Latest Interviews
Showing 1396–1410 of 1,510 interview transcripts.
Clear all filters- Goldman Sachs14 min
Talks at GS – Magic Johnson On “Over-Delivering” On And Off The Court
Magic Johnson, Earvin "Magic" Johnson
Magic Johnson transitioned from leading Michigan State to an NCAA title and cultivating a legendary rivalry with Larry Bird in the NBA to a distinguished business career driven by strategic mentorship and deep market insight. Following his 1991 HIV diagnosis, he credits his 26-year survival to a regimen of mental resilience, physical training, and medication adherence, while leveraging his public platform to launch ventures like Magic Johnson Theaters and invest in the Los Angeles Sparks and Dodgers. Johnson now focuses his legacy on creating economic opportunities for people of color in urban America, prioritizing societal impact over personal wealth accumulation.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
Talks at GS – Telling the Human Side of the Refugee Crisis: “This is Home”
Alexandra Shiva, Princess Firyal of Jordan
Princess Feryal of Jordan and filmmaker Alexandra co-produced a documentary that chronicles the lives of four refugee families in Baltimore, specifically juxtaposing a humorous couple against educated professionals to humanize the displacement crisis. The film explores complex themes such as the psychological erosion of dignity among unemployed men, the enduring longing for a homeland, and the critical role of grassroots community integration in fostering stability. Drawing on Princess Feryal's advocacy, the project serves as a catalyst for local mentorship and political engagement, urging audiences to support international refugees while highlighting the disproportionate burden on host nations like Jordan.
- Goldman Sachs17 min
Talks at GS – Virginie Morgon: A Global Outlook on the Future of Finance
Virginie Morgan assumes the CEO role at private equity firm Eurasio in March, overseeing a strategic pivot from a France-centric model to a global expansion that prioritizes annual process reinvention and US market integration. Her macroeconomic outlook anticipates strong growth in Europe, China, and the US through 2018, though she flags late 2019 as a potential period of vulnerability. Concurrently, Morgan enforces a rigorous diversity mandate requiring female candidates for every hire and immediate intervention against disrespectful behavior, grounding her leadership in a personal ethic of self-respect and proactive career visibility.
- Goldman Sachs9 min
Talks at GS – Rajeev Misra: Creating Capital for the Future
The SoftBank Vision Fund, a $100 billion vehicle that channels all SoftBank Group investments, targets late-stage private market leaders with a mandate to back 100 companies globally over three years. Its strategy prioritizes massive capital deployment to accelerate "winner-takes-all" expansion in China, India, and the U.S., often encouraging portfolio firms to raise more funds than initially planned to secure immediate global dominance. To ensure long-term liquidity and returns, the fund prefers IPOs or debt market access over secondary sales, aiming to validate its portfolio companies through public market performance within its 14-year maturity term.
- The Economist7 min
Bassem Youssef: Why we should laugh at leaders
Former heart surgeon Dr. Bassem Youssef transformed Egyptian media by launching the satirical program *Al-Bernameg*, which reached 30 million viewers and critiqued the hypocrisy of the state during the Arab Spring. As the political landscape shifted from the ousting of Hosni Mubarak to the military coup led by General Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, Youssef faced escalating state censorship, including broadcast jamming and arrests, which ultimately forced his show off the air in 2014. Now established in the United States, Youssef's legacy endures as a catalyst for breaking decades of silence on political discourse in Egypt, with his work demonstrating the inherent link between satire and genuine freedom of expression.
- Goldman Sachs16 min
Talks at GS – Juan Enriquez: The Future of Humankind
Juan Enriquez posits that humanity has transitioned from natural selection to "human selection," granting the power to deliberately program the genetic code of all species and establishing the bio-economy as the dominant global force for the coming century. This biological revolution promises to eradicate diseases, regenerate complex organs, and replace animal agriculture through synthetic alternatives, while simultaneously raising ethical questions that Enriquez addresses by advocating for a 25% protected reserve of nature on Earth or in space. Looking further ahead, Enriquez predicts that non-invasive neural interfaces will soon bridge human consciousness with machines and that extraterrestrial life will likely be detected within five years, fundamentally altering our understanding of biology and our place in the universe.
- Goldman Sachs14 min
Talks at GS –Jayne-Anne Gadhia: Driving Gender Equality in Business
Jayne-Anne Gadhia, Sir Richard Branson
Upon returning to Virgin Money in 2006, CEO Jane-Anne Gaddier orchestrated a high-stakes acquisition of the distressed Northern Rock under Richard Branson's direction, transforming the brand into a safe, long-term legacy asset. Gaddier subsequently led a rigorous gender equality initiative that dismantled structural barriers by rejecting bonus data skewed against women and enforcing aggregate statistical parity in pay distributions. Her leadership also established a culture prioritizing output over presence and leveraging the Virgin platform to support executive civic engagement through strategic institutional and spousal support systems.
- Goldman Sachs18 min
Talks at GS – Scooter Braun: Disrupting the Music Industry
Scooter Braun leverages a "why not" philosophy to transform from an underdog college promoter into a global music mogul who discovered Justin Bieber on YouTube and secured Psy's "Gangnam Style" by honoring the artist's original language. His management strategy emphasizes translating creative genius for corporate partners, most notably negotiating a landmark partnership between Kanye West and Adidas that produced the brand's best-selling footwear. In a defining demonstration of his resilience, Braun proceeded with a high-risk benefit concert in Manchester following a 2017 terror attack, successfully rallying 60,000 attendees and 22 of the 23 victim families as a defiant response to violence.
- Goldman Sachs7 min
Talks at GS – Haim Saban: The Life of a Media Mogul
Haim Saban leveraged his early success in music and animation to create the Power Rangers franchise, a global phenomenon that generated over $10 billion in merchandise and led to the strategic acquisition of the Fox Family Channel. His 2001 investment in the bankrupt German broadcaster KirchMedia secured significant political backing from leaders such as Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, becoming a highly profitable venture with symbolic importance in post-war Germany. Throughout his career, Saban balanced these massive commercial achievements with a steadfast personal focus on family and active advocacy for the U.S.-Israel alliance.
- Goldman Sachs15 min
Talks at GS – Jeff Orlowski: Exploring the Global Effects of Climate Change
Director Jeff Walowski, whose documentary *Chasing Coral* premiered on Netflix in July 2024 after an official selection at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, utilizes time-lapse photography to reveal the accelerating global collapse of coral reef ecosystems. The film details how rising ocean temperatures have triggered the third mass bleaching event in history, threatening the food security and homes of hundreds of millions of people in low-lying island nations within the next three decades. While documenting these catastrophic shifts, Walowski frames the crisis as a reversible "planetary bankruptcy" issue, arguing that a rapid transition to sustainable practices can restore Earth's ecological balance without sacrificing economic growth.
- Goldman Sachs10 min
Talks at GS – Nick Leschly: The Promise of Gene Therapy
Bluebird Bio is applying a gene-editing strategy to treat genetic diseases like sickle cell disease and cancer by harvesting patient stem cells, inserting functional DNA via viral vectors, and reinfusing the modified cells to achieve a permanent cure. Led by CEO Nick Lashley, the company has overcome a history of industry overpromising by adopting a strictly patient-centric culture that enforces operational frugality and high executive autonomy to ensure focus on therapeutic efficacy. Early clinical results demonstrate the therapy's potential, with treated sickle cell patients reportedly free of pain medication within six months, validating the firm's shift toward "function engineering" rather than simple restoration.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Talks at GS – Dan Huttenlocher: Tech and the City – Powering the Future
Cornell Tech Dean Dan Huttenlacher outlined the creation of the Roosevelt Island campus as a strategic response to bridge the gap between university education and the digital economy, mirroring the historic establishment of engineering schools in the 1860s. Drawing on New York's thriving venture capital ecosystem, Huttenlacher distinguished the current technological landscape by emphasizing human dexterity in unstructured scenarios while advocating for AI's efficacy in rule-based tasks. He further addressed the necessity of diversifying the computer science demographic and navigating societal challenges posed by social media and blockchain, urging a corporate framework that prioritizes stakeholders before engaging in proactive societal dialogue.
- Goldman Sachs9 min
Talks at GS – Tony Prophet: Promoting Equality in the Workplace
Salesforce co-founder Tony Profitt describes how the company institutionalized a three-vector innovation model centered on the "1-1-1" philanthropy framework and an "Ohana" culture defined by trust, growth, innovation, and equality. As the organization's first Chief Equality Officer, Profitt outlines a four-lane strategy for societal impact that includes opposing discriminatory legislation, enforcing equal pay, expanding educational access, and mirroring local demographics through inclusive hiring practices. This approach challenges traditional notions of cultural fit to create an environment where diverse talent thrives, positioning long-term societal legacy as a core business objective rather than an afterthought.
- Goldman Sachs12 min
Talks at GS – Ella and Matthew Mills: Deliciously Ella’s Recipe for Success
Following a personal health diagnosis, Ella Mills transformed her recovery blog into Deliciously Ella, a leading international food brand that achieved record-breaking cookbook sales and app downloads without formal marketing or an internal creative team. To scale the operation, co-CEO Matthew Mills joined to provide essential financial expertise, enabling the consolidation of the fragmented free-from market into a single optimistic entity with distribution in 5,500 stores. Driven by Mills' direct daily engagement with 28 million social media followers, the company aims to become the UK's largest health food business by prioritizing general dietary improvement over niche weight loss trends.
- Y Combinator18 min
Preston Silverman on Building out a Marketplace in Education - at YC Edtech Night
Founded by a former strategy consultant and teacher, Raise Me awards nearly $1.5 billion in scholarships during high school to bridge the critical gap between eligibility and college enrollment. The platform secured its initial growth through a $100,000 Gates Foundation grant and strategic partnerships with higher education institutions, bypassing traditional EdTech skepticism to address the $100 billion annual scholarship market. Now a 52-person organization aiming for national ubiquity within five years, the company shifts focus from early-stage survival tactics to scaling its model that prioritizes student guidance and skill development over content-heavy curricula.