Latest Interviews
Showing 736–750 of 757 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- 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.
- Goldman Sachs10 min
Lauren Bush Lauren, founder & CEO of FEED Projects: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Founded by a former college student inspired by global hunger statistics, the for-profit enterprise Feed utilizes a consumer goods model to fund meals for both international school feeding programs and domestic food banks. The organization’s flagship Feed Supper initiative and strategic partnerships with groups like the UN World Food Program aim to distribute 100 million meals by its tenth anniversary, with a focus on using nutrition to improve school attendance for girls in the world's poorest countries. Ultimately, the venture operates under the vision of achieving global food security so thoroughly that it can rebrand as "Fed" and dissolve its own operations.
- Goldman Sachs9 min
Inventor Dean Kamen & Goldman Sachs' Don Duet: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Dean Kamen, Don Duet, Calvin Lully
A self-taught entrepreneur who entered the healthcare sector to solve fundamental problems rather than make incremental improvements, the speaker cites the iBot wheelchair as a breakthrough that overcame both physical and social barriers for users like Calvin Lully. Challenging the notion that education lacks teachers or resources, the speaker argues that engagement requires packaging learning through entertainment and elevating tech innovators as cultural heroes. While employing 600 engineers to define new markets, the organization intentionally avoids direct manufacturing, instead partnering with global incumbents to scale rare, world-changing innovations despite a high rate of experimental failure.
- Goldman Sachs17 min
Lord John Browne with GS CIO Marty Chavez: Talks at GS Session Highlights
Lord John Browne, Marty Chavez
The event synthesizes global energy transition challenges with corporate diversity strategies, highlighting how technological innovation and capital investment drive renewable cost reductions while policymakers navigate the trade-offs between energy security and decarbonization. Speaker Lord Brown illustrates the psychological and productivity costs of hiding personal identities in conservative business environments, using his own experience with tabloid exposure to underscore the need for authentic leadership. He concludes by outlining seven specific elements for fostering inclusive cultures, emphasizing that effective diversity initiatives require top-down direction, senior leadership integration, and comprehensive policies that address gender, sexuality, and race simultaneously.
- Y Combinator19 min
Kathryn Minshew at Female Founders Conference 2014
Kathryn Minshew, Catherine Minshew
The Muse, a career discovery platform founded by CEO Catherine Minshew and co-founders Alex and Melissa, grew from a WordPress MVP to over one million monthly users by prioritizing product-market fit over perfection and securing Y Combinator funding after multiple rejections. The team achieved rapid distribution through zero-cost acquisition tactics, such as manual outreach to niche groups and frictionless referral tools, while maintaining a lean culture where leaders earn less than their employees to emphasize mission over profit. Their strategic shift from vanity metrics like video views to core indicators like job applications allowed them to validate demand with the target demographic and scale from a two-user beta to a sustainable global platform.
- Milken Institute6 min
Najib Ghadbian on Syria
Following years of localized repression against the Damascus Spring and Damasco Declaration movements, the 2011 uprising in Daraa ignited a conflict that ultimately killed over 70,000 people and displaced nearly 4 million Syrians. To address this crisis, a 70-member opposition coalition recognized by 114 nations formed a mini-parliament to plan a transition government while General Salim Idris unified 80% of Free Syrian Army factions under the Supreme Military Council. These coordinated political and military structures now face the challenge of leading a nation where over one million citizens have fled abroad and the humanitarian toll continues to escalate.
- Milken Institute7 min
Carlos Slim's Economic Advice
The speaker argues that Western economies face a structural crisis driven by demographic shifts and obsolete fiscal policies, necessitating a transition to a "new civilization" model. To address actuarially bankrupt pension systems and chronic deficits, the proposal advocates for privatizing state infrastructure through public-private partnerships and implementing a radical three-day, 11-hour workweek. This reform aims to expand labor participation, stimulate growth in service sectors, and ensure a sustainable transition where assets eventually revert to public ownership.
- Milken Institute11 min
Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina Talks Big Data at the Milken Institute's 2013 Global Conference
The Obama 2008-2012 presidential campaigns established a data-driven paradigm by deploying over 160 analysts to build behavioral models that accurately predicted election outcomes across all 50 states within a 0.5% margin. Executing this strategy required massive nightly polling and A/B testing to allocate a billion-dollar budget efficiently, securing unprecedented support from undecided voters through personalized digital outreach and targeted social media simulations. While Republican opponents acknowledged a significant technical lag in these early years, the campaign's successors now focus on reinventing these tactics for the 2016 cycle to prevent stagnation in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
- Bank of America9 min
Bank of America tech exec talks to Institutional Investor
A financial institution successfully completed a 15-year strategic initiative to consolidate its US consumer and small business operations onto a single core banking platform, a process culminating in the migration of 10 million customers and 19.5 million accounts in California. This massive transition, executed over two weekends, retired 110 legacy applications and removed approximately 200 non-standard products while adhering to a "rebuild, replace, and reduce" modernization framework. The organization now focuses on shifting from legacy maintenance to future growth through mobile-first solutions, advanced AI analytics, and a revised talent acquisition strategy prioritizing problem-solving skills over specific programming languages.