a generic marketplace to cultivating a defensible creator ecosystem that prioritizes user experience over immediate monetization.
- Y Combinator29 min
Reid Hoffman at Startup School SV 2014
Reid Hoffman recounts the strategic origins of LinkedIn, detailing how the concept emerged from a 2000 offsite with PayPal co-founders to address capital constraints and how the platform achieved critical mass by leveraging address book integration to bypass early growth limitations. He contrasts common Silicon Valley myths with historical data, arguing that economic downturns foster superior company formation while warning against raising excessive capital that dilutes operational focus. Furthermore, Hoffman analyzes his investment philosophies through case studies of Facebook, Zynga, and Bitcoin, emphasizing the necessity of balancing conviction with rigorous self-audits to navigate markets where smart peers initially dismiss contrarian visions.
- Y Combinator34 min
Ron Conway at Startup School SV 2014
Venture capitalist Ron Conway outlines a portfolio strategy at SV Angel that prioritizes investing in entrepreneurs with innate drive and deep personal conviction over specific product ideas, noting that successful founders often exhibit a "vocation" mindset. The firm screens thousands of candidates for co-founder dynamics and product focus while rejecting those who prioritize networking or lack honesty about traction, accepting a high failure rate to capture major market wins. Through a team-based approach evolving over two decades, SV Angel leverages young deal-makers and senior advisors to guide founders who solve personal problems with relentless persistence.
- Goldman Sachs24 min
Congressman John Lewis & Lloyd Blankfein: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Former civil rights leader John Lewis traces his journey from a sharecropper's son in rural Alabama to a central figure in the 1960s nonviolent movement, detailing his collaboration with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and pivotal events such as the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, and the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" confrontation in Selma. These struggles directly catalyzed landmark federal legislation including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Lewis credits for enabling the presidencies of Carter, Clinton, and Obama while warning that the unfinished work of racial and LGBTQ+ justice demands continued vigilance against modern legal setbacks.
- Goldman Sachs32 min
John C. Whitehead & Tom Brokaw: Talks at GS Session Highlights
John C. Whitehead, Tom Brokaw, Peter van de Ven
Goldman Sachs senior partner John Whitehead shared his classified D-Day experience where, to save his crew, he disobeyed orders and maneuvered his landing craft through enemy fire, a sacrifice he concealed for decades to avoid court-martial. This hidden act of courage foreshadowed his post-war humanitarian airlifts to Hungary and his unique consensus-based leadership philosophy at Goldman Sachs, which prioritized moral responsibility and team cohesion over rapid decision-making. Tanya Cushman's book *The Greatest Generation* finally brought these suppressed stories to light, revealing how the extreme pressures of World War II forged the ethical frameworks that defined Whitehead's public and private life.