Latest Interviews
Showing 226–240 of 243 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs14 min
Nick Bollettieri, Tennis Legend: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Nick Bollettieri, Antonio Estevez
Founded in 1978, the Bollettieri Tennis Academy established the world's first full-time boarding school model by fusing intensive court training with a military-inspired academic curriculum to cultivate elite athletes. Legendary coach Nick Bollettieri attributes the success of ten world number ones, including Serena and Venus Williams and Andre Agassi, to his psychological mastery and the evolving necessity of peak physical fitness in modern tennis. Bollettieri now asserts that while innate talent remains irreplaceable, contemporary dominance relies on multidisciplinary support teams and strategic adaptation to equipment changes.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
Bob Colacello, Journalist: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Former *Vanity Fair* correspondent Bob Colacello recently presented his biographical works on Andy Warhol and the Reagans during a Goldman Sachs "Talks at GS" session, dissecting the strategic construction of Warhol's celebrity and Nancy Reagan's pivotal behind-the-scenes influence on Cold War diplomacy. Colacello reveals that Warhol leveraged his commercial art background and religious aesthetic knowledge to secularize icons like Marilyn Monroe, while simultaneously exposing how Nancy Reagan orchestrated the personal rapport between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev that facilitated the Geneva summit. The presentation concludes by ranking Nancy Reagan among history's most influential first ladies, comparable to Edith Wilson and Eleanor Roosevelt, for her quiet but decisive management of her husband's political agenda and inner circle.
- Goldman Sachs16 min
David Adjaye, Architect: Talks at GS Session Highlights
David Adjaye, Val Carlotti, Tim McGillen
Award-winning architect David Ajayi is designing the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, a 400,000-square-foot facility authorized by George W. Bush and set to open in Washington D.C. in 2016. The design rejects a fixed signature style in favor of an inverted pyramid silhouette inspired by West African shrines, positioning the museum as a narrative transition between the National Mall and the Washington Memorial grounds. This project embodies Ajayi's philosophy of "democracy of knowledge" by utilizing public structures to destigmatize community access while reframing the African-American experience as central to American identity.
- Goldman Sachs11 min
Kenneth Langone & Neal Goldman on Building Successful Relationships: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Kenneth Langone, Neal Goldman, Ken, Neil
Relationship Science (RELPSY) leverages a proprietary social graph to map connections between 4 million individuals and 1.5 million organizations, replacing manual networking with automated pathways for wealth management, private equity, and non-profit sectors. Building on the legacy of Capital IQ's data utility, the platform introduces event-to-opportunity triggers and personalized intelligence to facilitate strategic introductions based on real-time financial filings and news. While the tool eliminates the friction of identifying mutual contacts, its effectiveness remains contingent on user execution and an ethical approach to relationship building that prioritizes client needs over immediate revenue.
- Goldman Sachs19 min
Muhammad Yunus and Andrea Jung of Grameen Bank: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Muhammad Yunus, Andrea Jung, Dina
Professor Muhammad Yunus founded Grameen Bank to pioneer a global microfinance movement that empowers the rural poor, a model now expanded in the United States under Andrea Jung's leadership at Grameen America. This U.S. branch utilizes a group-based lending structure to provide no-collateral loans to unbanked women, achieving a 99.6% repayment rate while transforming borrowers into financially literate citizens with improved credit scores. Beyond immediate lending, the organization drives long-term economic development through social enterprises like Grameen Shakti and anticipates accelerating impact by integrating mobile technology with traditional microfinance strategies.
- Goldman Sachs16 min
Deepak Chopra, M.D.: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Dr. Chopra synthesizes decades of medical observation and modern research on the microbiome to define well-being through five interconnected pillars, while advocating for the use of biosensors and biofeedback to objectively measure and regulate physiological stress. He argues that accessing a "ground state" of infinite potential through meditation allows individuals to transcend cultural conditioning and adopt enlightened leadership qualities such as deep reflection and authentic presence. These principles are presented as a business imperative, demonstrating that focused eight-hour workdays, adequate downtime, and the cultivation of meaning directly enhance organizational efficiency and counteract the detrimental effects of multitasking.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
The Evolution of Bitcoin: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Balaji Srinivasan, Jerry Brito, Tom Jessup
Andreessen Horowitz's Balaji Srinivasan defines Bitcoin as a packet-based protocol that consolidates global value transfer into a programmable machine economy, while addressing current scalability limits through a roadmap targeting millisecond latency and billions of transactions per second. Coin Center's Jerry Brito adds that regulatory frameworks are increasingly treating the protocol like non-regulatable email, with jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the UK actively cultivating fintech ecosystems through self-regulation. Together, these analyses project that Bitcoin will evolve beyond speculative trading into the "dollar of the internet," driven by a self-reinforcing four-sided network effect and emerging use cases in micropayments and in-game asset portability.
- Goldman Sachs18 min
Misty Copeland, Soloist for American Ballet Theatre: Talks at GS Session Highlights
American Ballet Theatre soloist Misty Copeland reflects on her unconventional entry into professional ballet at age 13, navigating rapid physical training, severe injuries requiring tibia surgery, and the unique challenges of race in a historically homogenous art form. She rejects the burden of representation while advocating for structural industry inclusivity, emphasizing that classic repertoire remains valid without adaptation as she expands diversity initiatives like Project Plié. Copeland projects eight to ten additional years of performance, focusing on artistic excellence and mentoring underprivileged communities to see more "brown girls" in classical companies.
- Goldman Sachs15 min
Samantha Power, US Permanent Representative to the United Nations: Talks at GS Session Highlights
U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power, speaking in partnership with the Harvard Kennedy School and Goldman Sachs, outlined a strategic shift toward gender inclusivity as a critical component of Middle Eastern security and successful peace negotiations. While addressing ongoing challenges in Syria and Iran, Power detailed a preference for targeted "train and equip" operations and diplomatic sanctions over direct military intervention to protect civilians and prevent nuclear proliferation. The discussion further highlighted significant progress in the Ebola crisis, crediting the deployment of U.S. military and health resources for reducing case numbers and mobilizing global cooperation despite lingering cultural and logistical barriers.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
David Miliband, International Rescue Committee CEO: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Amidst a global surge in complex civil wars displacing 52 million people, the International Rescue Committee operates across 30 conflict zones to manage humanitarian crises ranging from Syria's state collapse to Ebola outbreaks in West Africa. The organization leverages data-driven interventions and cross-border aid strategies to address immediate survival needs while advocating for high-level diplomatic cooperation between rival powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia to secure political settlements. By integrating local health innovations with long-term resettlement programs, the IRC argues that sustained international engagement is essential to prevent localized disasters from triggering broader regional instability.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
Women's Ski Jumping USA: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Deedee Corradini, Lindsey Van, Sarah Hendrickson
Led by former Salt Lake City Mayor DeeDee O'Donnell and athlete Lindsay Vann, a global coalition fought a two-year campaign against the International Ski Federation and legal hurdles to prove that women's ski jumping met Olympic eligibility standards. Although the 2010 Canadian lawsuit challenging the exclusion under the Charter of Rights failed to secure jurisdiction over the IOC, the litigation catalyzed international support that forced the committee to admit female skiers to the 2014 Sochi Games. This historic victory allowed Lindsey Vann and Sarah Hansen to become the first women to compete in the event, finally dismantling decades of male-dominated barriers within the sport.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Linda Rottenberg, Endeavor CEO: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Endeavor is a nonprofit organization that rigorously selects approximately 1,000 high-impact entrepreneurs from 40,000 candidates across 22 countries to accelerate companies in the scale-up phase. By providing mentorship, networks, and capital to founders like Wences Casares, the organization has helped its portfolio generate $7 billion in revenue and create 400,000 jobs. Co-founder Linda Rotenberg champions a philosophy that views calculated risk-taking as a necessary economic safety net, aiming to shift the global workforce mindset from fear to confident execution.
- Goldman Sachs17 min
Daniella Vitale, Barneys New York COO: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Led by COO Daniela Finkelstein since 2010, Barneys New York executed a strategic pivot that transformed a struggling retailer into a digitally integrated luxury destination by replacing legacy practices with "The Window" editorial platform and omnichannel tools like iPads and mobile POS systems. The company successfully modernized its operations through high-aesthetic technology partnerships, such as the Intel-backed "Mika" wearable, while simultaneously shifting its core philosophy toward hyper-personalized customer experiences to drive conversion and brand equity. This comprehensive overhaul prioritized design integrity over technological novelty and fostered a culture where internal collaboration directly fuels external storytelling and targeted luxury engagement.
- Goldman Sachs15 min
Dr. Cristián Samper, President & CEO of the WCS: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Cristián Samper, Dr. Christian Sampere, Stephen
Dr. Christian Sampere, CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society, leads a global conservation effort spanning 65 countries by leveraging public-private partnerships and carbon credit deals to fund community-based protection of charismatic species. This strategy has yielded significant results, such as halting Amazon deforestation through international payments and rebuilding New York's Ocean Wonders aquarium with a $250 million resilience investment following Hurricane Sandy. By combining scientific data on human footprints with sustainable development goals, the organization balances ecological preservation with economic incentives to secure large species populations in critical habitats.
- Goldman Sachs13 min
Tory Burch, Founder and CEO of Tory Burch LLC: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Tory Burch has scaled her brand from a kitchen-table startup to a billion-dollar enterprise operating 136 global stores while driving a five-year expansion strategy targeting Paris, Milan, and Shanghai alongside region-specific product development. Complementing this commercial growth, the Tory Burch Foundation leverages the 10,000 Women Initiative to provide female entrepreneurs with capital, management education, and mentorship, a mission Burch advocates for on the President's Council on Entrepreneurship. This dual focus on aggressive international market penetration and social responsibility has strengthened employee retention and consumer engagement while establishing the brand as a leader in female empowerment.