From Managing Portfolios to Running an Organization with Mike Freno

Summary

Masters in Business: From Managing Portfolios to Running an Organization with Mike Freno

Episode Release Date: January 23, 2025
Host: Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg Radio
Guest: Mike Freno, Chairman and CEO of Barings

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1. Introduction to Mike Freno

In this insightful episode of Masters in Business, Bloomberg Radio host Barry Ritholtz engages in a comprehensive discussion with Mike Freno, the Chairman and CEO of Barings. Under Freno's leadership, Barings manages an impressive $430 billion in global assets, distinguishing itself in the realms of private credit, real assets, and institutional investing.

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2. Mike Freno's Background and Career Path

Mike Freno's journey to Barings is rooted in a strong foundation in accounting and finance. He began his career as an accounting major at Furman University, obtaining a BA, followed by an MBA from Wake Forest Business School. Starting at Coopers and Lybrand (now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers), Freno spent his initial years in public accounting before transitioning to the hedge fund industry.

Notable Quote:

“I always envisioned myself doing that [accounting].”
— Mike Freno [04:07]

At M and M Partners, a startup hedge fund with assets exceeding $100 million, Freno's role expanded from controlling to trading and fundamental analysis, particularly in distressed debt—a niche that would define much of his career.

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3. Leadership Philosophy and Transition to CEO

Freno stepped into the CEO role at Barings in November 2020, amidst a turbulent period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This transition required him to shift from portfolio management to overseeing the entire organization.

Notable Quote:

“I should probably make fewer decisions as the leader of the company and entrust my people to make a lot of them.”
— Mike Freno [10:15]

He emphasizes the importance of delegating authority, relying on a trusted team, and balancing the agility of a small firm with the controls of a large corporation.

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4. Barings' History and Corporate Culture

Barings, distinct from the historical Barings Bank, was revitalized post-bankruptcy by ING and later acquired by MassMutual. The integration of various firms—Barings, Babson Capital, Wood Creek, and Cornerstone—under MassMutual's umbrella created a robust asset management powerhouse.

Notable Quote:

“What we do when we [combine four firms] is we have a set of philosophies, a set of principles and a set of values that are consistent.”
— Mike Freno [21:57]

Freno highlights the challenges and strategies involved in merging distinct corporate cultures into a unified entity driven by centralized philosophies and investment standards.

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5. Client Base and Investment Strategies

Barings serves a diverse clientele, with MassMutual accounting for approximately half of its assets. The remaining assets are managed on behalf of institutional investors, including sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and pensions. The firm's focus spans fixed income, real assets, and capital solutions, aiming for steady income streams with reduced volatility.

Notable Quote:

“MassMutual is a mutual company. They are owned by their policyholders who have a very, very long time horizon.”
— Mike Freno [27:38]

This long-term perspective aligns with Barings' investment philosophy, allowing for strategic, patient capital deployment without the pressure of short-term market fluctuations.

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6. Private vs. Public Markets

Freno discusses the evolving dynamics between private and public markets. He observes that private markets are absorbing segments traditionally held by public markets, driven by the pursuit of higher yields and tailored financing solutions.

Notable Quote:

“There's nothing to suggest that you should be getting tighter spreads in a private market, giving up your liquidity. And there's some liquidity, but that nearly the case of the public markets.”
— Mike Freno [44:52]

Barings positions itself to capture opportunities where private markets can offer value through customized financing, leveraging its deep expertise and global reach.

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7. Future of Asset Management and Private Credit

Looking ahead, Freno anticipates continued growth in private assets, particularly in private investment-grade markets. He envisions a blurring of lines between public and private financing, with private markets becoming more sophisticated and integral to global capital allocation.

Notable Quote:

“We have a front row seat to how the two [insurance and asset management industries] are managed.”
— Mike Freno [35:25]

This perspective underscores Barings' strategic focus on expanding its capabilities to meet the evolving needs of institutional clients seeking diversified and resilient investment solutions.

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8. Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Addressing the role of AI, Freno acknowledges its transformative potential across all facets of the business. However, he emphasizes the current limitations, particularly regarding the structuring and accessibility of private market data.

Notable Quote:

“The ability to use these machines to make decisions really depends on the access to data and our data on private companies and others.”
— Mike Freno [56:06]

Barings is actively exploring AI applications through an innovation team, aiming to enhance data-driven decision-making processes while recognizing the ongoing challenges in data management.

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9. Personal Insights: Mentors, Books, and Leisure

Freno attributes much of his leadership style to mentors who emphasized the importance of people and teamwork. Personally, he enjoys reading nonfiction works such as Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs and David McCullough's 1776, alongside science fiction series like Silo and Three-Body Problem.

Notable Quote:

“The individual will never be above the team.”
— Mike Freno [59:12]

These insights reflect his belief in the collective strength of teams and the enduring value of foundational knowledge and continuous learning.

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10. Advice for Recent Graduates

Freno advises aspiring professionals to cultivate intellectual curiosity, seek environments that align with their skills and values, and remain adaptable in their career trajectories. He underscores the importance of finding fulfillment in both the work and the relationships within a team.

Notable Quote:

“Intellectual curiosity is key. But most importantly, find a place where you want to be working with who you want to work with doing what you want to do.”
— Mike Freno [61:20]

This guidance highlights the significance of aligning personal and professional aspirations to achieve long-term success and satisfaction.

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Conclusion

Mike Freno's conversation with Barry Ritholtz offers a deep dive into the intricate workings of a leading asset management firm, the strategic navigation between private and public markets, and the leadership philosophies that drive organizational success. His emphasis on fundamental analysis, team empowerment, and strategic foresight provides valuable lessons for industry professionals and enthusiasts alike.

For those interested in exploring more such conversations, Masters in Business has a repository of over 500 interviews available on platforms like Bloomberg, iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.

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This summary captures the essence of the conversation between Barry Ritholtz and Mike Freno, highlighting key discussions, insights, and memorable quotes with appropriate attributions and timestamps.

Transcript

[Barry Ritholtz]

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[Mike Freno]

With Meta's open source AI model llama, we built a tool to help scientists to discover treatments for diseases.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Learn [e-mail] Open Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News this is Masters in Business with Barry Ritholtz on Bloomberg Radio this week on the podcast. What a fascinating guest. Mike Freno is chairman and CEO of Barings. They run over $431 billion in global assets. Fascinating combination. Not really related to the Barings bank of of old. You know if I think of Barings bank, you think of the the bank that blew up when you had an unauthorized trader acting out as well as the first bank in China and Japan and financed the Louisiana Purchase. That is not this entity. ING purchased them out of bankruptcy I think it was for like a dollar or a euro and some years later sold them to Massmutual and and then Massmutual combined Barings Investing with a number of other shops including Babson, a very well regarded investing firm. The shop manages about well over $430 billion. About half of that comes from Massmutual. The other half comes from institutional investors. What they do is really fascinating. They have been working in various credit and other private areas for decades. I know there's been a big rush into private credit and private debt over the past few years. Barings has been doing this and Massmutual has been doing this for decades and decades. They they run a ton of money in order to manage their future liabilities as an insurer and it's pretty much non equities. I think they have about $10 billion out of the 400 and change billion that's in public equities. Most of what they do are real assets, credit debt, middle market banking. They're looking for a fairly reasonable stream of future income, less volatility and the potential to meet those as an insurer those future liabilities down the road. Really not just a fascinating area. But Mike Freno is so knowledgeable. He worked as a trader. He worked as essentially a high yield portfolio Manager before going to the president and then CEO of the company. So he has seen the world of private investing from both sides, both as an investor and and as part of the management team. Super knowledgeable, super informative. I found this conversation to be absolutely fascinating and I think you will also, with no further ado, my discussion with Mike Freno, Chairman and CEO of Barings.

[Mike Freno]

Thanks for having me. Great to see you.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Great to have you here. Let's talk a little bit about your background and what led you to this career. A BA from Furman University, an MBA from Wake Forest Business School. Was finance always the career plan.

[Mike Freno]

Well, originally started out in accounting, so I was an accounting major coming out of Furman and worked with the legacy firm for the date myself a little bit Coopers and Lybrand briefly before it was merged into PricewaterhouseCoopers. And so I spent a couple years on the audit side and and then actually transferred over to the tax side. So my first four working years were spent in public accounting. And so that was really the intention at the time was I was interested in accounting. I loved many people won't appreciate this but love the way financial statements work. I like to see how businesses make money and so I always envisioned myself doing that. But it did have a good, a fortunate opportunity to go really work at a startup hedge fund. It was M and M Partners at the time it was relatively small. We were just over 100 million when I went to work, worked there, went as a controller. So to kind of help out on the accounting side of things, the fund side of things. And then as companies grow and you're only five people, you tend to start to wear a lot of hats. And as a result of that had the opportunity to start trading, had to start the opportunity to start doing some analysis. We had multi strategies that we ran. We ran a merger arb strategy, also distressed debt, which is really where I probably gravitated to the most just because of the fundamental analysis that's associated with debt investing.

[Barry Ritholtz]

All right, so you start out as an accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. You're a controller at M and M Partners, hedge funds. How do you go from there to Babson, a fairly large investment shop.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah. So it was again often these things you have to be in the right spot at the right time. And fortune was there for me. And so again I was gravitating more towards. I did some trading so I was working on the trading desk but really gravitated toward our distressed and event driven strategy which was largely around at that Point in time, it was the early 2000s. You had a number of bankruptcies going on. We were analyzing all sorts of things and I really enjoyed the analysis around that and then had the opportunity to speak to the folks at Babson, which was one of the predecessor firms to Barings. They were really down there running a leveraged loan and a high yield business again, which fit really nicely with what I was doing. They were moving into more event driven strategies as well and had the opportunity to go over there and start working with them. At the time, Babson had about 20 some odd people in Charlotte. We can talk more about this later, but we're up to over 700 now, so there's been a tremendous amount of growth there. But really in 2005 I made that shift to Babson and really still doing what I was doing, focused on fundamental fixed income analysis.

[Barry Ritholtz]

It's kind of fascinating because you almost defensively said how much you enjoy accounting, but if you're a good accountant, you look at a balance sheet, you can imagine what's going on in the company, where their growth areas are, where their problem areas are, where they're spending too much money. I would imagine that would lend itself very well to distressed asset investing and leveraged asset investing. Tell us a little bit about it.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I think it has and I do. I say this to folks and folks in other industries when you talk about the excitement of analyzing of financial statements and going through. But it does tell a story. If you know how income statements and cash flow statements translate into balance sheets, it will tell a story of how companies are doing. And if you have the intellectual curiosity to dig deeper into it, you can really get a full picture of who's got a sustainable business, who possibly doesn't. And so you couple the fundamental analysis that with some general understanding of business and I think it's an exciting combination and one that I really had passionate about and enjoyed doing so again. Was very fortunate to find myself in many roles which allowed me to do that.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And you mentioned Charlotte. My firm has an office in Charlotte. I seem to visit Charlotte like every few years and every time I show up it's like, oh my God, this place is double the size it was 18 months ago. The growth in Charlotte is really quite amazing and it's become this giant finance hub. Tell us a little bit about. And you've been there your whole career, right?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I've been there largely. I started out in South Carolina, went to school. Furman was in Greenville, South Carolina. So really started my work there. But Then ultimately, the majority of my time since 1999 has been spent in Charlotte. And to your point, it continues to grow at a rapid pace. It is a financial services hub. It's certainly not New York City, but it's. It's definitely the top two or three in terms of large financial services. We had the benefit of having bank of America be located there. Wachovia and First Union, the predecessors to now Wells Fargo, had a headquarters there. They do continue to keep a large presence there. But what's interesting about it is when we first started going around and marketing to the world and our institutional clients, we would often get questions. How do you retain talent? How do you attract talent in Charlotte? And the response was just come see it.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Oh, my God. First of all, it's beautiful. Second of all, everything is very reasonably priced, and you have great barbecue and the NASCAR museum and headquarters. Really, there are worse places in the world and the weather is, like, temperate and reasonable.

[Mike Freno]

And you sound like you're working for the Chamber of Commerce.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Well, we have an office there. And every time I go down there, it's. It's very funky and hip. It feels like a Southern version of Brooklyn. And so I don't see attracting and retaining talent as very difficult in Chicago.

[Mike Freno]

It's become an asset for us to be located there, for sure, and the talent's there. And so you've seen a number of smaller financial services firms start up around there because financial services firms like yourselves moved down there because that's where talent is and that's where people want to live. So it's been great. It's been nice to see the growth, and there's a real commitment to the city there. So I think we've got a few more years of growth, for sure.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Yeah. No, to say the very least, there's a bright future there. So I want to talk a little bit about leadership, especially leadership at a large investment firm. First, what was the transition like going from being on a training desk and managing portfolios to running the complete organization as CEO?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I stepped in in November of 2020. So it's because a lot of things were going on during that period of time. And so it's a change. But I was fort. As I said before, I came from an accounting background. I was also at the hedge fund. I was involved in the operations early day of getting things up, understanding how settlements work, things of that nature. That is in the. They call it the back office today, but is increasingly important and complex. Candidly, when you move into different types of asset Classes. I had some familiarity with that. I did have a stepping stone from when I was managing portfolios to before I took over the CEO. I briefly, for about eight months, sat in the president's role, which gave me also oversight over investments. I had the investments, sales, technology and operations. While a brief period, it gave me an appreciation for things I didn't know well and I think actually provided me a pretty good roadmap for starting to rely on other people, because you're not going to know everything about everything. I was investments, that's in my background. But running a company requires a lot of other people to do a lot of other things and making sure that you are comfortable. And we'll say it in this way, letting the plumbers fix the sink. So I wasn't an expert in technology, I wasn't an expert in operations. So I had to rely on and make sure I had people there I trusted to make the decisions. And I think that was one of the things I learned early on was I should probably make few decisions as the leader of the company and entrust my people to make a lot of them, but make sure you've got the right people there to do it. And then the transition is. It's different. Managing money and managing people is dramatically different. And this is the people business. Our asset is our people. It's an incredibly valuable asset. And then running something that's global creates a whole other set of challenges. We're in over 20 countries, and when people talk about culture, we have different cultures candidly, in different regions, because there's different behaviors and things that are done there. But I will say what we do when we is we have a set of philosophies, a set of principles and a set of values that are consistent. And understanding that and recognizing what works in Charlotte, North Carolina, may not work necessarily in Seoul. Korea was actually a pretty big learning curve for me.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Yeah, I can imagine. So it's interesting. Your background is at M and M. It started out with five people at PricewaterhouseCoopers or even back in the day when it was just Leibn and Coopers and Lybren, Coopers and Lyburn. They're giant. They're thousands and thousands of people. What did the experience at both a small firm and a giant firm, how did that shape your leadership at Barings?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I think working at a small firm, you begin to appreciate how effective quick decision making can be. But understanding working at a large corporation that you need to have controls, you need to have some element of controls and process that goes along and so balancing those two out and creating an environment where you're empowering people to make relatively quick decisions and failing fast as well. Make decisions to invest, make decisions to go grow businesses, to acquire businesses. And if things don't work, let's be intellectual, honest about it and move quickly. So I think the balance of those two and marrying those two together, and while we're a large company, we're around 2,000 people again in over 20 countries. It's big enough where it requires certain process. You can't have the decision makers all sitting in a room every single day just making them. It does require some ability to decentralized the decision making process. And as I said earlier, as you move further and further up an organization, you probably should be making less decisions. And you're empowering. You make the big decisions, the ones that are critical to the survival and effectiveness of the company. But outside of that, really relying on your team to do a lot of that. So I think working at both and having the experience of both gave me the appreciation for both.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So you've spent about 20 years, maybe a little over 20 years at the same company now increasingly becoming a rarity. Everybody seems to move jobs and companies pretty regularly these days. Tell us what keeps you at the same firm for so long.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, so it's coming up on 20. I've been over 19 years now, so we're coming in on 20. And I was very fortunate to find myself working at Babson at the time in a place that fit my personality and my skill sets well. It was a very much a team based approach, it was very much a collaborative approach. It was built on fundamental analysis which fit my skill set skit well. And so I think when you're fortunate enough to find an environment where your skill set can be amplified by those around you and by the business process or the culture that's there, it works. And I was again had an opportunity to take on a lot of responsibilities. I was entrusted with things early on in my tenure there and was able to start new products to go out and market those products to see how things worked. And so I hopefully have created what I enjoyed, or at least fostered what I enjoyed so much when I joined the legacy company Babson, and it's allowed me to stay there. And again, I can't thank my predecessors enough for giving me the opportunity and chance to really grow as a person, but also grow the business.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Last question in this section, you alluded to something that I'm kind of fascinated by and I've observed it in a number of different companies. I'd love to get your thoughts on this as a company grows, as you add more assets, more people, more divisions. Exactly what you said about you making the critical decisions, but being willing and able to delegate decision making authority to people underneath you. I have heard a number of people talk about how challenging that is to let go. Tell us a little bit about your experience with it.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I think one thing I'm fortunate and blessed to have is self awareness. I know what I don't know and that's been proven to me a number of times through some mistakes, but I have the scars to show it. But knowing what you're good at, and we all have very good gifts and we all have weaknesses and I think it's okay to accept that and say, I have a gap here. I need to build people around me who fill in that gap. But it's hard because I think inherently most of us believe that we make the best decisions. And so you do have to start moving that. And I try. What I'll tell when new people join the team or when I take over a new in the past, when I've taken over a new team is because often what happens is people are making a decision, they're looking to their boss. Well, what would, what kind of lean would you go? I'm not looking for an answer, but just kind of give me a direction of where you go and maybe that's where I'll go. But I've often said you'll have 10 decisions to make this year. They're your 10 decisions. Eight of them I'll support 100% and I'll love them. Two of them I may hate, but that's okay because they're your decisions and they're probably better than I would do because you're closer to it. And I have to remind myself of that too, because there's sometimes when I get uncomfortable, I want to go back to the areas where I'm comfortable. And everyone hates to see me sitting on the trading desk because then they're like, oh, here he goes.

[Barry Ritholtz]

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[Mike Freno]

Yep, that's right. That's right.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So tell us, what did this combination of four firms do? Tell us about the reach and capabilities and why mash up four fairly substantial investment firms?

[Mike Freno]

Yes, at the time Massmutual saw the value in asset management not only for its general account but also to be a third party business at times was opportunistic in purchasing up smaller asset management. At the time Barings was one that was purchased from ING as you mentioned to really be it was the multi asset international equity business. There was also Wood Creek which which you mentioned, which was a real assets business. Think of it in music rights, royalty streams, infrastructure type things that have tractor trailers that have longer term cash flow profiles. And then there was Babson Capital of which I was a part of which was the largest. And Babson was actually the predecessor to that was D.L. babson, the equity manager. MassMutual had purchased that and then ultimately had spun out what was the MassMutual investment management into Babson Capital. And so we had four affiliates at the time there was actually five affiliates because MassMutual at the time also owned Oppenheimer Funds which has subsequently been sold to Invesco. But we took, we made a decision to combine the four brands, the four aforementioned brands together under the new, the new Bearings. And Babson was actually the largest. It was the Fixed income Manager, but it was the largest in terms of aum. But what we recognized was the Barings brand actually carried more value than the Babson brand. Certainly internationally where our presence was, was very well known. And so we made the decision to combine all four of those businesses together under what was now titled Barings.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So how do you create and maintain a corporate culture when you're starting with four very distinct entities?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, it's, it's, it's a challenge at times. And what was interesting is, is Babson itself had been a series of acquisitions as well. I mentioned D.L. babson was the first. There was a group called IDM which was institutional Debt Management that was purchased out of First Union Bank. It was really a CLO and loan manager. That was actually the group that I joined at the time. We also bought a business in the UK that was a parallel. It was a leveraged loan and mezzanine investor called Duke Street Capital Partners. So we had brought companies in together, all with the philosophy that we want to fully integrate these and I'll talk a little bit about the philosophy on that and some of the challenges that come along. But really when the decision was to bring them together, we felt to get the most scale and the most long term value to our ultimate owners, which are the policy owners of Massmutual, was to combine these businesses under one brand, under one operating model and under one culture. Now not everyone made the transition. I'd love to say that it was real easy to do. But what we decided to do was really have an investment committee driven, team based approach. And some of the portfolio managers of some of the firms were more driven towards the I have sole discretion on everything I do. There's not a process, it's my decision to make these and I have the support of a research team. And that didn't always mesh up. But we made the decision to move, to move to the one standard of investing and created what is now Barings and have subsequently been able to bring in additional acquisitions again, all under the idea of we want to fully integrate these.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So we're talking about corporate culture. November 2020, you're elevated from president to CEO. I recall lots and lots of CEOs talking about in 2020 and 2021, right in the midst of, of the COVID pandemic. Hey, how are we going to maintain a form of corporate culture. How do we keep everybody on the same page? What were your experiences like?

[Mike Freno]

I would say communications was key and it was much more regular speaking to the entire company as opposed to episodic. And we would do town halls on a, I would say an infrequent basis. But you very much every week you needed to be out there speaking to the company. One of the things that was fortunate, we were global to begin with. So we had an operating model that didn't have us fully face to face all the time.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So semi virtual, semi virtual.

[Mike Freno]

At that point, we had invested in some technology. It was amazing how quickly the technology took over at that, at that point in time. But we did have regional heads that were able to continue to stay engaged with our teammates. And I think the communications was the big part. It was really making sure that you're constantly and consistently out there telling everyone what's going on in full transparency. And one of the things we've really tried to do throughout the company, and it's something that I've appreciated as I've worked my way up to my career, is as much transparency as we can. I have always had this belief and the folks at Behrings have heard me say this many, many, many times. I would rather know what's going on and know I don't like it than not know what's going on and think I don't like it. And I think it just creates a level of anxiety when people suspect something. And so when you're going through tough periods like that, having transparency as much as you can, there's certain things you can't share, obviously. But to provide that level of clarity to people, I think provides some level of ease. And it makes them feel more that they're a part of what we're doing. And candidly, they are. They're a part of the solution, they're a part of the growth, and they're a part of the success.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So you guys are not that far away from 500 billion in assets. Let's talk a little bit about who your clients are. Obviously, MassMutual insurer, as the parent company, is a big client. I'm assuming that's where the genesis of all these different asset management strategies came from. Who are your other clients?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, so MassMutual makes up roughly half of our assets, and that's for the general account. And then outside of that, we are predominantly an institutional manager at this time. We do have some penetration into the, we'll say wealth and retail channel.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Globally is a family Office more like as opposed to mom and pop investors.

[Mike Freno]

It's through some RIA relationships we have. And then internationally we go through wealth as well through some of the larger banks, but we're definitely more skewed towards what we would consider an institutional or intermediary type relationship. But it's going to make up the full spectrum of that. Obviously insurance is a big component of what we do. Just given our heritage and our DNA, that's a large component of our third party business. But also sovereign wealth funds, family offices, pensions, really across the spectrum in terms of where any institutional client really globally and that's one of the benefits we have. We do have client base that's split relatively easy amongst the three regions, I'll say with the Americas EMEA and then Asia PAC in Australia.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So I want to wrap my head around a large insurer like MassMutual as a client. I would imagine very long term in perspective, but I don't really grasp what sort of risk tolerance an insurance company has. I assume they don't want you swinging for the fences, but on the other hand, hey, they could buy Treasuries without you. What is that sort of risk embracing? Like how does that settle out? What are they looking for in terms of returns?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, and so I would say not many of our clients want to swing in for the fences and usually we're not the ones to hire to do that. We are more very much focused on fundamental long term type investing. We do it all up and down and we do it within fixed income, we do it within real assets and we do it within what we call capital solutions insurance companies. And I will say this, MassMutual obviously is a mutual company. And you mentioned a long term horizon I think is one of the best ownership structures we could have because they are owned by their policyholders who have a very, very long time horizon. And at the current time I think our oldest policyholder has owned a policy for 80 years and that's a long term horizon. That policyholder loves to see us pay dividends and then wants us to be there to pay the benefits to their descendants. So it's really taking a long term horizon which allows us not only will we make investments on behalf of our clients, but we make investments in the business which is equally important for the longevity and sustainability of our company. We have a longer term horizon. We're not necessarily worried about quarterly earnings or even annual earnings. We're fiduciaries of what we've been given. But we can take a long term look. And in Fact, our middle market direct lending business, we started building that in 2013 well ahead of a lot of the conversations that had. Knowing we may be a little bit early in terms of the acceptance from LPs to move into middle market direct lending of the size and scale it is. But we took a view that long term we think this is going to be a valuable place to be. We also knew that MassMutual had an interest in the asset class, which helps us start new strategies. And so I think it's a good blend of that. And as we move further and further, insurance companies have been buying private or illiquid assets really forever.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Forever.

[Mike Freno]

Right back in Massmuse was almost 175 years old. 175 years ago there wasn't a lot of public bonds that were trading outside of government bonds. They've been in this space for a long period of time and now we're just somewhat showing it to other parties. They're obviously skewed more towards higher rated assets just given the rating of the company as a AA entity. But that being said, our business has other things further down the risk spectrum that allows us to grow and service other clients.

[Barry Ritholtz]

I want to better define what capital solutions and real assets are. Let's start with real assets. So you mentioned music royalties and copyrights and things like long haul trucks. What other real assets do you guys own and is the goal? We're just looking for a steady, low.

[Mike Freno]

Volatility income stream in most of our strategies it's that. And so I would say real assets for us is broadly defined as real estate and infrastructure. And even infrastructure and real estate can blur at some point in time when you start to look at logistics and things of that nature there.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So when you say infrastructure, are we talking highways and bridges? Are we talking trucks and rails?

[Mike Freno]

You think trucks and trucks? It's all of the above. For us it's more along the trucks and rails and towers, wireless towers. Things of that nature that fits within their data centers can fall into either one of those types type thing. So that's, that's the real assets. But we do have the capabilities again we own, we own trailers, we own an aircraft leasing business. And so those things that are, are longer term, more stable type cash flows. Capital solutions is really encompasses all of it to be honest. It's. It's more of a unique solution, a more bespoke solution for a client when it comes to. It's not something that would. And certainly when we originate things in all of our private assets, there's some level of some level of customization for those clients. But when you get into capital solutions, it's really a unique solution to a client who has a financing need of some side. It can be a preferred equity piece, it can be a debt piece with equity kickers, all sorts of things that fit within that. That's slightly unique and that will come more than likely with higher returns. It's a little heavier lift to be able to do a little bit different analysis that goes along with it, but it's a higher returning.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So I get the sense that there are some advantages to working with a large insurance firm. Not just the longevity, but it seems like there is the freedom to do the sort of things that a lot of investors just don't have the patience to wait for.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, and there's also an alignment. I mean, MassMutual is alongside our investors on almost everything we do. They're in the same strategies and varying sizes and scale. So there is a complete alignment from where we're investing our parent company's capital as well as where we're investing our third party event. But it does help to have a parent company like this who allows us to seed investments, allows us to grow things. And you've seen more and more frequently now the tie ups of what we'll call alternative managers with insurance companies because there is a need on the asset side as well as the liability side. So the liabilities coming from the insurance company, those assets or those liabilities, the cash that comes with those, needs to be invested in assets that provide a return that meet that liability. And so there's naturally this move now, we did this 20 years ago. And so we're seeing a lot of this happen now. But this is something that we had done a long, long time ago. And seeing that a captive, which is what we started as an captive asset manager for an insurance company, can also be a great service provider to other clients as well. And that's really in 2000 when we started this focus of making what was Babson and the other brands more focused on third party as well as the parent company.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And when you discuss liabilities for an insurance company, those future obligations are fairly predictable. I mean, there's some variability. Hey, you're working with annuity tables and things like that. But it's a pretty predictable set of obligations. How does that impact how you think about the risk tolerances and where you want to go with the investment dollars?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I mean, it's all as with most fixed, all fixed income investing, candidly, you want to get your return you get your coupon and then you get paid back at the end of the day. So it really is. And then how things are measured in terms of duration, in terms of tenor and all those things really that's something that we don't do as much. The parent company handles all the asset liability management side of things. They give us asset allocations, we go ahead and invest those dollars. So we're the security selectors, if you will. But yeah, when you look at the liabilities of a number of insurance companies out there and you think of whether there's the life business, it could be term or it could be whole life, you also then look at the annuities, the pension risk transfer, all of those have a set pension risk transfer, much longer dated set of liabilities. But it creates an interesting opportunity in different asset classes to provide excess returns. And I, I think what folks are starting to see, and this is certainly the case with us, we have always recognized that we would be happy to pick up additional returns for an illiquidity premium without taking additional risk. And that's really what I think insurance companies have the flexibility to do is to take that illiquidity premium because they have a much better idea of what their liabilities look like and matching those up.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And you're a member of the executive leadership team at Massmutual, discuss a little bit, if you will, what those conversations are like. It must be fascinating to sit on that board that's essentially overseeing your day job.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, it's, it was very insightful for me. I had, I had some knowledge of the insurance industry and really just how it touched the asset management industry. But it does give me a bigger perspective on, on the industry as a whole. And I think more and more as you, you see, and certainly there are really deep cases of this where alternative asset managers, whether it's with reinsurers or insurance companies, have become one. We have a front row seat to how the two are managed. And so I think it's just given us a much better perspective. And I also think it's made behrings and hopefully myself as a better partner to some of our other clients is recognizing and have a better understanding of that.

[Barry Ritholtz]

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[Barry Ritholtz]

Get into the details of investment management, I have to ask you a question. There was a quote of yours that kind of grabbed me. You've self described your own leadership style as confident humility. Explain what that means. That's a fascinating phrase.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, thank you for asking that. I use it a lot. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but I love it and I think it describes how we operate at Barings. It goes back to the element of having some self awareness and I think understanding we need to be confident in what we do. We make big decisions whether we're on the investment team making decisions for clients portfolios or whether we're in management or any other part of the business. We have to be confident in the decisions that we make and we have to rebound from mistakes at times. But at the same time recognizing with an element of humility which I think is a gift for people to have, that we don't have all the answers all the time. And seeking counsel and seeking partnerships and seeking people to do that isn't necessarily a sign of not knowing things. It's a sign of just saying, hey, I need a little Bit of help here. So I use the phrase very frequently. I love it. Again, whoever came up with it, I'll attribute it to him if I find out. But it is something I think and I hope I, I live by and I think most of the teammates at Barings do as well.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So let's talk a little bit about how the asset management industry is going to evolve over the next decade. You guys aren't very equity heavy, but you're much more focused on private markets, on anything that is a fairly regular income stream. How do you see not just insurance but the entire asset management industry evolving in the future?

[Mike Freno]

Well, there's clearly a growth into what folks are calling private assets. I think that's definitely going to continue to be the trend. I also think in some of the more established private assets there's a blurring of lines between public and private. And what was in leveraged loan. The leveraged loan market is a pretty good market for that. You've got deals that are several billion which are going to private credit firms. You've got deals that were started in the middle market space which would have been 500 million. Like I said, now they're several billion. And so is that a syndicated market or is that a private market? So you're seeing the ebbs and flows of that and I think that makes sense. There's relative values that change between public and private markets over the time. But also more and more what you're seeing is kind of an emergence of more private asset classes being purchased by individuals and probably more by institutionals, less by individuals at this time. But over time you'll see that it's in the asset based finance space, the securitization space, things that were always somewhat in the private space but didn't come out into the public markets through cusip, actually coming off a bank's balance sheet. So I think that's going to continue. And you've seen any numbers of 3 trillion to 5 trillion of how big the market can be. Really anything that's in a public market from a debt standpoint can really operate in the private market. And so it just depends on what borrowers are candidly looking for. Are they looking for some sort of certainty of execution? Can I get that better in the public market? Can I get it better in the private market? What terms can I get in each? Do I want my information in the public market? Perhaps I prefer to keep. I'm a closely held company. Maybe I'd prefer to keep my information amongst a private and small group. Of lenders. So that's moving. You see new things like portfolio finance, which is something we do on a large scale, which is, it's slightly different from nav lending, but it is lending to GPs and lending to portfolios. It's a growing business, highly customized, highly bespoke structures that take a lot of heavy lifting to do. But I think more and more we're going to see that as people try to find, and I described it earlier, possibly take getting more higher yields, higher returns, but not taking more risk, but picking that up through either complexity premium or an illiquidity premium.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So you mentioned a couple of things earlier than I want to hit back on, which is how various markets have kind of moved up. And I see this across lots of different things. Whether it's public financing or even public companies, whether they stay private or go public. It seems that everything has gotten bigger, higher assets, higher aum. And it almost feels as if Wall street has kind of abandoned that middle market. You mentioned things that, that used to be private at 3, 4,500 million are now still private at 2, 3, 4 billion. This seems to be going across every sector I look at. Is this just a natural evolution of capital markets or have valuations and size just gotten so large that Wall street can only service these giant shops and it creates this void in the middle underneath?

[Mike Freno]

Well, I think the ability for companies to stay private longer is a good thing.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Right.

[Mike Freno]

And I think it's actually, there's definitely a need for the public markets. We don't want to lose those all together and we don't want it to only be for the trillion dollar market cap companies. I think it's healthy to have a moving market because people, people at times will want some sort of monetization event. They will want some sort of liquidity. And you can get some of that in private markets, but it's not nearly the way you can get it in the public markets. But I go back to using the leveraged loan and your example is exactly right. When I started out in the business, a broadly syndicated leveraged loan deal could have been $500 million. A bank would have brought that deal and 10 people would have owned it and traded it. Now that's, that's not the case. You got to be moving up. And so I think it is an evolution of things. And I think your banking regulations have changed some of the bank's ability to do some of this type of lending. We'll see if that changes in the future. But the good thing about the capital markets in General is it's efficient. And if there's a way for people to get excess returns, capital will flow into that. And over time, if spreads become compressed there, they'll move to other areas, which I think is overall healthy, healthy for a market.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And you talked about the relative value as assets shift between public and private and back. How do you capture that gap, that difference? Is it just a function of all this capital flowing into private markets? There's no doubt public markets are historically pricey today, but it feels like so much cash chasing all these private assets, you're going to end up with a very similar situation.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I think one of the distinct differences is obviously the quickness or the rapidness at which a public market changes price. Whether it's valuation, second by second, whether it's valuation or whether it's spreads on yields going wider or going tighter, that's effectively real time. It takes longer in the private markets because these deals take a long time to longer to originate, to close and to move on. And so the reaction time is slightly there. And if it's a brief correction in the market, maybe the private markets get it right and the public markets just had a period of inefficiency. But over time those two should converge and you should be getting a premium if you're moving into private assets. There's nothing to suggest that you should be getting tighter spreads in a private market, giving up your liquidity. And there's some liquidity, but that nearly the case of the public market markets, if you're giving that up, you should be getting a premium. So over time there needs to be a premium given into the private markets over the public markets, which would also suggest that over time companies who are looking to as much as possible reduce their cost of capital will gravitate to where the financing is most appropriate to them. And that may be in the publics and maybe in the private.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So Barings has been in the space for decades now. It seems that certainly since the financial crisis and more intensely since the pandemic, just huge flows of capital are going to private. At what point does that become a crowded trade? What's the capacity like on the private side?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, it's big because in theory you can start taking market share from the public side. And that's where I think some our direct lending business is really purely in the middle market space. And so think of us looking at companies with 75 million of EBITDA and below rather than the multi billion. We don't currently traffic in that and we traffic in the Middle market and then we traffic in the syndicated space. But the direct lending space in between is somewhat of a white space for us. But I think that's what you've seen as large capital allocators and aggregators have billions and tens of billions and twenties of billions to put to work. It becomes hard to do that in chunks of 250 million, much easier to do in 2.5 billion. And so there's a tug of war between the public and private markets as who's taking market share from that? All good companies. It's just what is your strategy necessarily looking to do but without the private market seeing new deal volume. And so whether we start to see M and A transactions come back, whether we start to see club deals being.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Formed for public companies and things like club deals being.

[Mike Freno]

Club deals will have to. Club deals being you get four or five lenders together and they take down the A four billion dollar deal and say it's a club of us rather than one person doing it on a buy.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Not quite a syndicate, not quite a syndicate.

[Mike Freno]

It's that white space in between that evolves in there. The CH you've got. And so they'll have to be either new deal volume, as I said, or the private markets will have to take market share, continue to take market share from the public markets.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So we're talking about institutional investors. Do they want fewer but larger and more strategic relationships? What are they looking for in terms of capabilities and portfolio solutions from an investment shop like yours?

[Mike Freno]

Well, absolutely. And I think probably everyone is looking for fewer relationships. They have. They have to deal with a lot of relationships and a lot of partners. So the more you can have a robust or a broad sense of capabilities, the more value you are to be. When I think what's interesting and what we've tried to build and how we've kind of gone through acquisitions and how we've gone through organic growth is to really make sure we cover all of that. And so if you look at our acquisitions over time, if you look at what we've grown, we've tried to be global. And so we make acquisitions of things that are adjacent or tangential to our current strategies.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Is that strategic or tactical?

[Mike Freno]

That's strategic. And that's just the view that we take. We want to have global capabilities for what we do. And so if we, if we do direct lending in the US we do direct lending in Europe and we do direct lending in Asia PAC and it's. It's basically saying to. Into companies, if you have the desire for A global portfolio. If you have the desire for us to determine where the best relative value is, we can do that capability. You don't need to select three different managers to cover three different parts of the globe equally. We've done that with the liquid and illiquid side. And so if folks come and say, I want a leveraged finance product, I want something that's below investment grade. But I know at times high yields more attractive, at times leverage loans are more attractive, and at times direct lending is more attractive, you determine where that best relative value is. And I think that's been a hallmark of how we viewed it. Let's do what we do well and let's make sure we do it globally and we have deep enough capabilities to service all those needs.

[Barry Ritholtz]

You've been on the investing side of global high yield. How has your perspective been affected as CEO from your background as a trader or investor in that space?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, so one of the things that came out of is I was a part of a US loan group originally, so a syndicated loan group was where I first started at Babson. We then made the decision of, you know, these are similar two sides to the same coin. High yield bonds and leveraged loans are often in the same capital structure. One just comes with a fixed coupon, one's just got a cusip, one's more, but often it's the same company. So we decided to combine those two businesses together. Then we went and said, you know what, what's unique about us is we've got great capabilities in Europe and we've got great capabilities in us. And so in 2009 we said, let's create a global high yield platform, which was really one of the first of its kind. And so that experience and perspective said to me, this is really something that's here. Clients will value our global perspective. They'll still may want to only allocate to one region or another, or one asset or another. But who. Those who are interested. Let's take a look at that. And that as much as the investing side of it was there, it was really the business side of it, I think, which has helped me in my current role.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So I keep reading and hearing about new credit asset classes. What's the appetite like for that?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, it's becoming more and more popular. I think it's really on the asset based side of things. So there's a lot of different things that can fall into that category. And if you're talking about origination platforms, whether it's a mortgage origination platform, where Someone will take all the mortgages originated by that and package it into something. So as more and more it becomes more and more accepted to have a portion of your portfolio in illiquid assets. And I don't think it's just for insurance companies. I think insurance companies are well equipped to do that because their liabilities are, are fairly well known. But pensions also have a bucket for things that are illiquid. And I think historically they've used them for higher yielding things. But I suspect going forward and where a number of our conversations are taking place is around the IG portion of their portfolio, their investment grade portion of their portfolio, that if I can pick up an additional 100 to 150 basis points of spread or yield in a private market, I don't need all of my assets in my portfolio to be on the liquid side. That's usually the bucket I use for liquidity is in my investment grade and government bond side of things. But maybe I move a little bit into illiquid assets and pick up additional yield for that portion because I don't need 5% I can sacrifice for illiquidity purposes.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So it sounds like there are a ton of tailwinds for the private credit and debt sides. What do you think is the next phase of growth? What's the next area that's ripe that perhaps hasn't really been well explored?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, we've canvassed a lot of it. I mean, I think there's a lot. But I do think the private investment grade side of the market is really going to be the area where it's going to grow.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And when people talk about investment grade, that's private.

[Mike Freno]

Yes. And so I think when people originally, even as early as last year, when you have said direct lending or private credit, everyone would have moved to middle market corporate direct lending. And that's what was in everyone's mind. And that was a component of it. It's a component of it, but it's actually one of the smaller components of it. Candidly, when you expand to all the other types of lending that can be done and has traditionally been done by banks and has now been done by, is being done by asset managers and insurance companies, the opportunities are vast. And so I think that's going to be an area that continues to grow and continues to, to offer investors on the institutional side. And I suspect it will start to gravitate more and more towards the individual and wealth side of it business as well.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Really interesting. So you mentioned in passing some previous acquisitions. I know Altis and Griffon most recently. What are your plans? Are you thinking about more acquisitions? Is this deliberative or is it merely opportunistic or a little bit of both?

[Mike Freno]

It's really strategic. I think we have looked at, we love the portfolio of capabilities that we have and we're willing to expand on those both organically and inorganically. We've had a history of building out teams I referenced earlier. We started building our middle market team in 2013 at that same time. We built our emerging market debt team at that time. But also, as you referenced, we've just made two acquisitions. Both happened to be in Australia, but they were extensions of capabilities we had. One was a real estate business which gave us more of a global real estate presence and the other was a securitizations business which gave us global capabilities and securitization. So hopefully you're seeing a theme here that we really want to continue to have the global. And so we are very much open and looking for acquisitions. As I mentioned before, we want to fully integrate those. And so this is a people business. And so when you're looking at specifically principally owned businesses, businesses that are owned by a founder, you've got to make sure your interests are aligned there and that there's an expectation that this is going to be, over time, an integrated company. Now what we don't do is we don't mess with the investment process. That's what's got them there. What we do look to do is integrate operations, integrate sales to get a globe. We have a global sales force. We think it's best to leverage that way. But we're absolutely always looking for good opportunities and good things that hopefully will all fit within the strategic lens. So. So we're not going to be looking to buy something that doesn't fit with where we're going as a company. But certainly there are a lot of good companies out there and we're looking at a few now and hopefully be able to have a few more to announce over the coming years.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Really, really interesting. Let me throw you a curve ball. So you oversaw sales, operations, technology. You were on the investment side. Now you're CEO and chairman. How do you think about artificial intelligence affecting your business? What is the future of the sort of very personal relationships, very specific types of credit you guys swim in? How is AI going to impact that?

[Mike Freno]

It is going to impact for sure. And so what we've created a. We have an innovation team that really focuses on this because I think the use cases for AI and for all of these technologies is going to come throughout every one of our teammates. It's not necessarily going to be me sitting at, at the top of the organization saying, this is how we should use it. The applications are yet to be determined. Exactly. The art of the possible is here. I think one of the things we're finding is the data, especially in the private markets, has become so, so important. And right now, a lot of it is unstructured data from historical. And everyone's doing a better job of cataloging that data today. But the ability to use these machines to make decisions really depends on the access to data and our data on private companies and others. Data on private companies is very, very valuable to help inform investment decisions and inform business decisions. But if it's not in a structure that works, it's not in a structure that can be accessible, it's of no value.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Not machine ready quite yet.

[Mike Freno]

Look, the technology is getting better to go out and find unstructured data and bring it in, but it's still a ways away. The public markets have done an incredible job of bringing things together and having it to be able to mine that information. But really, the private data that exists out there is so large, and it's in many cases, certainly the historical data is very unstructured.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Really interesting. So let's jump to our favorite questions that we ask all of our guests, starting with what's keeping you entertained these days? What are you watching or listening to?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, in terms of streaming, I've just finished or almost finished with season two of Silo. So that's. Yeah, it's an interesting one.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Sci fi that's on Apple, if I remember.

[Mike Freno]

It is Sci fi. It's on Apple. It's. It's. Yeah, it's entertainment for. For sure. I watched 3 body problem a while ago as well.

[Barry Ritholtz]

So good.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, so good. Yeah. I'm waiting and anxious for the second and third season of that to come up. So I get my fiction when I watch, and I mostly read nonfiction. I've, you know, I'm in just at the end.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Well, we'll talk a little bit about books in a moment. Before we get there, I want to ask who were your mentors who helped shape your career?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, so I've used these two, and these two are really pivotal. One was my second boss at PricewaterhouseCoopers. What he taught me was really the caring nature of business and how people should view others and treat others. And it was an interest. I worked for them for only two years, and ever since I've left, I still get a Call on my birthday. Oh really? Without fail. I talk to him other times, but without fail I get a call on my birthday. And that's always resonated. I mean, working for someone for two years, but then for decades afterwards they continue to remember something that is, you know, birthdays become come and go every year. But it was important enough or I was important enough to him as a person to make that, to make that call. So that's something I've tried to take away and be conscious of, that people care about those things, talk about people.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Skills and people business.

[Mike Freno]

It was an admirable trait, certainly. And then another one was a coach of youth sports, was really one who taught me that the individual will never be above the team. And no matter how valuable someone is, no matter how important capabilities or skill set are, if they don't fit within the strategy of a team or the approach and philosophy of a team, it won't matter. It will be destructive. And so learning those on really again. And I think my skill set, but my personality fits well within a team based structure. Which is to your earlier question about why did I stay at or how have I stayed at Bearings for so long? It was a fit. And so recognizing that always made me understand. And again, I think it pointed out to having some self awareness that these companies and part of my job is a steward of the company right now. But Massmutual, as I mentioned, has been around for 175 years. As long as it owns Bearings, it's going to be around many, many years after I'm gone. And I'm a steward of it currently at this. But my job is to bring other people along. And so therefore it has to be a team.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Let's talk about books. What are some of your favorites? What are you reading right now?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I'm just finishing up the Steve Jobs book by Walter Isaacson. He's fantastic. Before that I read the Musk book and then actually read a book by him called Code breakers, which was about the MRNA technology. So I read mostly nonfiction when it comes to that. So I'm going through those kind of juggle books at the same time. I just also finished 1776 by David McCullough. So that's really what I'm reading. But most of the stuff is nonfiction.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Every time someone brings up McCullough, I have to bring up the Wright Brothers book by him. Amazing.

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, Never. Okay, well, we'll put that on the list. I haven't read it yet, but I'll put that on the list. And a good writer is so gifted. I mean it's amazing what they can do with, with stories. So I've enjoyed reading, reading those.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Our final two questions. What sort of advice would you give to a recent college grad interested in a career in either private investing, insurance investing or in general, if that was what they were interested in as a career?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I mean first, it's a great, it's a great industry. I love it and there's a lot of aspects of financial services and this is somewhat timely. I've got a sophomore in college now who I'm somewhat counseling on, although he listens less to me and more to other people. But I've always advised when we bring in two year analysts out of college, we have a two year analyst program. When I'm fortunate enough to speak with them, it's take it all in. You don't know exactly what you want to do today, but look around, ask a lot of questions. Intellectual curiosity is key. If you've got intellectual curiosity about something, you'll be better at it. But most importantly, find a place where you want to be working with who you want to work with doing what you want to do. And that to me is the key. If you find yourself in any of those three don't match up. I really think it's irrespective of how great you think the industry is, the prestige of it, you just won't be happy long term. And I think I was again fortunate. I loved public accounting, but I couldn't see myself doing that forever. I enjoyed it and I was fortunate and to find myself in a situation like this. So if you're not where you are with who you want to be with doing what you want, it's, it'd be, it'd be time to move on.

[Barry Ritholtz]

And our final question, what do you know about the world of finance, credit lending and investing today? You Wish you knew 25 years or so ago when you were really first getting started?

[Mike Freno]

Yeah, I think what I, what I would say is what I knew back then or thought I knew back then, that fundamentals ultimately are key. You lose track of that sometimes when you see euphoria and you see bubbles and you start to get away from really long term cash flows of things or what really matters over time. So I think it's not what I wish I knew then, it was what I wish I hadn't forgotten over time because mistakes are made really when you lose sight of the fundamentals of things. And so I'd encourage folks that long term valuation should be based off an expectation of growth, an expectation that that sooner or later will turn into earnings which will ultimately turn into cash flows. And keeping that in mind that that's the fundamental for all investments and what investments that are people made and ultimately valuations.

[Barry Ritholtz]

Really, really very fascinating. Mike Freno thank you for being so generous with your time. We have been speaking with Mike Freno, chairman and CEO of Barings, which manages over 430 $30 billion in global financial assets. If you enjoy this conversation, check out any of the 500 previous interviews we've done over the past 10 years. You can find those at Bloomberg, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you find your favorite podcasts. And be sure and check out my new book, how not to Invest the Ideas, Numbers and Behavior that Destroy wealth and how to avoid them coming March 18, 2025. I would be remiss if I did not thank the crack team that helps put these conversations together. Anna Luke is my producer. John Wasserman is my audio engineer. Sean Russo is my researcher. Sage Bauman is the head of podcasts Here at Bloomberg. I'm Barry Ritholtz. You've been listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio.

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