Latest Interviews
Showing 1996–2010 of 3,058 transcripts.
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Finance as Strategy: When and How Startups Should Build a Finance Function
This event argues that establishing a robust finance function early alongside HR significantly boosts survival odds by treating financial planning as a strategic roadmap comparable to product development. Through case studies of companies that failed due to poor unit economics, cash flow mismanagement, or hiring junior staff, the presentation demonstrates how dedicated financial leadership prevents catastrophic runway depletion and unnecessary dilution. The discussion further outlines a specific hiring framework recommending outsourced full-stack CFO services for early-stage startups to ensure granular data accuracy and strategic oversight before transitioning to senior in-house leadership at scale.
- Milken Institute56 min
Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Company Culture
Gayle King, Tim Armstrong, Tyler Perry, Jeremy Zimmer
Tim Armstrong, Jeremy Zimmer, and Tyler Perry discuss divergent leadership strategies that prioritize diversity, culture, and hiring criteria to drive organizational success. Armstrong enforces meeting diversity through immediate cancellations, Zimmer utilizes friction meetings to encourage honest feedback while warning against backlash from the Me Too movement, and Perry prioritizes staff spirit and places victims in leadership roles to ensure accountability. The leaders conclude by defining success through personal milestones like family relationships and confidence building, while predicting that sustainable cultures and direct coaching will better withstand future industry shifts.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
The Breckoning: The Endgame for Great Britain and Europe in 2019
Anatole Kaletsky, Peter Beyer, Sir Michael Hintze, AM, GCSG, Michał Krupiński, Lord Mandelson, Sir Michael Hintze
Former UK Cabinet Minister Lord Peter Mandelson, hedge fund manager Sir Michael Hintze, Bank Pico CEO Miho Krupinski, and German Federal Minister Peter Beyer convened to analyze the severe economic and political risks of the United Kingdom's planned departure from the European Union Single Market and Customs Union. The panelists highlighted a critical imbalance where the UK's service-dependent economy faces significant regulatory barriers while the country lacks the negotiating manpower to replicate existing trade agreements with non-EU nations. Despite the government's pursuit of full autonomy, the experts warned that diverging from EU standards will inevitably reduce national income, trigger job relocations, and likely force a legislative deadlock that could precipitate a second referendum or an unmanageable no-deal exit.
- Milken Institute59 min
The Future of Leadership and the Workforce in the Age of Prediction
Caroline Fairchild, Dave McKay, Mike McNamara, Igor Tulchinsky, Jeff Wong, Serena Ross, Nina Reese, Kathleen McCabe, Jeff Madgen
Executives from RBC, Flex, WorldQuant, and EY convened at the Milken Institute Global conference to challenge pessimistic workforce displacement forecasts, arguing that automation primarily drives productivity and creates demand for higher-skilled roles rather than eliminating jobs. These leaders outlined sector-specific adaptations where RBC migrated from physical branches to digital platforms, Flex deployed full-stack automation to manage complex manufacturing, and EY shifted training focus toward adaptability and grit. The panelists concluded that bridging the skills gap requires immediate reform of education systems to prioritize work-integrated learning, alongside organizational shifts toward agile structures to ensure workers can keep pace with rapid technological evolution.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Cryptocurrencies: Irrational Exuberance or Brave New World?
Anna Irrera, Bill Barhydt, Alex Mashinsky, Brent McIntosh, Nouriel Roubini
Industry leaders and regulators convened to debate the viability of cryptocurrencies amidst extreme volatility, with Nouriel Roubini condemning the sector as the "mother of all bubbles" while Bill Barheit and Alex Mashinsky championed its potential as programmable money. The discussion highlighted a sharp regulatory divide, as U.S. Treasury official Brent McIntosh outlined strict anti-money laundering goals even as the SEC moves to classify most ICOs as securities. Ultimately, the panel agreed that while early retail investors suffered significant losses, the ecosystem is currently transitioning from a speculative phase toward utility-driven applications like the Lightning Network.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Mr. Speaker: A Conversation With Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan, Conrad Kiechel, Brian Sullivan
Concluding the Milken Institute Global Conference, House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed political polarization, the structural hurdles of the Senate filibuster, and the administration's "Better Way" economic agenda centered on tax reform and infrastructure. While declining to run for president again to prioritize his family, Ryan detailed legislative successes in aviation and veterans' affairs while warning that a split government following the 2018 midterms would result in dangerous gridlock. The interview further highlighted his strategies for addressing entitlement costs, labor market mismatches, and trade uncertainties, emphasizing that securing economic security is the most effective remedy for identity-based division.
- Milken Institute1h 12m
The Future of Health 2018
Tanisha Carino, Francis Collins, Diana DeGette, Jim Yong Kim, Michael Milken, Rajiv Shah
At a recent biomedical and economic conference, leaders discussed the transformative $3 billion 21st Century Cures Act and the ambitious "All of Us" program, which aims to recruit one million participants to generate personalized genomic and health data while addressing the opioid crisis through standardized research. Complementing these health initiatives, the World Bank introduced a Human Capital Index to rank nations on health and education outcomes, urging G20 leaders and investors to fund early development and infrastructure to mitigate global risks like automation-driven inequality and obesity-related economic burdens. These strategies collectively emphasize that sustained economic growth and stability depend on treating human capital investment as a critical driver of national sovereignty and future market resilience.
- Milken Institute1h 1m
Common Sense From Uncommon Investors
Michael Milken, Mark Attanasio, John Danhakl, Emanuel J. Friedman, George G. Hicks, Mitchell Julis
On May 1, 2018, moderator Michael Milken led a panel of five prominent investors, including Mitch Jewett of Canyon Partners and John Donahue of KKR, to discuss generating alpha through specialized expertise in distressed assets and private equity. The participants detailed their strategies for navigating complex restructurings like Caesars Entertainment and analyzing market inefficiencies caused by regulatory constraints and ETF dominance. This exchange highlighted how these firms leverage global reach and capital flexibility to achieve outsized returns while the panelists debated the timing of a banking sector recovery and the enduring value of alternative lending structures.
- Goldman Sachs26 min
Eric Schmidt: The Artificial Intelligence Revolution
Goldman Sachs accelerates its cloud migration to leverage superior cybersecurity and specialized hardware for AI workloads, while the broader industry shifts toward data-driven deep learning that prioritizes scale over algorithmic provability. This transition enables "savant systems" in fields like healthcare and finance to automate trial-and-error processes, supported by a global talent market increasingly dominated by computer science graduates. Although these technologies promise to democratize expert-level capabilities through on-device and cloud computing, their adoption faces monetization hurdles and ongoing geopolitical competition, particularly from China.
- Goldman Sachs45 min
Mary Barra on Driving Into the Future
GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra is steering General Motors from a post-bankruptcy restructuring into a profitable leader focused on the strategic goals of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion. Under her leadership, the automaker prioritized product safety by adopting aerospace standards and launched a "speak up for safety" initiative following the 2014 ignition switch crisis, while simultaneously advancing autonomous vehicle technology through its subsidiary Cruise Automation. Beyond corporate strategy, Barra champions STEM education and female workforce retention through programs like "Take Two" and the Detroit Children's Fund to ensure diverse representation and community economic revitalization.
- Goldman Sachs21 min
Diana B. Henriques: “A First-Class Catastrophe”: Lessons Learned from Black Monday
Diana B. Henriques, Sharmin Mosavaramani
This analysis juxtaposes the 1987 Black Monday crash, driven by opaque portfolio insurance strategies and fragmented regulation, with modern market vulnerabilities amplified by trillion-dollar asset managers and enduring regulatory silos. It further examines the psychological profile of Bernie Madoff, highlighting his pathological fear of failure and the spontaneous nature of his fraud's collapse, while detailing the HBO film "Wizard of Lies" production that secured Robert De Niro's casting through authentic in-prison dynamics. Together, these case studies illustrate how historical market failures and individual pathologies continue to inform contemporary debates on financial transparency and systemic risk.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Avoiding War With North Korea
Nicholas Kristof, Jean Lee, Yasuhide Nakayama, John Park, Bill Richardson
Moderated by Nicholas Kristof at the Milken Conference, experts Jean Lee, Yasuhide Nakayama, John Park, and Governor Bill Richardson analyzed the shifting geopolitical landscape of the Korean Peninsula following the Panmunjom Declaration. While Park and Richardson acknowledged tangible momentum such as the dismantling of the Punggye-ri test facility, Lee and Richardson warned that full denuclearization by 2021 remains unlikely due to Kim Jong-un's strategic use of nuclear capabilities for regime survival and internal legitimacy. The panel ultimately characterized the current diplomatic efforts as a fragile "action-for-action" process where South Korea and Japan face risks of marginalization, with prospects for a permanent freeze on nuclear programs rather than immediate total disarmament.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
A Conversation With Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall, Brian Sheth, Melissa Stevens
Jane Goodall and Brian Sheth discuss the convergence of private equity capital and global conservation through Goodall's Jane Goodall Institute and Sheth's leadership of Global Wildlife Conservation. They detail the expansion of Goodall's Roots & Shoots program to 150,000 youth groups and the institute's use of satellite technology to protect chimpanzee populations in Gombe and the Republic of Congo. The dialogue concludes with a strategic emphasis on integrating scientific rigor into policy-making and leveraging financial markets to sustain long-term environmental resilience.
- Milken Institute1h 0m
Strategy and Leadership in an Age of Disruption
Adam Lashinsky, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Jim McCaughan, Tim Sloan, Julie Sweet, Seth Caller, Jatrice Martel-Gator, Major Ken Tarr, Seema Shah
Leaders from Accenture, Wells Fargo, and 3G Capital discussed how accelerating disruption forces major corporations to shift from control-based leadership to innovation-focused cultures, with artificial intelligence becoming a ubiquitous utility rather than a niche experiment. Panelists detailed specific strategies for this transition, including Wells Fargo's restructuring into unified customer-centric models, Accenture's rapid sprints that delivered complex solutions in weeks, and 3G Capital's internal units dedicated to self-disruption. To sustain these advancements, the group emphasized that ethical AI adoption and proactive workforce reskilling are critical, noting that successful organizations are reinvesting automation savings into talent development while addressing diversity gaps to prevent systemic flaws.
- Milken Institute1h 3m
Lord of the Rings: A Conversation With Five-Time Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady
Tom Brady reaffirmed his commitment to playing through the 2018-2019 season by prioritizing longevity through his TB12 Method, a wellness protocol focused on pliability and injury prevention that aims to extend his career into his mid-40s. During a comprehensive discussion on team dynamics and personal philosophy, he clarified that he had no input on the Super Bowl LII roster decisions while emphasizing his reliance on family for motivation and his distinct approach to leadership. The conversation also covered his skepticism of new NFL rules, his assessment of Bill Belichick's genius, and his belief that the league must balance entertainment value with player safety to sustain industry growth.