Fund Shack Private Equity Podcast

Will Dunham, President and CEO of the American Investment Council, joins Fund Shack to unpack one of the most misunderstood debates in modern finance: the real economic impact of private equity and private credit in the United States.We explore how private capital supports 13 million American jobs, why online narratives around housing and healthcare often diverge from the data, and how private equity is funding manufacturing reshoring, AI infrastructure and national security. We also examine the policy shift opening 401(k) retirement plans to alternative investments, the controversy around private credit and systemic risk, and the broader question of whether private capital remains aligned with everyday Americans.Topics include: 🔹private equity in US housing🔹build-to-rent supply🔹rent-to-own models 🔹healthcare access and innovation🔹 the growth of private credit🔹Federal Reserve research on systemic risk🔹the shrinking US public markets🔹pension fund returns🔹the diversification challenge for retirement savers🔹the SEC private fund adviser rule🔹the political dynamics shaping private capital's licence to operate.For investors, advisers, policymakers and allocators seeking a clear view of how private markets actually function on Main Street, this episode offers grounded analysis rather than headlines.🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Thank you to our episode partnerBrookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services.For more information, visit: www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industry🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹💼 Learn more at: Will Dunham President and Chief Executive Officer🌐 www.investmentcouncil.orgCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/dunhamwill/ Ross ButlerFounder and Host Fund Shack 🌐 www.fund-shack.comCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹📘 Pre-order Ross Butler’s book 👉 Invest Like a Barbarian: Share in the spoils of the Private Markets revolution ♾️ http://q-r.to/Invest-Like-A-Barbarian#investlikeabarbarian 🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Fund Shack is the private equity podcast with in-depth conversations with investors, founders, and thought leaders shaping the future of private markets.🔗 More episodes www.fund-shack.com 📩 Subscribe to our Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/Suggest a guest: [email protected]🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Ross Butler speaks with David Nowak, President of Brookfield’s Private Equity Group. David leads Brookfield’s North American private equity business and its evergreen strategy. He brings a contrarian, operations-led viewpoint shaped by more than a decade working across one of the world’s most integrated alternative-investment platforms.We explore how Brookfield focuses on essential-service businesses that are misunderstood, how it leverages information advantages drawn from its global infrastructure, real estate, renewables and energy-transition platforms, and why its dual-sponsorship model between investors and operators produces repeatable value creation across market cycles.Brookfield’s approach is not thematic. Instead, it targets situations where perceived risk diverges from actual risk. David discusses the Westinghouse acquisition as an example: nuclear power was deeply out of favour, yet Brookfield’s renewables team demonstrated it remained indispensable to regional power grids. Operational work then doubled EBITDA. A similar framework guided the acquisition of Clarios, where market consensus around electric vehicles failed to reflect realistic adoption rates and operational improvement opportunities.A large part of Brookfield’s private equity model centres on operations. Around 35 senior operators sit directly inside the investment floor, and every deal is jointly owned by an investor and an operator from diligence through exit. Over half of Brookfield’s private equity returns have come from operational improvement, not leverage. Investment professionals also spend a year inside a portfolio company before promotion, building practical judgement that informs decision-making back at headquarters.David also unpacks Brookfield’s exit discipline, the benefits of long-dated and permanent capital, and why resilient, essential-service companies tend to attract strategic buyers regardless of market cycles. Finally, he discusses culture, humility and career progression, offering grounded advice for young professionals entering private markets.Key themesContrarian investing and misunderstood essential-service businessesInformation advantage across Brookfield’s multi-platform global footprintThe pilot / co-pilot model between investors and operatorsOperational value creation and secondments into portfolio companiesEBITDA improvement through pricing, supply-chain and organisational workEvergreen capital, strategic exits and long-hold flexibilityCulture, apprenticeship and career development in private equity🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹💼 Learn more at: 🌐 www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industryDavid Nowak: https://www.brookfield.com/about-us/leadership/david-nowakBrookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services. Ross Butler: Founder and Host Fund Shack 🌐 www.fund-shack.comCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 📘 Pre-order Ross Butler’s book 👉 Invest Like a Barbarian: Share in the spoils of the Private Markets revolution ♾️ http://q-r.to/Invest-Like-A-Barbarian#investlikeabarbarian 🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Fund Shack is the private capital podcast with in-depth conversations with investors, founders, and thought leaders shaping the future of private markets. Its were Private Markets meets private Wealth. 📩 Subscribe to our Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹00:00 Why Brookfield avoids thematic investing01:00 Evolution of Brookfield’s PE strategy03:00 Essential-services focus; 06:00 Dual-sponsorship model09:00 Integrated open-floor culture12:00 Westinghouse case15:00 Operational EBITDA gains18:00 Investor secondments20:00 Clarios and EV cycles24:00 PE in higher rates28:00 Strategic exits31:00 Alignment and pricing discipline33:00 Culture and apprenticeship35:00 Career guidance38:00 Closing reflections

Anthropologist and best-selling author Jack Weatherford, whose Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World redefined how we view empire and innovation, joins Ross Butler to explore how the Mongol world prefigured today’s private equity model.When the Mongols swept across Eurasia in the thirteenth century, they destroyed old orders, but they also built new ones. In this conversation, Jack Weatherford explains how Genghis Khan combined conquest with institution-building, creating a meritocratic system that elevated productivity and aligned incentives in a way that modern investors would recognise.We discuss how Mongol queens managed ortōq enterprises, private trading ventures that resemble early forms of private equity, how religious freedom became the first international law, and how the empire’s census, taxation and communication systems created transparency across continents.As the empire matured, Kublai Khan’s experiments with paper money, movable type and naval technology expanded global trade and spread ideas that helped ignite the European Renaissance. The discussion links thirteenth-century portfolio thinking to today’s private markets, showing why creative destruction only endures when creation wins.0:00 Creative destruction and leadership1:26 Learning loops, humility and meritocracy3:56 Parallels with private equity ownership10:22 Building value through safety and trade15:02 Census, taxation and the power of numbers16:21 Queens as capital allocators – the ortōq system19:19 Religious freedom as economic policy26:59 A family-office view of the known world31:49 Kublai Khan’s operating model37:36 Paper money and the limits of fiat45:02 Global trade and early financial flows46:05 Europe’s asymmetric gains from knowledge transfer52:13 Technology recombination in warfare58:12 Naval trebuchets and siege innovation1:01:27 Horse economies and resilience1:05:22 Genghis Khan’s Western intellectual legacy1:08:16 Enduring principles for modern investorsJack Weatherford is an anthropologist, historian and author of Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World and The History of Money. His work explores how ideas, trade and governance evolved across civilisations and how they continue to shape modern institutions.📘 Read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Genghis-Khan-Making-Modern-World/dp/0609809644private equity, private markets, Fund Shack, Ross Butler, Jack Weatherford, Genghis Khan, creative destruction, history of finance, financial history, ortōq, family office, meritocracy, value creation, governance, institutional investing, long-term capital, wealth management, portfolio construction, alternative investments, anthropology of markets, economic history, private equity podcast, private markets podcast🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Ross ButlerFounder and Host Fund Shack 🌐 www.fund-shack.comCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/📘 Pre-order Ross Butler’s book 👉 Invest Like a Barbarian: Share in the spoils of the Private Markets revolution ♾️ http://q-r.to/Invest-Like-A-Barbarian🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Fund Shack is the private equity podcast with in-depth conversations with investors, founders, and thought leaders shaping the future of private markets.🔗 More episodes www.fund-shack.com 📩 Subscribe to our Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/

Ross Butler speaks with Matteo Stefanel and Udayan (“Uday”) Goyal, Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Apis Partners, one of the world’s leading growth-equity investors in financial technology.Founded in 2014, Apis Partners has built a global fintech franchise by applying M&A discipline to private equity: identify the likely acquirers first, then build the company to fit their strategic blueprint. In this conversation, Matteo and Uday explain how they turned two decades of deal-making experience, from DLJ and Deutsche Bank to advising on Visa, Mastercard, and Worldpay into one of the most distinctive investment models in growth capital.They discuss:How Apis built credibility as a first-time fund manager, raising $290m at launch and scaling to a multi-fund global platform.The importance of the network as an asset, relationships forged over 20 years now drive sourcing, diligence, talent, and exits.“Exit-first” investing, designing portfolio companies around known strategic buyers and building to a defined market demand.Why 2025 marks the most disruptive moment in financial services history, as stablecoins, micropayments, and decentralised rails reshape how money moves.The rise of agentic AI, where your personal financial assistant will soon negotiate directly with your bank’s AI.Embedded finance and the subscription economy, from iPhones to autos, where distribution and customer ownership, not balance sheet, define value.The democratisation of wealth, as technology opens private-market access to a broader investor base while raising new questions about fairness, data, and risk.“Finance will be invisible, stitched into every product, every experience.”This is a forward-looking discussion about what comes after banking, where technology, capital, and human behaviour converge to redefine how financial systems work and who benefits from them.🎧 Watch the full conversation at www.fund-shack.com Follow Fund Shack on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts for more conversations with the people shaping private markets and the future of finance.🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹Thank you to our episode partnerBrookfield’s Private Equity Group: A Global leader in acquiring and driving operational transformation in industrials and essential business services.For more information, visit: www.brookfield.com/it-takes-industry🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹💼 Learn more at: 🌐 www.apis.pe🎙️Matteo Stefanel Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Apis PartnersLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matteostefanel/🎙️Udayan GoyalManaging Partner & Co-Founder, Apis PartnersLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ugoyal/Ross ButlerFounder and Host Fund Shack 🌐 www.fund-shack.comCONNECT on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/rossbutler1/🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹 📩 Subscribe to our Substack: https://privateequitypodcastfundshack.substack.com/ 📘 Pre-order Ross Butler’s book Invest Like a Barbarianhttp://q-r.to/Invest-Like-A-Barbarian🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹00:00 Fintech revolution begins, Apis Partners ranked global #201:45 Meet Apis Partners, fintech growth investors Matteo Stefanel & Udayan Goyal03:06 From Wall Street to growth capital, building a fintech platform05:01 Relationships as alpha networks turned into exits07:56 Exit-first model designing for strategic buyers11:24 Value creation buy-and-build and customer access16:21 Partnering with founders, trust and alignment18:20 Stablecoins & 24-hour liquidity, treasury reinvented23:54 Micropayments & continuous finance, real-time money flow27:27 Agentic AI, automation reshaping financial services31:15 Embedded finance & subscriptions, banking disappears36:52 Who owns the customer, brands vs banks42:46 Finance as social engine,from UBI to capital ownership47:00 Democratising wealth, opening private-market access50:20 Bitcoin vs stablecoins, new financial infrastructure54:28 the future of finance

Brookfield is renowned for running the companies it owns, not just financing them. In this episode, Ross Butler speaks with Adrian Letts, Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Private Equity Group and Head of Business Operations, to explore how the firm’s operator-led model drives value creation from origination through exit. Adrian explains how Brookfield embeds operators alongside investors, with shared carry, shared accountability, and a shared mandate to transform portfolio companies. He discusses organisational design as a true value lever, why smaller and senior operating teams outperform larger ones, and how AI and digital tools are reshaping performance management and working-capital efficiency across the Brookfield ecosystem.From aligning incentives and structuring teams to deploying data and AI in real assets, this is a masterclass in how private equity really creates value.#PrivateEquity #Brookfield #ValueCreation #FundShack #AdrianLetts #PrivateMarkets #OperationalExcellence #AI #AlternativeInvestments #Leadership