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Michelle Seitz

lines on the record: 87
first: 2022-03-11
most recent: 2022-03-11
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“And personalized. But that level of focus is a luxury, not many firms have it. And so I very much appreciated that. But you also asked, what did I learn from Blair that I carried to Russell? And I think there are many similarities. The first is that I had known Russell for a very long time. Culturally, I understood the culture quite well, the value structure, which was very similar to William Blair. And it was client-centric fiduciary at its core. So while William Blair was in the security selection business and Russell is in the portfolio construction, portfolio assembly.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, two things. The first is that the best kept secret, I guess, that's still a best kept secret is that Blair, the asset management business did grow to be the largest business at William Blair. And so as much as we were well known for our investment banking activities, it grew to be a powerhouse and still is in the asset management side. But you are right that while William Blair was a multi-line firm, Russell is hyper-focused and only focused on one business, and that's investment solutions. We do everything that's required to manage portfolios, but it's only one business. And I did love the beauty of that. I loved the focus, the attention of the entire organization on one deliverable to different clients around the world. So the last mile is always localized.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Senior family after you've been in a community for 26 years is no small decision. My husband was incredibly supportive. He views life as an adventure and he's very supportive of me in my career and he knows how much energy I get from it. But uprooting everyone plus my mother and extended family was no small feat. But we took the caravan to Seattle and I was ready for a new challenge and it was incredibly exciting, but it was a very difficult decision to make. It's been a great decision in retrospect, but I always remind myself to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I would say that was one of those times for sure.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“As a team, we had a five-fold increase from 2001 when I took over and drove it with our team, a phenomenal team who were close personal friends today, you know, to over $75 billion when I left, a five-fold increase and took a startup institutional business that was only a few billion dollars to 28-fold increase. So it was a tremendous, tremendous ride. But I would say the difficulty and the reason it was the hardest decision for me to make is I have five children. Four of them were in high school and one was in elementary school when this opportunity came around. And, you know, uprooted.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I would say that when I was approached about a role at Russell, it happened organically and slowly. I had known TA associates, which is one of the private equity firms that invest and sponsors Russell for quite a long time. And then like many things in life, it happened slowly and then all at once. And it was ultimately one of the hardest decisions that I've ever made. And I would say first because I enjoyed my time at William Blair immensely after 20 plus years. It becomes part of the fabric of who you are. And we grew together.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“forward-leaning way so that you're measuring impact rather than measuring risk exposure. So we can talk about that. But you really do that best with active engagement and fundamental judgment rather than Backward looking data, which is ultimately where indices don't do the forward-looking impact role as well. So direct indexing would be mimicking factor returns, direct investing, in my mind, opens up the aperture for everything, both factor exposures as well as leaning into active and personalization at scale.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, indexing is indexing, right? I mean, so you're trying to get you're trying to when you index, you're indexing to something And typically that's a risk return profile and a factor exposure. What I'm talking about is doing another layer, which means you're optimizing for a third dimension, which could be optimizing for taxes, optimizing for environment or social or governance issues. But you do have to decide what it is you're optimizing for. And you can either do it through pure indexing and factor exposure, or you can lean into Active, which frankly I don't believe that ESG investing is full. Fully captured or utilized in a positive, proactive”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“so that again you can achieve personalization at scale and really drive to individual outcomes. And by definition, a target date fund says that all 55 year olds are exactly the same, right? And we all know it's a vast improvement over defaulting to cash to have plans default to target date funds. But we have a long way to go to make it to the point that frankly many consumer-oriented companies have gotten to already with being able to customize the experience that you have as well as outcome. And I think that direct indexing, but also just direct investing is core to that.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And that's allowing us to really do tax efficiency down to the individual level. Direct indexing allows you to do that. But direct investing overall allows you to do that, allowing for personalization to your values and understanding how that changes your risk return profile and how to get you back on it. I actually believe that vehicles, as we know them today, could change pretty dramatically as we head into the future. And that's a good thing. We shouldn't be trying to protect vehicles. We should be trying to distribute what it is we all do and can give access to”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Very quickly again to be able to use technology as well as the pipes within the industry to gather data in real time from our clients, incorporate the data, and then make it less of a two-dimensional risk return efficient frontier conversation and very quickly make it three-dimensional. And the reason I mention that is it goes back again to what I was saying about personalization at scale, fractionalized shares, direct investing, technology, data gathering is all coalescing to a very, very exciting and I would say value enhancing contribution back to society.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. We are all in. So we do direct indexing very actively and have for quite a long time. We do it for the largest asset pools in the world. But we've also been able with the use of technology, much like the acquisitions that others have made in the industry. We've honed our capabilities to do that over time again. It came from the core of index investing in general for us, but that factor exposure investing has now been driven down into the tens of millions of dollars that we can do direct investing for. I believe that's also true of these other firms you talk about and what their entities or their acquisitions have been able to do. And we're all racing.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Necessitates active management. And so I believe it's always been an and for me not And allow for better execution alpha. And so I really do believe that portfolio construction assembly, tapping into all asset classes and leveraging technology for personalization at scale is the story of the asset management industry. But it doesn't make the factor exposure story go away. It just makes it an instrumental part of the equation.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it is pretty active and, frankly, with the growth of private markets, generally speaking, both credit and equity growing very quickly. And so you've got this groundswell of entrepreneurial activity and private markets investing more generally, which I'm sure we'll talk about. But that growing sleeve has been very impactful and democratizing access to that, but doing so responsibly will be another imperative for the industry. Being able to drive engagement around ESG and also make it more customized around personal values.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“For smaller accounts, and I believe that's a very exciting development which will deliver more value and more importantly allow us to personalize at scale using both factor exposures, which is what I refer to as beta, but allows you to really fine-tune a portfolio for factor exposures, but also customize for individual outcomes, whether it be income or total return or ESG or values-based investing, things like that. And in that vein, active investing is still very much alive.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Individually driven. And so that's what I believe the real story is rather than a cheap beta story. But I don't believe that factor exposure, however it is you get it within a portfolio, is over by any stretch. I think that the conversation will turn more quickly with the use of technology and better hyping, which we can talk about. But I do believe that technology and streamlining the delivery and access points and fractionalization of shares will drive access to factor exposures to become more scalable.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In that channel. And so I do believe that this will still be a sustainable and consistent part of how individuals and businesses build portfolios. So number one is it's not over. I think it's now just become a core part of portfolio construction. But I do believe, I often get asked the passive versus active and the demise of the active asset management industry. And I believe that this is a continuum. The real story is a client outcome story. The real story is the need to solve for financial resilience, financial stability. Need is about putting the clients at the center of our innovation to ensure that we are delivering on the goals that are quite”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, I do believe that as the industry has evolved, factor investing has been very important in terms of delivering value in the form of exposures to factors, whether it be through ETFs or passive mutual funds or direct investing. And I don't believe that's going away. It's been a core of how we build portfolios for big institutions as well as for individuals. 40% of our business is in the wealth channel where we have advisors as our clients. So we're the number one third party models provider.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Which we're benefiting from. We just won and we'll make public a mandate that's over 10 billion US in the UK that has decided that they would outsource their pension scheme to Russell investments. And then BCG also tags this as one of the fastest growing categories within the industry, even faster, frankly, than private markets, which is kind of astounding given how much private markets gets played in the press relative to OCIO and fiduciary management.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“If you are Boeing as a client, they are not in the business of investing, but they do have very large pension plans, benefit plans to secure their employees' retirements. And that increasingly has been an area that we've been helping not just smaller mid-size companies. It used to be that it's more the sub $10 billion in assets plans that would outsource this activity. But even there, 70, I think it's over 75% of asset owners with assets up to $10 billion have not yet outsourced. There's also an incredibly large trend.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, so the answer is yes, you are right that people are less familiar with it. I do believe that the industry is headed here quickly. So it may take on different terms, but allowing us, the industry, to effectively personalize at scale in a very institutionally sophisticated manner is what I believe is the future of the industry. And so People refer to it as a product. I don't think of it as a product.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“An extension of an investment staff, whether it's a corporate DB plan, a DC plan, a sovereign wealth fund, or if you're an advisor in the wealth space. We're either an extension of your investment staff and capabilities, or we're a full outsource of your staff, which is commonly referred to as the OCIO industry or fiduciary management.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Indices came from and factor investing is still core to what we offer and do. We do it in the form of direct indexing and overlays and the like. But that was really an important academic process, but also just core to the firm being kind of a client-centric, innovative core. The other parts of what we do, manager selection advice, portfolio construction, assembly, risk management, implementation, and execution are all now a part of what we do, but really how I define the firm today is an investment solutions firm. That's the only thing we do is provide investment solutions with end-to-end capabilities so that we are either”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Now that I live there of the Pacific Northwest. But where we developed the indices along the way was really at the core of what makes the firm tick, and that's putting client problems at the center of innovation. And so we did start with pension consulting. So we were a pioneer in developing the pension consulting world. Then we moved on to also creating indices and manager selection. Was it at the core of our consulting practice? But we didn't have good indices to measure the ability and the skill and remove factors from the influencing the alpha derived from the individual managers. So that's where the run-up”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure. Well, I would say that as an investor, the most insightful questions you could ever ask a management team is tell me about how the firm started and how you got to where you are. So I won't do a whole history of Russell, but the fact that you bring up the indices is a pretty critical part of who Russell is today and where the competitive advantage comes from. So let me start there. We're 85 years young and Frank Russell opened the doors of our firm. And he did so under the umbrella of investing for people's financial security. So he started with individuals. But his grandson, George Russell, really was a pioneering spirit. That's true generally.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“understanding of how important people and teams are, whether they be management teams for the companies that you're investing in or the culture of an organization or the ability to execute on a strategic plan all has to be with a very strong people component and a desire and an understanding of the import of human connection. And I think that as an investor as well as a leader, I've hopefully been able to marry those two in a very real way.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“but also as a leader and a people and knowledge worker industry. The second thing I would say is that as a PM, as an investor where I was most additive to my peer discussions, I do believe investing as a team sport and you make each other better by coming at problem solving and the puzzle of investing with different perspectives. And mine was that I was a very structured and strategic thinker. I could do the analyst role and the modeling role, but it didn't excite me as much as digging into”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a really good question, especially the way you phrase it. You know, not many people ask me about the similarities or the leverage from being Investor to being a leader. So that's a poignant question because I think there are strong similarities. First of all, I would say that just what energizes me aligns to the role, both the investing role as well as the leadership role. And so I would say that solving problems energizes me trying to figure out what the root cause problems are and making sure that there's a level of human connection that makes the work meaningful, inspires me. And so I think that just as a touchstone, that's been critically important both to being able to be a lifelong learner as an investor.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“to be part of that group and to give me credibility, especially given my disproportionate youth and frankly inexperience. I mean, I did do well. One year does not prove skill, to be quite frank, but 35 years hence, I think I learned a lot from that time period. And I was a student too of the, I would say, of the profession. And so that was very, very helpful to me in understanding how important it was to deliver on the value proposition to the clients and have it celebrated in the way that they did was really important. But it was a great way, frankly, the crash and being Of the year was a great way to start my career.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, well, that was fun. There was a big celebration on the top floor of the building. Hugh came, all of the executive team came to celebrate the top investment performers in the investment division. And so I was invited to that. It was my first year. And I would say that, you know, I didn't quite understand the import of it, to be honest, until several very senior portfolio managers came up and said, you do understand how important it is to be seen here, right? And I said, of course, but I really didn't. But it was most important, I would say, for my street cred. To be part of that”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The purpose of the industry is quite real to me very, very fast. So when you're talking with people who really are fearful of being able to retire, being able to send kids to college, the markets are in a free fall, it was a very good baptism by fire. So I'm glad I saw what I thought was the peak. I'm glad I was so early in my career trajectory that I understood that this wasn't a game. And I'm glad that I was that close to the clients rather than being disintermediated with a mutual fund where you never talked with the end clients as much. And so it just made it very serious. It made it very real very quickly.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I started rattling off my resume and he said, what qualifies you to manage money, which was a legitimate question, you know, three months out of school. But anyway, I guess that baptism by fire and being asked the question, what does qualify you to do this had me take it incredibly seriously? Number one, understood that this is real money for real people who have real needs. And the emotions of people can be the greatest destroyers of wealth. And as a professional investor, that's what you've got to learn to harness or eliminate from the decision-making process. But it also made it”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, Quotron, you didn't have anything at your desk and you didn't have 24. The questions to me, and I was 23 years old, and he finally said, who are you and what do you do here? That's so funny.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The Dow Jones had tripled and I would sit there and talk with the veterans of the industry all I was younger by a factor of 10 years. Anyone else managing money? But I really did think that I missed it. You know, this was the best we'd ever had. And you wonder how much better it could get. And then you quickly found yourself, or I found myself in baptism by fire with that fateful day, which was Black Monday, October 19th, when the market fell 20% in a single day. And I'll age myself with this story. But what I remember most were the lines at the quotron. Do you remember Quotron? Sure.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, it was, you know, baptism by fire, so I had just graduated. I loaded up all my worldly goods in a U-Haul and drove down to Charlotte, North Carolina to work with what was then NCNB, which turned into Nations Bank, then Bank America. But it was a phenomenal culture. So I stepped foot into the investment industry in June of 1987. So a few months before the baptism by fire. But I would say the first leading up to that, I will just say what I remember the most about that year is it was a tale of all kinds of cities. The first was I thought I'd missed it, right? I mean, we had a tremendous bull market from 82 to 80.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hooked me on investing was a high school field trip. So I grew up in a small town in Indiana. We took a bus trip to Chicago. It was with my advanced chemistry class, actually, and the main show was the Museum of Science and Industry, but we took a quick detour fortuitously for me at the Chicago Board of Trade, and I was hooked. I love the passion, the energy from the floor, and that's when I decided that investing was what I wanted to do. So that set me on my trajectory early on and before I even set off for college.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“On the flip side, my mother was very influential, and I would say more from the standpoint of the impact I wanted to have. And kind of, I guess I would say control for financial stability. She worked very hard, but it was a long and difficult path for her. My parents divorced when I was young. And so I just, I saw firsthand the need to leverage people's hard work and drive them toward financial security. And so I wanted to master money, I guess, is the best way to phrase it. So I read all those money master books by, I think it was John Train, Buffett Shareholder Letters, etc. But I was just fascinated with the miracle of compound interest and the like. But really what”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure, sure. Well, going back, I decided early on that it was what I wanted to do. So before I applied to colleges, I decided that I wanted to go into business. And that was the cumulative impact of several things, like many people in life influenced by my parents. First, my father was very influential in my formative years, but especially as it revolved around business and dealing with people. He was a second generation entrepreneur. And from the age of 12, I worked by his side after school on the weekends during summer, and he really was quite impactful in how I decided to pursue a degree in which college to go to.”
2022-03-11 · Masters in Business · Michelle Seitz on Alternative Investments (Podcast) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source