YouSaid · the spoken record

Donna Snider

lines on the record: 71
first: 2019-01-28
most recent: 2019-01-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“These are young people out of college, maybe a few years' experience if they've been with you for a little bit. How do you decide when their judgment should influence even, so you're going to China for two weeks, you only have two weeks? There's only a certain number of meetings you can take. Where does the rubber meet the road and who sets the agenda for that trip?”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Preparing the agenda for those trips is working with each of the analysts and them saying, these are the best people we've found in these different asset classes. And so it's a great balance to come back and make good investment decisions as a team because everybody has something to compare it to. Everybody knows what's going on in the emerging markets on the senior team. And everybody can say, here's a return in an emerging market versus a developed market. And how do those two compare in terms of return opportunity and risk? But then also you can say within the developed world, this is what's going on in public equity versus credit and which is the better thing to focus on right now. And that is intellectually extremely interesting for me and higher quality than it was 10 years ago just from our team structure.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And we made that change probably two and a half, three years ago. And what we have got out of it is amazing. Their understanding, their ownership over the results, the material has been phenomenal. And so we as a senior team still work as generalist. And so if any one of us say might be working on a real estate idea or a venture capital idea, we will work with the real estate analyst or we will work with the venture capital analyst. And oftentimes the analyst is almost leading us, right? Which is great. The benefit of still being generalist is, for example, I just got back from two weeks in China and I met with venture capitalists and credit hedge funds and public equity and the gamut, but I could come back and say, this is what I saw going on in the Chinese economy. This is what I saw was most interesting. And then how does that compare to what I'm seeing in developed markets?”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the idea was at maturity or at we would have one analyst coming in every year and one analyst graduating every year, we'd probably have a pool of three to four-ish analysts, right? And that would be great. The junior analyst would learn from the senior analyst and life would go on. What we found out was we were using the pool of analysts, much like the investment banks, like the generalist pool of analysts, and we would kind of tap them on different projects. We weren't getting great quality. It was good, but it could be better. And they said to us, We don't feel like we're adding value. You're asking us to do a bunch of stuff, but we don't really know what we're doing. Like, yeah, we can make a spreadsheet. Yes, we can make a pitch book. Yes, we could do this. We can have a call with a manager. But I feel like I know material as wide as an ocean as deep as a puddle. And so how else could we think about this? And so what we did was we actually changed our analyst model to be specialists. So we stayed as generalist on the senior team and then we changed our analysts to be asset class specialists.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A really good training grounds sit across the table from some of the smartest investors in the world, inform yourself about what you think your skill set and your passion is, and then go back to business school, go back to law school, go back to grad school, use what you learned at Kresgi as a generalist, and go move on.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It has evolved for sure. And I think for the positive, we on the senior team have learned and I appreciate the fact that we've got a good relationship with the junior team and they have given us their feedback as to what could make it better. When I started, I think we had two analysts. And the idea was to build on the program similar to the way the investment banks do it. To hire talent out of undergrad, train and teach them, give them support to get their CFA, and help them move on to the next stage of their career or private foundation. We're generally not growing that fast in assets, which also means we're not growing that fast in headcount. So if you're a bright junior talent who's growing, there's just not that many places to move up, right? Because until somebody retires or leaves or moves on, there's not a clear growth trajectory. There's not as much turnover with small numbers. So the idea was give junior talent a really good introduction to the business.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And the gross tenet spread. That was extremely eye-opening. And the fact that these things were marked quarterly, I said, what about daily and daily margin? It was very different, very different.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, what was funny was my last job at the bank was actually covering financial sponsors in the LBO Gogo Heyday when we were levering deals beyond. All possible limits. And so I would see the deals from the bank side when we were offering credit on the deals and then we were hedging the deals. And so I knew what the deals are priced. I spent a lot of time as the deal person. And then it was very interesting to sit across from that manager as a potential investor and hear the story of why they bought that company. So as we would listen to the managers tell their stories and review their performance on the fund, gross of fees and net of fees the fee discovery was huge, right? Because everybody would ask me, well, what are we paying for that derivative? You're not, there is no fee for the derivative. We're going to buy it at this and the dealer is going to turn around and sell it. We're buying it an X, they're selling it at Y. It's called bid ask. There's not a fee. And that was a big learning, right? And then when I would see what the fees were in the private side.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lesson for me is that one data point is just that one data point. And until you know what the universe looks like, you're not going to make a very good decision”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was like, what? And so that was one data point. And then I quickly realized when I got data point number two, I had a line. And when I got data point number three, I had a surface. And then I started collecting more and more data points and the picture got so much clearer. And when I work with junior people now when they first come in, it's so funny to see their reaction to the very first data point that they collect because they have no idea where in the universe that lands. And then when they start collecting more and they define the boundaries of the universe, that's what I feel like I spent the first, I'm still building my picture of the universe, but building that universe over the first easily two to three years of just constantly meeting more managers, more managers, more managers, hearing their story, having the manager define what their edge is, having the manager define what their strategy is, why they're better than the next person doing the same thing. That was the biggest lesson.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You never are quite getting the deal that you think you're getting, maybe. Certainly on the trading side, I think we were trading with one counterparty. Chances are we weren't getting the best price. So step one was we pretty significantly expanded the number of counterparties that we traded with and did a lot more price discovery on both the way in and the way out. So that took some work, but overall improved what we were able to do. So that was good. And then when I first met a manager, I would meet somebody, wow, they were really nice. That was great. I totally understand it. And my colleagues would say, Donna, that was terrible.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Off against them and on a trade, and then they taught me a lot about here's the questions you need to ask when a manager comes. They show you a pitch book. These are the qualities that we look for. And I've learned a ton from my colleagues who come from the ENF world and have been doing this a lot longer than myself.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's about the same size. We've grown a little bit in headcount, but when I went for the position, we spent a lot of time talking about my background and the fact that they were hiring me specifically for my experience in derivatives. However, the team was structured as generalists from the top to the bottom. And at the time, I guess Rob was the CIO and there were three of us at the senior level and we had a couple analysts who worked for us. And everybody worked on everything. We had to all do manager diligence. We had to all do asset allocation. We were jacks of all trades. So although my background was specific because we do a lot of trading in the portfolio and hedging and overlays, they also expected me to learn how to be a manager sourcing and diligence thing. So I said, okay, that sounds great. I'd love to learn that. So I looked at it as a gift. And then I said, who's going to work with me on the trading side? So I taught them a lot about here's what the street is doing when you're facing.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I always say that my job when I was on the sell side was create a bunch of widgets, and the more widgets I could create and get out the door, the better. And now my job as an investor is evaluating all those widgets and only picking the best. So I really switched from quantity to quality. And it's been amazing. It's just a great intellectual experience to make that shift.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That led into some other roles and eventually into corporate derivatives in the capital market side of things. And then one summer a friend called and said, hey, I've given your name to a recruiter and I think you need to take a call. I said, I'm not looking for a job. This is not really what I'm looking for. She says, no, no, I think it's interesting. So I took the call and it was for this foundation job in Detroit, Michigan, nonprofit in Detroit. I'm so not interested, but I went on the interview and then I met who's now my current boss and the team. And I came home and I said to my husband, I said, you're not going to believe this. I just had a job in Detroit, Michigan that I think is a real finance job. So one thing led to another. And so here I am now 10 years later on the Foundation and Endowment Asset Allocator Role. So I think my career is kind of three things. It's actuary, it's cell-side structuring. And now it's invested.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I spent some time with people who were in sales and trading. And I thought sales and trading, not sales and trading. I don't know the first thing about how to pitch a stock. And I was lucky that in the interview process came upon an individual who understood what my background was and how the skills were extremely transferable into fixed income derivatives. And he was also University of Chicago graduate. And so he said, you're going to come work for me. You're going to work on my desk. It's a rotational summer program, but your skill set matches really well with fixed income derivatives and structuring that was in the early 2000s, so it was a great time to get into structured credit. So I did that. So I started with Merrill Lynch. I spent my summer internship there and then joined full-time after business school. So career number two was in structured derivatives. I ended up getting my CFA after business school, all that good stuff. And I had a great time learning then about all the capacities.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Thought I wanted to go to Wall Street but didn't really understand what Wall Street was. I thought, oh, investment banking. And then as I did a little research on that, I thought, oh, not investment banking.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, I learned a lot about these things that are kind of going away called defined benefit pension plans. I learned all about those. And along the way, we have to take a whole bunch of tests as an actuary. One of the tests covered financial markets. And the major texts or the predominant material for the test was Fabosi's Handbook of Fixed Income Securities. And I had this aha moment of I was not meant to value pensions for the rest of my life. There was these things called mortgage-backed securities and structured finance that seemed wildly more interesting to me. So I did a little bit of digging and figured out that if that was something that I wanted to do, I needed to go back to business school and I needed to change a career and I needed to get out of actuarial work and get into Wall Street. So the path to that was business school. I went to University of Chicago to get my MBA. Thought it was great that they were known as a quant school. And I said, well, I'm pretty good with numbers. I think I'll be okay. So that was great.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Grew up in the Midwest, went to school at Notre Dame for undergrad, chose to study math because I was getting A's in math and let's just say not getting A's in history and English. I remember my dad asking me, what are you going to do with a math major? Are you going to be a teacher? I said, I don't know, but I know I'm getting good grades, so I'm just going to go with it, found my way to the actuarial profession. A friend of mine told me, hey, if you take this test, you can get a great internship. It pays well and it should turn into a real job. I was like, oh, that sounds good. I'm good at taking tests. And so I did it. So I started down the path of being an actuary, spent a summer out in Hartford as an insurance actuary, figured out that was not what it's going to do, but found my way to being a pension actuary, which was a great place to start. So I started my career as a pension actuary in Chicago. It was a great blend of client service, consulting, as well as technical knowledge.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Internal trades, the different roles of a CIO and senior investment team member, current challenges in venture capital, value investing, hedge funds, and emerging markets, and the politics of getting named a most wanted future chief investment officer. Please enjoy my conversation with Donna Snyder It is great to see you.”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My guest on today's show is Donna Snyder, a managing director at the $4 billion Kreske Foundation, where she has worked for ten years as one of three senior team members under Chief Investment Officer Rob Manila. Last summer, institutional investor named Donna the number one ranked most wanted CIO of the future. Our conversation starts with Donna sharing the cross-fertilization of bringing her sellside trading experience to a foundation and on the flip side, learning manager selection from her very first data point. We then turn to the inner workings of the foundation investment program from the perspective of a long tenured senior team member, including the nitty-gritty details of the internal investment process, the tricky decision process that goes into adding a manager or taking one out of the portfolio, the management of overlays,”
2019-01-28 · Capital Allocators · Donna Snider – Inside the Investment Process at the Kresge Foundation (Capital Allocators, EP.84) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source