Latest Interviews

Equity in Infrastructure Development: The Digital Divide

Jackie Botts, Michael P. Anderson, Carolyn McIntyre, Sunne McPeak, Alexandra Rosen, David Lesher, Matt Horton

Co-hosted by CalMatters and the Milken Institute, a recent forum examined the critical role of high-speed broadband in addressing California's digital divide and promoting workforce equity. The discussion highlighted that while the state approved a $6 billion investment package to fund middle-mile infrastructure and last-mile expansion, significant barriers including high costs, digital literacy gaps, and inefficient permitting processes continue to hinder access for 2 million disadvantaged households. Experts emphasized that achieving true connectivity requires a hybrid approach combining fiber and wireless solutions, alongside public-private partnerships and targeted outreach to communities skeptical of traditional internet service providers.

Should covid-19 vaccines be mandatory?

Natasha Lodo

Debate over mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policies intensifies as approximately 30% of U.S. adults remain unvaccinated, creating a polarized divide between public health advocates and those defending bodily autonomy. While jurisdictions like Italy and U.S. states such as California have implemented employer mandates and federal testing requirements, the nation lacks a uniform national strategy due to constitutional limitations and stark political opposition. Historical precedents from the smallpox era and mixed results from financial incentive programs suggest that future vaccine mandates will remain highly localized, varying significantly by state politics and legal frameworks.

Accelerating Securitization in Africa to Finance the SDGs

Alison Harwood, Lade Araba, Samuel Chasia, Juan Pablo de Mollein, John Schellhaus, Sam Chasia

The Milken Institute has launched the African Securitization Alliance, bringing together regulatory bodies from Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, and Côte d'Ivoire to mobilize private capital for Sustainable Development Goals. Participants will utilize a framework of internal and external credit enhancement mechanisms, such as tranching and third-party guarantees from entities like GARANTCo, to mitigate risk and improve market access. Upcoming activities include a specialized workshop in Ghana and a strategic shift toward replicable structures in renewable energy and affordable housing to overcome data gaps and legal barriers.

Small Business Community: What Happened to Mom and Pop?

Nigel Duara, Lenore Estrada, Isabella Casillas Guzman, Eugene Cornelius, Jr., Carolina Martinez, Mark J. Robertson, Sr., David Lesher

Co-hosted by CalMatters and the Milken Institute, this strategic discussion examined the critical recovery challenges facing California's four million small businesses with special attention to the stark disparities affecting communities of color and women-owned enterprises. Featuring newly appointed SBA Director Isabella Casillas Guzman, the event analyzed how the agency's portfolio expansion to over $1 trillion was initially skewed by banking biases, prompting a pivot toward a "Five C's" framework that prioritizes coaching, diverse capital, and community navigation to address exclusion. Looking forward, the SBA is repositioning to connect small businesses with the $500 billion federal infrastructure marketplace while implementing a $100 million Community Navigator pilot to streamline access for underserved entrepreneurs.

California: The Post-COVID Future of Work

Jackie Botts, Sarah Bohn, Rob Lapsley, David Lesher, Matt Horton, Aleida Ramirez, Lorena Gonzalez

Co-hosted by CalMatters and the Milken Institute's California Center, this panel examined how California's post-pandemic economic recovery is exacerbating racial and income inequalities despite a $75.7 billion budget surplus. Moderator Jackie Botts facilitated discussions among policymakers like Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, who advocated for treating child care as public infrastructure, reforming the EDD to prevent fraud, and prioritizing trade apprenticeships over traditional college degrees. The event concluded with a consensus on structural reforms for 2030, including unionized service-sector wages, expanded safety nets, and legislative changes to support remote work and essential workers who cannot telecommute.

The Future of NFTs

Chris Dixon, Dan Boneh, Ariana

Chris Dixon and Dan Bonet discuss how NFTs fundamentally shift web architecture by enabling true digital ownership and allowing creators to bypass centralized intermediaries through programmable royalty structures. The conversation details how technical advancements like the ERC-721 standard facilitate financial innovation through DeFi composability, enabling assets to be tokenized, collateralized, and traded across interoperable ecosystems. Furthermore, the speakers address long-term security protocols and storage solutions necessary to preserve these digital assets indefinitely while noting the current adoption barriers faced by regulated institutional collectors.

Is Myanmar a failed state?

Following a February 1st military coup that has resulted in over 780 deaths and 3,800 arrests, the junta has detained de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on multiple charges while facing a nascent civil war as the Bamar majority joins ethnic militias in armed resistance. Although international sanctions and diplomatic pressure from the West have targeted senior generals, robust intervention remains blocked by veto power wielded by China and Russia, who prioritize regional infrastructure and strategic arms sales. Consequently, Myanmar risks becoming a failed state plagued by collapsing health systems, uncontrolled drug production, and cross-border refugee flows, while the military inherits a devastated economy despite its current control.

Lessons Learned from COVID-19: Are There Silver Linings for Biomedical Innovation?

Esther Krofah, Francis Collins, Richard Moscicki, Ellen Sigal, Janet Woodcock

Hosted by Faster Cures, a webinar convened NIH officials and industry leaders to analyze the COVID-19 pandemic's acceleration of biomedical innovation, highlighting achievements such as the ACTIV partnership's master protocols and the RADx initiative's diagnostic scaling. The discussion detailed how the crisis forced a shift toward competitive collaboration, decentralized trials, and the successful achievement of diverse vaccine trial enrollment, while simultaneously exposing critical infrastructure gaps in clinical trial execution and real-world data integration. Panelists concluded with a consensus that emergency-driven reforms must be institutionalized through permanent policy changes and public-private partnerships to sustain preparedness for future health threats.

Walking the Talk: Investing in the Future of Black Banks, Entrepreneurship, and Opportunity

Eugene Cornelius, Jr, Henry Childs II, Emanuel Friedman, Tracy Gray, Joseph Haskins, Jr., Aron Betru

This panel examines the systemic barriers preventing Black entrepreneurs from accessing capital and reveals that closing the racial wealth gap could unlock $1.6 trillion in US economic potential. Experts advocate for a strategic shift from traditional inclusion to innovation by leveraging $9 billion in government-funded preferred stock to mobilize $90 billion in community lending and aggregating pension capital for diverse asset managers. The discussion concludes with a call to build a self-sustaining minority economy driven by global export opportunities, artificial intelligence, and direct financing models rather than reliance on historically exclusionary systems.

The Next Decade: How to Manage Disruption

Scarlet Fu, Beth Ferreira, Gregg Lemkau, Brian Sheth, Chris Stadler

Leading investment experts discuss how the pandemic has accelerated the commoditization of technology and triggered a 28-year high rate of operational disruption, forcing a permanent shift toward hybrid work models and virtual deal-making. The panel highlights unprecedented capital deployment creating a valuation barbell that distorts traditional buying opportunities, while specific sectors like biotech, digital health, and software modernization drive innovation amidst concerns over social cohesion and inequality. Future market dynamics are expected to evolve into a hybrid public exit strategy combining IPOs, SPACs, and direct listings, with management resiliency and ESG integration serving as the primary metrics for long-term investment viability.

Technology and the Opening of Trade

Eugene Cornelius, Marianne Jason, Mary Yang, Kevin Smith-Ramos, Fred Hogberg

A panel of experts from the OECD, Canada, Mexico, and the US Ex-Im Bank emphasized that modernizing trade agreements like USMCA and reforming the WTO are critical to helping SMEs overcome financing barriers and digital divides. The discussion highlighted a divergence in national strategies, contrasting the US's fragmented agency approach with Canada's consolidated model while stressing the need for domestic policies to bolster workforce readiness alongside international market access. Ultimately, participants agreed that sustainable global growth requires addressing social inequities and leveraging digital tools to democratize trade participation for smaller enterprises and developing economies.

Part 1: A Conversation with US Department of Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia | Part 2: The Future of W

Eugene Scalia, Jane Oates, Milo Ortiz-Oakley, Vivian Ming, Steve Isak, Sarita Gupta

A U.S. administration official outlines a post-pandemic economic strategy centered on revitalizing growth through apprenticeship expansion, tax incentives, and the reclassification of broadband as critical infrastructure. Concurrently, experts from the aerospace, education, and philanthropy sectors highlight persistent challenges regarding workforce equity, racial bias in technology, and the urgent need to shift higher education toward inclusive, competency-based models. These coordinated efforts aim to address structural labor market shifts while ensuring that underrepresented groups benefit from renewed economic opportunities.

The Credit Recovery: Uneven, Unequal, Uncertain?

Mike Divavar, Bill Friend-Carrstairs, Leslie Cowan, Joe Nagar, Jim Zelter

Panelists from Fortress, GoldenTree, Apollo, and Varday outline a K-shaped credit recovery driven by deep dislocations between equity valuations and distressed debt spreads across sectors like aviation, energy, and commercial real estate. These institutional investors are leveraging specialized infrastructure to acquire undervalued assets in emerging markets and structured credit, targeting high returns while navigating central bank dependency and the risks posed by zombie companies. The consensus projects a multi-year reconstruction phase where private credit expansion and complex asset management strategies will capture significant market share as traditional markets transition from liquidity crises to solvency challenges.

The Impact Revolution: From Sustainable Development Goals to Solutions

Glenn, Sir Ronald Cohen, Eugene Kendall, Bhaskar, Alex Wayne

Facing a $2.5 trillion annual financing gap and a global economic contraction caused by the pandemic, experts at this event proposed leveraging impact-weighted accounting and blended finance to mobilize the estimated $32 trillion in private capital required for the Sustainable Development Goals. Leaders including Sir Ronald Cohen and representatives from the Syngenta Foundation detailed strategies to quantify corporate social and environmental costs through Harvard Business School's Impact Weighted Accounts while scaling smallholder agriculture via the Agripreneur model and digital de-risking tools. The consensus emerged that governments must mandate impact transparency to bridge the financing divide, aligning the "triple helix" of risk, reward, and impact to transform profit and purpose from mutually exclusive goals into a unified growth engine.

Risks and Rewards: Accelerating Climate Change Solutions

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Gina McCarthy, Nat Simons, John Kasich, Sheldon Whitehouse, Alex Witt

Moderated by Alex Witt, a bipartisan panel including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and former Governor John Kasich identified the $600 billion annual fossil fuel subsidy as the primary barrier to climate action while advocating for carbon pricing and the elimination of such subsidies to force market correction. Despite audience sentiment favoring the private sector, speakers emphasized that systemic government intervention is necessary to address health inequities, counter industry-funded misinformation, and achieve the emission reductions required within the next decade. The discussion concluded by calling for a "World War II-level mobilization" driven by media accountability and public pressure to restore bipartisan cooperation on practical environmental solutions.