Loren Starr’s Post

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Member Board of Directors at AMG.

Very impressive fund raise given the current environment! Congratulations to the GTCR team!

I’m happy to share that I’m starting a new position as Member Board of Trustees at TIAA.

This KPMG paper on the “SOXification” of ESG reporting appropriately captures what is needed if ESG reporting is to be relied upon and used by regulators and shareholders in their decision making. I found it interesting that the paper mentioned that many companies are actually moving their ESG reporting to their finance groups given the growing need for SOX-like reporting requirements. I do believe many finance teams would be able to take on this challenge with some modest amount of additional resources and senior management support.

Excellent paper with some profound insights. It highlights the daunting challenge regulators must be facing to attract people with the appropriate skill sets and backgrounds to be able to keep pace with the number and speed of these technological innovations. As mentioned, in the absence of that, it will be critical to build strong two-way partnerships between the regulators and these new areas of exploration and exponential growth.

This afternoon I attended what I felt was a very insightful lecture run by Randolph Cohen and Jean-Louis Lelogeais, principals of PEO Partners LLC. The topic was "Inflation: Outlook and Implications for Portfolio Construction." The idea of inflation as a threat to portfolios would be no surprise to anyone given the current economic backdrop. The risk of inflation and the need for the Fed to raise rates at some point is at a reasonably high level. What is interesting is to see what the impact of inflation would have on the traditional 60/40 portfolio. Historically, the 60/40 equity/bond split has been the model portfolio to withstand market volatility. What Randy and Jean-Louis focused on was how the 60/40 does NOT fare well in a period of raising rates and inflation, with long-term bonds losing significant principal value. Randy and Jean-Louis made a strong case to consider investing a good portion of the bonds currently allocated in one's 60/40 portfolio into other asset classes, such as LBO private equity or other alternative asset classes, which are much better hedged against the shock of inflation.

Good to know.

This is a great certification program for board members who want to bring their capabilities to the next level.