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Sandra Horbach

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22

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2022-07-15

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2022-07-15

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1

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1. “So I just finished reading a book called The Happiness Advantage. It was written by Sean Acor, and he recently spoke at our CEO forum, where we bring all of our portfolio company CEOs together. And I wanted him to speak because I so enjoy reading his book, which is a book for business leaders. And it's really about how to bring a positive attitude to your company as a leader and how to create an environment that fosters happiness in the workforce and that those type of leaders and companies where you're able to do that achieve superior results. And there's a lot of statistics and research that goes behind his work. So it was very uplifting and well received by our CEOs.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

2. “I would say quality always prevails. And that's true whether you're talking about the quality of a company, quality of a management team, a quality of the investment opportunity, but never forgo quality when you have the opportunity to invest behind that.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

3. “There are so many great investors out there, and I've been fortunate to work with a lot of them, both at Forsman Little and Carlisle. But I guess I would say Ted Forstman, who's no longer with us, but he was such a pioneer in the industry. And I was able to work very closely with him for 18 years. And so he taught me a lot. And I saw him really help build the industry. So a lot of respect for him.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

4. “Well, that's exactly what I was going to say the lesson is that you learn the most from investments that do not always go in a straight line and sometimes have a few twists and turns along the way. And, you know, we always say that the toughest investments are the ones that we remember and work the hardest on, but also get the most satisfaction from.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

5. “It was a conglomerate, and we acquired it, and then we sold off some of the businesses and the crown jewel in that company was a company called Moon, which was Moan Faucets, the number one single-handed faucet company. I have a big faucet as a deal toy in my office still to this day.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

6. “A company called Stanodyne, which you've never heard of. No, I have heard of Stanadine. Remember, I started five years before.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

7. “I hope that they will have more opportunities to fulfill their ambitions on a level playing field. And I hope that we will be in a position or they will be in a position where we won't even be talking about diversity because it will be so embedded in the way people think and behave that it no longer has to be a subject of conversation like we've had here today. But I think the opportunities ahead are exciting and I look forward to being a spectator in their careers going forward.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

8. “Well, I'm very proud of my daughters and I as you should be. Thank you. And Alison, you know them well. And I'm excited that they're pursuing careers where they really have a passion and where they feel as though they're having an impact in helping others. And so it just couldn't be more proud of them. And I'm excited to see, you know, where they're headed in the future.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

9. “Mentorship is one of the pillars of our DEI efforts, and we've been doing it for years. I think we have over 500 people involved in our mentorship program. And so it's incredibly important and equally as important to mentorship is sponsorship, really helping people advance in their careers and being very strategic about presenting them with opportunities and stretch assignments. So I personally spend a lot of time, as I know you do, with women and men talking about career opportunities and ways that they can further their career and development. And sometimes it's helping them in personal situations because, as I've been told frequently, you can't be what you can't see. And so being the person who's laid the groundwork and done that and is oftentimes helpful for people to understand it can be done. And, you know, we juggle a lot of different things in our lives and careers. And so to be able to talk with someone about that, it can be really helpful. And then it's important to sometimes.”

   2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

10. “Well, I give a lot of advice, as I'm sure you do as well. And, you know, I think the thing that is most important for women is to use your voice, to really speak up and to volunteer for tough assignments and make yourself indispensable. And I always say that focus on doing the best job you can in your current role, and that will create opportunities for future roles. And then I think it's really important to pick the organization and the people that you're going to align yourself with, because at the end of the day, we're in an apprentice business and you want to pick the right culture and a team that is going to be your sponsor and care about your development.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

11. “Giving us the ability to recognize where people are really making an effort. And it's at all levels across the organization. So we take steps in a lot of different ways, but we celebrate people who really help us raise the bar and make it an even more inclusive environment than it already is.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

12. “Well, Alison, I really believe everyone plays a role in creating a diverse and inclusive culture within a firm. And at Carlisle, our employees are encouraged to set DEI objectives, focusing on steps they would take within their spheres of influence. And then we formally review those objectives on an annual basis and we measure the progress. And then we compensate people on their ability to move the needle in their areas and their spheres of influence. One of the things we're in the midst of doing is a DEI award where we have asked everyone in the organization to nominate anyone at Carlisle who's gone above and beyond in terms of advancing DE&I. That's right. We started this last year and we paid out a $2 million award across 50 of the awardees and we had hundreds of recommendations and nominations and we chose from those and we're doing it again this year.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

13. “Well, it's a really important initiative and has been at Carlisle for a long time. We believe that a key component of value creation across our portfolio takes place by really applying a comprehensive approach to driving what we call impact or others would call ESG across our businesses. And so we never think of impact or ESG as a product. It's really a way of investing and it's a process. And we believe ESG and approaching it in a constructive positive way is an enabler to businesses and for businesses to become more successful. And so the best companies embrace this and really want to see improvement. And we believe that over the course of our ownership, we can really have a big impact in moving things forward in this area.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

14. “We think it's an exciting time to be an investor, and we think that, as you said, every company today is a tech company in some respects, and we're seeing a real blur and convergence between our industry specialists, say consumer financial services or healthcare and our tech practice.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

15. “Well, Alison, you're absolutely right. We are in the midst of a digital transformation. And I saw that early on when I was running the consumer and retail part of our business. But digital transformation, we think it's really exciting opportunity in that it's creating a lot of new investment opportunities for us because when you really parse it down, what it is is using technology to be able to help businesses in all sorts of different ways. So you can gain incremental efficiencies from digital customer engagement, from digital customer acquisition, software that allows for automation of workflow, processes, production, introducing robotics, IoT. There's so many opportunities. And so we look at it from a standpoint of how is this company operated historically and how can we apply these different types of levers, largely technology, to help them operate more efficiently or grow faster, really expand their market opportunities.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

16. “Yeah, well, it is very hard to talk about the environment without talking about the market in the context of inflation, rising interest rates, obviously the war, the uncertainty. So there's just a tremendous amount of volatility taking place right now. And the important thing for us is that we are long-term investors. And so we're not looking at the short term. In fact, oftentimes short-term volatility can create opportunities for us, really attractive investment opportunities. And so clearly we're focusing on looking for companies that are going to be able to perform well in spite of these changes and difficult circumstances. But we're looking over a five to 10 year horizon. And then we're also looking importantly to how we can help the companies and create more value and not just be dependent on market conditions to see the growth.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

17. “There have been a number, and if anyone had told me going back when I started out in the business back in the late 80s that it would grow into be the industry that is, I couldn't imagine. So I think the first is really the specialization that we've seen across the industry. And so in the early days, we were all generalists. But today, because of the size and scale and complexity of the business and the need for value across the portfolios, you really need deep sector expertise, we believe, to be successful and to really be able to identify the right opportunities. We also have seen tremendous amount of capabilities being brought into our businesses. And so these are not just investment capabilities, which always existed, but these are functional capabilities with digital technology, talent, all the things that are helping us drive value creation across the portfolio. And then we're seeing all of these large firms and successful firms expanding into different asset classes.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

18. “Well, so for the companies, we're really looking for market leaders that are well positioned in their respective sectors or industries. And we always like to find companies that have attractive secular tailwinds behind them. And importantly, where we can bring something to the table to really help drive value creation. So that's a critical part of our evaluation. In terms of management teams, we're looking for CEOs that are focused on building teams and who care about culture and really trying to develop a culture that's going to be sustainable over the long term by empowering its employees to be the best that they can be. And we find, especially in today's disruptive environment, that CEOs need to be constant learners and have the ability to adapt and pivot quickly to changing circumstances. And we all know that the world is moving and changing faster than ever before. So we're looking for leaders who can handle that.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

19. “Definitely early on that. No, that does remind me. I did remember that you had a little bit different philosophy with respect to using leverage. So since then, you know, you've blazed a path in the private equity industry making partner at Forsman Little, the first female partner at a major private equity firm before joining Carlisle in 2005 to launch the Consumer and Retail Group. And during that time, you've identified and led a number of notable deals for the firm. And I'd love to hear a little bit about how you go about identifying the companies and the management teams that you want to work with.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

20. “We use leverage, but we had our own subordinated debt fund. The place of going out and having to raise what we call junk bonds back then. High yields. So we did use leverage, but a lot less of it, and we were really growth equity investors, so maybe a little ahead of our time back then in terms of looking for growth.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

21. “It was a long time ago, as you said, and it really wasn't an industry that anyone knew about. But I had spent a couple years in banking and mergers and acquisitions before business school. And so I was really fascinated with the idea of working on transactions with companies and understanding the drivers and levers you could pull to try to add value and grow businesses. And so I heard about a handful of firms that were doing what we called leverage buyouts back then. And I got really excited about the idea to be on the ground floor of a new type of investing and a new business model. And I love the idea of working with businesses and management teams. So I knocked on a lot of doors. No one was coming to Stanford to recruit at the time. And I was fortunate enough to get an offer and join Forceman as the sixth investment professional.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

22. “Alice and Mass, Chairman of the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs, and today I'm delighted to be speaking with Sandra Horbach, who I'm honored to also call my friend as we've known each other for literally decades. Sandra is the managing director and co-head of U.S. buyout and growth at the Carlisle Group, where she oversees Carlisle's three largest private equity funds with close to $60 billion in capital under management. We're going to talk with Sandra about her start in private equity, her perspective on the evolution of private markets, and how she's paved the way for diversity and inclusion at Carlisle and candidly across the whole industry. So, Sandra, welcome to the program.”

    2022-07-15 · Goldman Sachs Exchanges · Investing with The Carlyle Group’s Sandra Horbach · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT