Michael Milken – Innovations in Finance, Medicine, and Education (EP.371)

Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry

Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Investing, Capitalallocation, Business

4.8 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michael Milken is a legendary financier and philanthropist. Mike is best known for his role in creating the high yield bond market in the 1970s and 1980s at Drexel Burnham Lambert, his guilty plea, and his remarkable philanthropic efforts over fifty years supporting medical research, education, and public health. Under Mike’s leadership, upstart Drexel became the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, enabled capital to become available for the 99% of companies that could not previously access the public market, and turned into the greatest breeding ground for talent in the industry. Approximately seventy investment firms are headed by leaders who worked for Mike, including founders and leaders of Apollo, Ares, Blackstone, Canyon, Cerberus, Crescent, GoldenTree, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Leonard Green, and Moelis.

Our conversation begins with Mike’s childhood and his early interest in democratizing access to capital. We discuss his career goals, the importance of capital structure, and his perspectives on markets today. We then turn to Mike’s long history of philanthropic work to improve education and advance cancer research, as described in his book Faster Cures: Accelerating the Future of Health.

I should note that we do not discuss Mike’s difficult years post-Drexel or his pardon in 2020. However, next week Mike’s longtime personal attorney, Richard Sandler, will join me to discuss just that.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Ted Sides, and this is Capital Allocators.
0:10.1	This show is an open exploration of the people and process behind capital allocation.
0:16.1	Through conversations with leaders in the money game, we learn how these holders of the keys to the
0:21.7	kingdom allocate their time and their capital. You can join our mailing list and access premium
0:27.8	content at capital allocators.com. All opinions expressed by TED and podcast guests are solely their
0:35.4	own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of capital
0:37.7	allocators or their firms. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
0:44.5	Clients of capital allocators or podcast guests may maintain positions and securities discussed on this podcast.
0:51.0	My guest on today's show is Michael Milken, legendary financier and philanthropist.
0:57.8	Mike is best known for his role in creating the high-yield bond market in the 1970s and 80s at Drexel Burnham-Lambert, his plea in a controversial prosecution, and his remarkable philanthropic efforts over 50 years supporting medical research,
1:13.5	education, and public health. Under Mike's leadership, Upstart Drexel became the most successful
1:19.8	securities firm on Wall Street, enabled capital to become available for the 99% of companies
1:25.9	that could not previously access to public markets,
1:28.5	and turned into the greatest breeding ground for talent in the industry.
1:33.5	Approximately 70 investment firms are headed by leaders who worked for Mike,
1:37.6	including founders and leaders at Apollo, Aries, Blackstone, Canyon, Cerberus, Crescent, Golden Tree, Goldman Sachs, Jeffreys,
1:48.4	Leonard Green, and Moles. Our conversation begins with Mike's childhood and his early
1:53.8	interest in democratizing access to capital. We discuss his career goals, the importance of
1:59.7	capital structure, and his perspectives on markets
2:02.6	today.
2:03.5	We then turned to Mike's long history of philanthropic work to improve education and
2:08.3	advanced medical research, as described in his book, Faster Cures, Accelerating the Future
	...

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