YouSaid · the spoken record

Geoffrey Rubin

lines on the record: 98
first: 2022-11-14
most recent: 2022-11-14
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

“I wish I had Carol Dweck's book when I was about thirteen. I think her thoughts around the fixed versus the flexible mindset and just how much fun and empowering it can be to adopt a curiosity and an openness to learning and to go and sit with the brightest people in whatever field and just wander again and say, I have no idea what you're doing, but I'd love to learn. Can you tell me about it? I think that is something I do now quite a bit to the absolute horror of my kids and most of those around me, but it is just so much fun and so helpful to just be very open and honest with all these other great people around as to what they do and not try to show off that you know more than they do, but to be very clear that you only know less because you haven't had a chance to learn it yet. Has been a real inspiration over the last few years.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the easy fundamental ones kindness and hard work and purpose and Humor and just getting the most out of what you have. That's kind of how we grew up, and I think those have been really useful”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Within my personal account, there are plenty of flames. Keeping this to the CPIB portfolio, I really like working problems big to small. So the investments I most think about and most excited about are those that are diversifying, those that really help us build out an overall portfolio that's going to have the risk and return characteristics that we need for long periods of time. I think the... Smaller individual investments as we think about what we're trying to accomplish over the horizons we're trying to accomplish tend not to have as big an impact on the portfolio.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Done is now running or helping run the Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund, but he is somebody without whom I certainly would not have had a chance to come to CPPIB and really help this organization over the last decade plus.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Georgia Over Street was a professor of mine undergrad days who The moment I kind of walked into his classroom and saw the way that he taught finance and the way he connected with people and the way he found such joy and everything he did, that's kind of what led me into finance. If I'd walked into an astronomy professor's class and they had had what George had, I'd be doing that. It wasn't the subject matter that inspired me was George that inspired me. And I ended up working for him and with him for years and years. And he's really the reason why I'm in the field broadly. And he's to this day a really dear friend. And I would say second person is Don Raymond, who was one of the first employees here at CPPIB and started up what we now call the total fund management department and the whole approach and is the person who brought me into the organization and really transitioned from that commercial banking side of finance to the investment side of finance.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doesn't it drive you nuts when people take very binary views towards what are very clearly probabilistic outcomes? Like every investment Tad is a screaming buy or an absolute zero in advance. And then afterwards it's, you know, 5347. I would love it if in our industry, in our field we tempered our. Polarity somewhat from it's either the best thing ever or the worst possible thing, or it's either catastrophe or it's celebration. It's usually somewhere in between. So I think that would be one”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess one would be I do find when I go to restaurants. Ted, it's not the quality of the restaurant that I worry about, it's the ratio of the pretense to the quality of the restaurant. I would rather go to a so-so restaurant that knows it so-so than go to a good restaurant that thinks it's great. I like right-sized pretense and quality.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, if I were to look at the pie chart working families is pretty much the puck. I think of the small sliver beyond work and family when it's just purely indulgent me time. I recently got bit by the rugby sevens bug. It's a niche sport within a niche sport. It's a type of rugby played that... I think it's just thrilling and exciting and fun, and the sports wagering opportunities on it are fun. And doing some quantitative modeling of. Of the lines and the sides and the totals is again a fun pastime, but one that occupies a really small part of the whole.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is for whom we work in the way we work. It does feel like the maple leaf is something front of mind for most of the folks here at the organization.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Level of friendliness, the jerkometer around here, it scores very, very low in this organization. There are very fugitives jerks running around. And those who are tend to kind of look around before long and realize it's probably not the spot for them. So I think we have these really terrific Canadian attributes of kindness and collaboration and calmness and working towards something bigger. I think some folks who come in also identify some of the challenges of the Canadian culture. Are we the most forthright culture internally in terms of raising issues and really challenging and debating ideas? I could probably learn a few things from other cultures around the globe that maybe draw some of that out in a more pronounced way. But I think overall that is part of what makes us special as an organization.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, my family and I are almost Canadian. We have been in the final stages of the process here for a COVID-delayed three or four years. We certainly feel Canadian. And since I am American and my wife is British on average, we're Canadian. So we're really, really close here. And we do have a very international workforce, both here in the Toronto office as well as obviously around the globe and our other offices. I think there is a shared sentiment, a shared Canadian sentiment of”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're endowed circumstance and who we are as an organization. If anything, we should be able to stand tall in times of market disruption. And I think for the most part, we've done a good job of staying to course over this kind of market episode and being able to look for opportunities as much as deal with exposures.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That this affords us in the markets in which we're investing as opposed to having to be excessively focused on just the exposures and the downside risks to our portfolio. Obviously, we do quite a bit of work in terms of risk management, anticipating the nature and size and our resiliency to downturns. That's not a predictive exercise. That's one of ensuring that we have the capacity to withstand these kinds of downturns and make sure what we've experienced in the market over the last few months is not going to. Knock us off the path that we're on. So I think as an institution, if we can have one possible advantage tech given.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have to say, I think our organization has been remarkably composed through all of this turmoil. I think a lot of this is attributable to the fact that we as an organization do try to maintain a longer horizon and perspective on markets and our investment strategies. We don't face day-to-day, month-to-month retail-driven contributions and redemptions. We have a much slower metabolism when it comes to inflows and outflows of the fund. I think that helps support a longer-term perspective and horizon. We have a commitment to our strategies that extends beyond a month-to-month issue. So I think when we move into moments like this, we often think as much about the opportunities.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Investment strategy a number of years ago. And now give us credit for having the wherewithal to understand that that was an investment strategy. It was never going to have the kind of needle moving impact to our portfolio that we wanted it to have. I think it's an asset class that might work very well for other types of organizations, for us. It was not a match. And we gave it a shot and we committed to it and we even staffed it up and we had to make that difficult, but I think well-grounded and evidenced call within a few years that that was not a strategy that was going to be a big part of our longer-term future. So I think those are the kinds of examples of where we came into things open-minded with real commitment, but evaluate the evidence and realize it's not for you, you move on.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We are in terms of data and technology and how we want to approach. I think we'll continue to kind of learn from that. Other failures we've certainly had investments that didn't turn out the way we wanted to. We've had investment strategies that didn't turn out the way we want to. I mentioned we built an agriculture.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Expectation that we were going to put data and technology at the center of everything we do in terms of the decisions we make and how we invest. And I don't think we've as an organization have developed capabilities that match that lofty aspiration. I think we've made progress on technology and data, but much more in the workman-like way that I was describing earlier as opposed to the grand top-down vision of we are going to now invest in this way across everything we do. I think that I'll call it a failure inso much as we learned, insomuch as that allowed us to better understand where our strengths and advantages and capabilities lie and where we might have a more difficult time. So I certainly think we are a better organization because we laid out that aspiration and we gave it a shot and we discovered”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Our previous strategy. So, this was the strategy that we struck around 2019 or so. Strategy we struck there called for a heavy reliance on technology and data. And maybe in some ways Ted is a counterexample to what I just said in terms of real organic innovation. This was more kind of a top-down.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In a big, complex organization like this, inevitably there are going to be some failures along the way. And I'd love to hear some of the stories of things that you were optimistic about in terms of improvements or returns that just didn't work out.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Asset programs that are investing in green assets, and this was a team that just had the moxie to say this makes sense and they did the work and they presented it and it was approved. And now I believe one of the largest That was in some sense just really organic and just businesslike innovation. And I think most of the innovation that we've done has been that very kind of just put your shoulder into it and get it done and bring the business case and be empowered to make the decisions to go as opposed to grand. Innovation exercises where we sat down and said, okay, let's be innovative. What should we do here? It's been much more, much more organic in that fashion. And when you stand back and look at it all, it is impressive, but sometimes internally we might not even see that.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Kind of get it done attitude here when you talk about things like the green bond that was just an example of people who were empowered to make decisions who have accountability for doing things there was a sensibility to it they did the hard work and a lot of hard work we are a very kind of evidence-based organization culture so they would have put together all of the evidence on what this means in the market and the spreads associated with it and it was an immediately compelling proposition one incredible thing about the green bond program is that it allows us to issue it spreads that are inside where we issue in our normal programs there's no trade-off there between do we want to do well for the environment or do well for the beneficiaries and contributors in terms of returns the two are perfectly aligned we have these”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“This is, I think, one of the more charming aspects of CPPIB. We are very hard on ourselves when it comes to innovation and our pride in being innovative. I think maybe this is just being Canadian, but we tend to be more. Little more humble around that than maybe what our track record would suggest. I think we have been innovative in some of the areas more that you pointed out. It doesn't always feel like innovation, though, internally on the ground. It's not an issue of people running around in lab coats and buns and burners and beakers and methods. Tends to be more of”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Across this organization along the way, there have been a couple of thought leadership or initial initiatives. If you think about you guys got involved in a significant way in diversity back in 2017, the first green bond in 2018, I'd love to hear how something new makes it from someone on the ground in one of these businesses to becoming something that's emphasized well before the market broadly has picked up on it.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Perspective that we have, which should be a real source of edge for us, is actually being used in the investment decisions we make.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's everything from asking questions at Investment Committee as to how you use that team for the particular memo that you're looking at. So it's about those expectations. It's about culture. It's about a culture of expectation that those who have been delegated accountability are administering that accountability by first checking internally and working with colleagues to make the best possible decision. It's in the form of reports. We do have the technology system where folks can go in and do searches in particular sectors or areas or company names and all of the information that we've gathered over the years across the organization is made immediately available. Through a variety of different measures that we make sure that this”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“AI, machine learning technique for purposes of investment decisioning. It's not a top-down team telling all investors you must have this as part of your process. Instead, it's a set of capabilities that You were the executive who's running an investment process, you'd be thrilled to have access to this group, to call them up and say, can you come on in and take a look at the steps of our process and help me think about where these kinds of techniques will make us better decision makers over time? Those common capabilities in those areas and areas like sustainable investing and climate change risk exposure in areas like relationship management, we think those are the kinds of common capabilities that we can build to provide center-led support for our investors as opposed to insisting from the top down that everyone must adopt.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Software is a part of it, but a part of it is just making sure that there is quality within that work that. People are actually eager to tap and to contribute to. And when an investor is taking a look at a particular diligence or particular opportunity. First reflex is not I need to call and get some external consulting support on this, or we need to get an external advisor. Their first impulse is, I got to check in with my internal colleagues to see who has experience in this area and who's been doing work in this. What are some of the previous investment opportunities we've looked at in this area? That's a center-led capability, knowledge advantage that we think could be of real value to all of the teams in the organization. We're similarly building a team that we call investment sciences, which is building out some of the”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Taking a look at what we're calling the commons or the common capabilities of the organization, which it's not a centralized insistence on connecting with others. It's more of a center-led capability or facility that people can tap into. So we've had an effort here called knowledge advantage up for a number of years, which is a small set of folks who are really doing the work to ensure that the connections, the perspectives, the relationships, the information being gathered across this very broad organization are being gathered and synthesized and curated and made available to everybody. Seems pretty simple, but if you don't have a couple of people working on it, probably falls to the cracks. And this is not just about having some type of customer relationship software set up.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The error of the eye shaped individual who's just really deep in one particular area and has been mentored and has been apprenticed in one particular area and staying in that area their entire careers, I think that's going to give way to more circulation of people and breadth of experience here within the organization. We're still going to have huge challenges, huge challenges of connectivity, huge challenges of figuring out how we avoid these areas of the market that are becoming increasingly competitive and we can make sure we pivot away from those into areas where we think we have real edge. It can deliver outsized returns. These will be the challenges and these will be the value propositions for employees going forward different than the one we had offered in the past. But I think one that for the right kind of person could be equally rewarding.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of those and the strategies we do have, how are we getting the most out of those investment strategies? For people Think there's going to be much more circulation of both ideas and people within the organization. I like the notion of the T-shaped professional, somebody who has great depth in one particular area, but a broad curiosity and ability to connect with others who have different levels or different areas of expertise. And combining T-shaped individuals in ways where you really get both breadth and depth combined and terrific ways.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are going to need to embrace the dynamic you just described, this dynamic of going from one of really high intensity development and construction of these capabilities and building out teams and recruiting in and getting our foothold into markets. You're absolutely right. That was an exciting proposition, a particularly acute proposition for our team and our employees and our new hires. That's a compelling story. Our story going forward is equally compelling, but different. It's going to be around continuing to deploy and find great investments and to think about how we can most effectively invest, but it will be complemented by equal parts great disposition and selling and thinking about how we add value through our exits as appropriate. And asset management, how we make sure the assets that we do have, we're getting the most out of them.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You've evolved these teams, as you said, you've now built it out. You're now in this period of kind of execution and optimization. You then get into the excitement of getting going and hopefully succeeding and two retention and training and internal development. How have you thought about the ongoing improvement and stability of the teams that you've been able to build internally with these capabilities?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We have really a three part incentive compensation system. One third is tied to the performance of the overall fund. Third is tied to the performance of the local team portfolio, and the final is based upon individual performance. So, we do have a means of putting equal points of emphasis on both the overall performance of the fund as well as the local performance of the fund. That's part of the approach that we are taking to try to ensure that people are as motivated by the total fund problem as they are by the local portfolio of problem.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, this is obviously where everyone's accused dropped by about 40 or 50 points when you start talking about compensation. See if we can puzzle our way through this. I think our comp philosophy is. A couple of pillars of that. I think one is in terms of just overall compensation, remuneration. I think we pay vigorous but certainly not top, top, top percentile of compensation across the entire industry. That said, the level of compensation is generous. It is substantial, and the caliber of professionals that we can hire with that overall level of compensation, I think very clearly allows us to run the investment strategies that we do. Are most of those people also motivated by things like mission and purpose and who we are as an organization? They are. And I think for folks who take really kind of equal gratification in both the comp side and the purpose and performance side, I think they really find their groove here and are encouraged to perform and deliver. In terms of the variability of that level of compensation.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lot of the way we think about that type of sizing and impact on performance goes hand in hand with compensation arrangements. There's always this question when you have a large internal team, can you recruit the talent and compensate them as much or competitively enough as to what they might get away? How have you gone about compensating the internal team both directly for their book and then also with this potential misalignment of position sizing with the fund as a whole?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And team reward and ability to continue investing in the ways that they invest for their investment thesis are not unduly affected. So it might include things just like judgmental overrides on the weight of that position when you think about the overall performance of their portfolio over time. It might include other adjustments that allow you to take a longer view and perspective towards performance of the team. I think those kinds of solutions are ones that we prefer over the position splitting where you start to lose some direct accountability for the entirety of the position.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, we've experimented with a variety of different solutions to that in the past. We previously had a centralized book and The local team would hold a pro rata piece, but a small piece, and the centralized book would hold another piece. To be honest, I don't know if there's any perfect solution to this, but we found some of those fairly dissatisfying, really because of accountability and ownership for the position. I think that the top principle when solving these kinds of problems is make sure there's very clear ownership and accountability for performance. So I think this solution that we want to drive towards is one in which the local team does own the position in its entirety Is given that the comfort and assurance that things like incentive compensation.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sounds like it leads to some type of supersizing capability. You think of a sender book portfolio in the public markets or an internal co-invest structure in the private markets. Is that how you've been thinking about it?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The level of a portfolio owned by one particular portfolio manager within our organization. And oftentimes we have these conversations with portfolio managers who say, look, a $2 billion ticket here is a big, big weight in my... Local portfolio, and it could induce a degree of volatility or underperformance that would be really difficult for my team to absorb and digest. Even though a $2 billion or $3 billion ticket at the total fund level will have very little impact on our concentration risk, bridging the gap between the two Is a challenge, and that too is part of this work we are doing on one fund to try to solve the problems of alignment and orientation so that the local teams don't have one perspective towards concentration risk. Means something very different for them than the total fund.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The first spot is on the basis of total portfolio construction. So we have a team with a terrific capability and means of really understanding how to build a well diversified portfolio that's exposed to the factors that we think will support the highest performing portfolio over time. So I think we do a great job at the total portfolio level thinking about issues like concentration risk and diversification where we want to invest. But there are a number of organizational challenges or impediments to go from that picture of the total portfolio to how people are actually investing. What makes for an outsized concentration risk at the total fund level is going to look very different than outside concentration risk”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd love to pull that thread a little bit on capital allocation and position sizing. So at your level, you're thinking about it across the businesses, but then clearly sometime ago you had a 5% position in the pool, in the entire pension fund, maybe less so today. Do you draw those lines of where you're playing on the field?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which might in some points of the cycle induce a negative illiquidity premium. It might actually be more expensive to hold private assets. This changes over points in the cycle, and I think what we're going to see some big differences as we go through different economic conditions. But, Ted, this is the awareness that we're starting to develop is around notions of how these markets are going to compete going forward and what it might take for us to differentiate our offerings from those who are able to write big checks and stay in positions for a long time and not necessarily demand outsized returns as a result.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Clarity around the Canadian model is something that's been adopted around the world. I don't believe we are dealing with a situation of extreme urgency. I don't believe this is a case of these markets are going to be irrationally priced in the near term. But I think the pressure is in that direction. I think one thing we saw up until the last six months or so were illiquidity premium in many asset classes that felt like they were getting bid to very, very skinny levels. I'm even concerned that there are some large institutional investors who would be willing to pay up for the accounting stability of private assets.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think this is an ongoing and constant challenge. I think it's 10 years ago. I think when we came in with the kinds of check sizes that we did, we were in some cases the only investor in the world that could do that. In other cases, a small handful. And I think the performance of those investments showed one of our earliest and largest investments is the 407 toll road here outside of Toronto, which was an investment which at the time, I believe, constituted almost 5% of our entire portfolio size. I think the numbers were in that ballpark. Ticket size now would be roughly $25 billion investment I don't know that we're positioned internally to do a $25 billion investment. So the ticket size is a percentage of the portfolio has gone down. The number of other investors that can invest at that scale broadly has increased.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, if you look at that today in the various businesses that you described, most people would say, boy, at your size, you are at the apex of competition. So you're talking about tens, high tens, if not hundreds of billions of dollars into private assets, real assets, private equity, similar in public equity, which puts you in a certain cap range for the stocks you're looking at. So what is it so far that you feel has been able to generate excess returns in areas that are very, very competitive today?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And harder to produce truly outsized returns. I think this connectivity, this need. Really wire together all of our capabilities, invest in capabilities, I think is the means by which we can maintain genuine edge for the next 10 years and beyond.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The birding platform suggesting that there's not flame under feet, you won't be motivated to do anything. It needs to be urgent and dire. And I don't know that we have a burning platform in that sense, in that our current approaches, I still think, are terrific. I still think we have amazing active investing capabilities. It's just that without this prioritization and coordination and integration, the connectivity among them, I worry that the spaces in which we invest will become ever more standardized and commoditize and over time will have diminished risk adjusted returns as a reward for taking risk in those areas. I think that is the challenge. Our status quo is one that I think will generate terrific returns, substantial returns. But I think over time will expose us to greater and greater competition, which will make it harder.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Laying a stock of Red Bull and coffee, and you round up the team, and we know this is going to be a big effort from everyone in the organization. I think our approach will probably harken back to the crawl walk run in many ways. It'll harken back to the really strong leadership from the top to be clear that connecting our organization up in this way is the means by which we are going to continue producing outsized returns. Part of our effort on this has been to go out and talk to all the great investors around the world. And it's so enlightening to sit down with people and hear their thoughts and you try to steal their best ideas and ignore the worst ones. And it's just great to get out there and connect with folks. But inevitably, when we talk about strategy and our approach to strategy, the question arises, what's the burning platform?”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To the total fund. So that's been the real focus. I think where we want to go to next Is better connecting these capabilities around the globe. We have a very clear view of how the team in Sao Paulo is investing and what our expectations are of that team in terms of their contributions. We need to do more to make sure that the South Palatine is investing in ways that is well connected with the rest of our organization. They're benefiting from the perspectives and observations of the rest of the portfolio, of the techniques, of the relationships of our ability to invest. This is the next phase we're going to go into, Ted, this one fund notion of connecting all of this breadth of capabilities around the globe in ways that allows them to invest even better than what they can do in more siloed ways.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the way we've addressed that is by being very clear as to what we expect in terms of deployment in these different areas, what we expect on dispositions, on the management of assets and the existing portfolio, and what kind of return prospects we're looking for. So the first step has really been a clarity of allocation of resource and expectation of returns contributed by each of these different businesses around the globe. That's been the first expectation. I have to emphasize that's all done within the context of very clearly delegated accountability to those teams to make the right investment decisions. This is not about orchestrating investment theses from the top down. This is about orchestrating our capabilities and making sure they are in positions to effectively invest and have the resources they need in ways that are contributing.”
2022-11-14 · Capital Allocators · Geoffrey Rubin – The Modern Canadian Model at CPPIB (Capital Allocators, EP.280) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source