The Architect
Structured and legacy-driven; builds the systems and institutions that last.
Henry Cornell builds before he invests, which is why The Architect fits. The Cornell Capital founder and former head of Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking designs investment structures around proven competency edges and explicitly refuses opportunistic reach beyond his domain knowledge.
“With a tin cup, but spent literally two thousand thirteen, fourteen and fifteen thinking about how the landscape had changed, looking at the lessons of a lifetime, what worked, what didn't, since I could create my own ethos in a new enterprise, what would my business principles be?”
“Well, it's an excellent question, and there are many opinions on how this should be measured. I try and balance IRR with MOIC, multiple of invested capital. IRR is a wonderful tool for measuring performance against other asset classes. But at the end of the day, you can't pay electric bills with IRR, you pay them with cash or your MOIC.”
“It is quite attractive to borrow because borrowing has been historically in this last decade incredibly cheap and covenant light, which frankly allows for excess.”
“Well, it was frankly extraordinary luck to be present at the creation of history. I was fortunate literally to watch China go from Mao suits to blue suits, bicycles to cars. And the greatest explosion of human creativity, human wealth creation, I think in history because it was just unleashed.”
Masters in Business: “Henry Cornell on Merchant Banking (Podcast)”
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