Business Talk With Chalfin

For this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Kevin Kaiser about value versus price.  Kevin is Senior Director of the Harris Family Alternative Investments Program and Adjunct Full Professor of Finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He was Professor of Management Practice and on the finance faculty at INSEAD since 1992. Kevin’s research has focused on private equity, corporate restructuring and financial distress, more recently oriented around corporate governance and management for value creation. In addition to his research in academic and practitioner journals and newspapers, he has co-authored two books, The Blue Line Imperative, with David Young, and Becoming a Top Manager, with Michael Pich and I.J. Schecter.

In honor of the start of baseball season, this week's podcast episode of Business Talk with Chalfin is Baseball: How the National Pastime Paralleled US History with Tony Morante.   With a professional journey intertwined with the iconic Yankees franchise, Tony's expertise extends far beyond the confines of the diamond. As the former head of the Yankee Stadium tours department and a proud inductee into the New York State Baseball Hall of Fame for his insightful book, Baseball, the New York Game: How the national pastime paralleled US History, Tony possesses a wealth of baseball knowledge that listeners are sure to find captivating.    

For this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Lauren Knausenberger, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer of SAIC, a premier Fortune 500® technology integrator driving our nation’s technology transformation, with annual revenues of $6.9 billion and approximately 24,000 employees.

During this podcast episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Thomas Vladeck, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Gradient Metrics and Recast.   Recast is built by scientists, for marketers and is committed to using the world’s most advanced techniques and technologies to solve the most important problems in marketing measurement.

For this podcast episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Billy O'Neill and Sean McIlroy, '23-'24 Club Board Co-Presidents about The 2024 Wharton EtA Summit   The Wharton ETA Summit brings together MBA students, search fund entrepreneurs, investors, faculty, and other participants in the ETA ecosystem to connect and exchange insights. This year’s conference will feature more networking opportunities and panel topics ranging from all areas of searching, investing, and operating.

For this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Andrew Brenner, the Head of International Fixed Income at National Alliance Securities, about central bankers and the economy. Andrew is frequently interviewed on Fox Business, Bloomberg, Schwab, and CNBC.  

With over 35 years of SBA lending experience and the past 9 years focused solely on Mergers and Acquisition lending, Bruce Marks helps buyers finance lower middle market M&A transactions. Bruce works with financial buyers, searchers, and corporate buyers seeking financing for business acquisition transactions. He specializes in transactions with enterprise values between $3 and $8 million dollars and has closed over 1,200 SBA transactions.

For this conversation, Bob talks with Gad Allon, the Jeffrey A. Keswin Professor and Professor of Operations, Information and Decisions, and the director of the Management and Technology Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his PhD in Management Science from Columbia Business School in New York and holds a Bachelor and Master degree from the Israeli Institute of Technology. Gad is an award-winning educator, teaching courses on scaling operations and operations strategy. He has also been an innovative leader in many educational technology initiatives. He is the co-founder of ForClass, a platform that enables professors to drive higher student engagement and accountability in their classrooms. Professor Allon regularly consults firms both on service strategy and operations strategy.

During this episode, Bob talks with Jeff Buzen about using insurance to hedge merger and acquisition risk. Jeff is a Partner in McGill and Partners’ Mergers and Acquisitions group and the leader of the United States Mergers and Acquisition team. Jeff focuses on the structuring, marketing, negotiation and broking of representations and warranties insurance, tax liability insurance and other bespoke contingent liability insurance solutions. 

For this episode, Bob talks with Martin Hershy about small business insurance considerations. Martin Hershy is the Senior Vice President of Property and Casualty Operations at Lockton Companies. He is a process-oriented and results driven insurance brokerage executive focused on optimizing efficiency through job design, team creation, standardization, system implementation, automation, and business process outsourcing.  Martin has an MBA from The Wharton School and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Temple University- Fox School of Business. 

For this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Thomas Caleel, Chairman and Founding CEO of Global Education Opportunities LLC. Thomas Caleel is the former Director of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid for his alma mater, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.  Thomas also served on the Dean’s Globalization Committee and was a member of the Wharton Graduate Executive Board. Global Education Opportunities, LLC, is an international education consulting and Admissions Advisory firm.  In this capacity Thomas has served as an advisor to Heads of State, Ministers, corporations, schools, foundations, and individuals on a wide range of education-related projects in the US, Asia, and Middle East. Thomas received his MBA in Finance from the Wharton School and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas also serves his alma mater, the Taft School, as an alumni interviewer and member of the Headmasters Circle Advisory Committee, a select alumni group of advisors to the Head of School. Thomas lives with his family (including Bear and Paddington) in Santa Barbara, California.

On this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob continues his discussion on the state of the housing market with Lesley Deutch, Managing Principal at John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Lesley's profound expertise in the real estate market significantly contributed to the widespread popularity of her previous interview on Business Talk with Chalfin. Lesley Deutch leads all custom consulting projects in the Southeast. She has more than 25 years of experience consulting with executives in the finance and real estate industries throughout North America. She works across a wide spectrum of industries including apartments, for-sale housing, high-rise development, urban projects, single-family rental, building products and commercial developments. Previously, she spent eight years on Wall Street working in public finance for Lehman Brothers and as a Vice President in the Global Real Estate division of Bankers Trust and Deutsche Bank, where she authored reports on real estate and economic conditions in the major US metropolitan areas and conducted due diligence for the investment bank, the CMBS team, and the Deutsche Bank Mezzanine Fund. She then moved to the research team at RREEF (owned by Deutsche Bank), writing quarterly updates on RREEF’s existing properties and due diligence reports for acquisitions on the East Coast. Lesley holds a B.S. from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

For this episode, Bob sits down to talk with Caroline Chapdelaine, the CEO of Northstar Photonics, about the lessons she learned from her business acquisition. Caroline is an experienced executive leader. She has worked in national security, defense, and aerospace throughout her career. She served in the US Army as a Military Intelligence Officer on tours in Korea, Thailand, and Afghanistan. Caroline has worked at a range of large defense programs with Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, L3Harris, Draper Laboratories, and countless others. She received her MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

During this episode, Bob talks with Seth Cogswell, the Managing Partner and Founder of Running Oak Capital, about launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF). Prior to founding Running Oak, Seth was a trader and portfolio manager of the Trillium Multi Horizon Fund, a multi-strategy long/short hedge fund. Seth received his MBA from The Wharton School for which he was a recipient of the Goldman Sachs H.R. Young Scholarship. He received his undergraduate degree in Decision Making Sciences/Operations Research from the University of North Carolina.

For this conversation, Bob talks with Christoph Westphal MD, PhD, Co-founder and General Partner of Longwood Fund, about investing in biotech. Dr. Westphal is co-founder and General Partner of Longwood Fund and has spent over 20 years as a biotech CEO, entrepreneur, and investor. Dr. Westphal has been the co-founder, CEO, and lead investor of seven biotechnology companies that have completed initial public offerings (IPOs) and created sustained market value of over $45 billion and have developed and received FDA approval for over 10 important drugs. 

For this episode, Bob speaks to Exequiel (Zeke) Hernandez who is the Max and Bernice Garchik Family Presidential Associate Professor at The Wharton School. During their conversation they discuss the connection between immigration and economic growth. Zeke publishes pioneering research in two broad areas. In the first area of research, he explores how immigration patterns affect the investment choices, strategic decisions, and performance of firms in foreign markets. The linkage between immigration and economic growth in this first line of work has crucial implications for immigration policy. In his other area of focus, he studies how firms strategically design corporate strategies through alliances, acquisitions, and divestitures to enhance their innovation and performance. Zeke’s papers have been published in leading journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Academy of Management Journal. Professor Hernandez has been selected as the winner of the Emerging Scholar Award by the three major academic associations: the Strategic Management Society, the Strategic Management Division of the Academy of Management and the International Management Division of the Academy of Management. In addition to these career recognitions, he’s received awards for individual papers in each of the three themes of his work. Zeke is one of the highest rated teachers at Wharton. He has been recognized by Poets & Quants as a Best 40 Under 40 professor and received several teaching excellence awards. He teaches global strategy courses in Wharton’s MBA programs and trains executives from leading companies around the world.  

During this episode, Bob talks with A.J. Wasserstein, the Eugene F. Williams, Jr. Lecturer in the Practice of Management at the Yale School of Management. They talk about how to determine if a seller really wants to sell a business. A.J. Wasserstein's research, writing, and teaching concentrate on search funds, entrepreneurship, programmatic acquisitions, and small businesses. He is a private investor with a long-term orientation, interested in lower middle-market businesses and philanthropic organizations, where he can be positively impactful by using his experience, time, and capital. Professor Wasserstein was the president of Onesource Water, the third largest bottleless water service business in the U.S., which was sold to Water Logic, a U.K.-based strategic acquirer, in 2016. Previously, A. J. was the founder and CEO of ArchivesOne, the third-largest records management company in the U.S., which was sold to Iron Mountain (NYSE: IRM).   A. J. received the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award for outstanding teaching in elective courses at the Yale School of Management in 2022. The U.S. Small Business Administration has recognized A. J. as the Small Business Person of the Year in Connecticut.  

During this episode of Business Talk with Chalfin, Bob talks with Arleigh Halterman, the CEO of National Imaging Solutions (NIS) about his lessons learned from purchasing a business.  NIS is a medical imaging sales and service provider based in Houston, TX. Arleigh acquired NIS in April 2019 through a self-funded search. Before acquiring NIS, Arleigh ran a funded/traditional search fund from 2015 – 2018 in Temecula, CA. Prior to his entrepreneurial path, Arleigh was in the US Navy for 11 years. He was an F-18 Weapon Systems Officer, was stationed in Japan, and did multiple deployments to the Western Pacific. Arleigh finished his active duty service as a flight instructor in Pensacola, FL and afterwards began his MBA. Arleigh earned an MBA from The Wharton School, a Masters in International Affairs from The University of Pittsburgh, and a Bachelors degree in Political Science from Auburn University. He lives in Austin, TX with his wife and three boys.

During this episode, Bob talks with Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Harry’s Inc. about creating things that people like.  Jeff Raider aims to build companies and brands that people like more. The ambition of Harry’s Inc. is to create a next generation CPG company by putting people first and delivering against unmet consumer needs. Harry’s Inc. has grown significantly over the last ten years, and is now made up of five brands -  Harry’s, Flamingo, Cat Person, Lume, Mando -  and Harry’s Labs, the company’s incubation and M&A engine. Prior to Harry's, Jeff co-founded Warby Parker, the transformative lifestyle brand that offers designer eyewear at a revolutionary price while leading the way for socially-conscious businesses. Before founding Harry’s and Warby Parker, Jeff worked at Charlesbank Capital Partners and Bain & Company. He graduated from The Johns Hopkins University with a BA in International Studies and earned a Masters in International Affairs from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He also earned an MBA from Wharton Business School. Jeff currently lives in Lower Manhattan with his wife and three children.

For this conversation, Rising to the Challenge of the Covid-19 Vaccine and Beyond, I talk to Mace Rothenberg, MD, a physician-executive with more than 30 years of experience in government, academia, and industry. Mace is the former Chief Medical Officer at Pfizer and will describe the leadership skills that enabled Pfizer to deliver a Covid-19 vaccine in record time.  He will also discuss how those skills helped him in his new venture, creating The Museum of Medicine and Biomedical Discovery.  I am certain that you will enjoy this episode.