Chris Brockmeyer is the Director of Employee Bennefit Funds for the Broadway League, the national trade association for the Broadway theatre industry.  Chris serves as an employer-appointed trustee, in most cases as Co-Chair, on eleven multi-employer pension funds, seven health funds and four annuity/401(k) funds with approximately $7 billion in assets. For 11 years, Chris has artfully navigated delicate relationships across unions and employers and was honored for his great work by Institutional Investor magazine with the 2014 award for Taft-Hartley Plan of the Year.  Before arriving at the Broadway League in 2007, Chris worked on both sides of the table – first representing employees in eight years of work for performer’s unions and then seven years representing employers as Director of Labor Relations at Live Nation/Clear Channel Entertainment. Our conversation dives into the tricky governance dynamics of Taft-Hartley boards, including their challenging regulatory structure, keeping the peace among constituents, setting investment objectives, strengths and weaknesses of a slow-moving decision-making body, best and worst in relationships with investment consultants, and OCIOs as a governance solution. Those struggling with governance challenges will take a step back and admire Chris’ dexterity in working productively with an ostensibly untenable set of circumstances.   Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 2:08 – Chris’s background and how that led him to a job on Broadway. 4:59 – Key skills that make Chris effective at his job 5:44 – Current role at the Broadway League 7:10 – What makes an effective board and a less effective board 10:25 -  How do Chris and these various boards set out the investment objectives. 12:41 – What needs to change in Taft-Hartley plans 16:48 – The regulation of the Taft-Hartley Plan Boards 20:25 – Strengths and weaknesses of the consulting relationships 24:20 – How do discussions about increasing benefits translate into investment risk 27:17 – How wide is the range of asset allocation across all of the plans 29:05 – How do you explain expected rate of return assumptions in the current environment 31:15 – What are the strengths that Chris has seen in successful investment consultants 32:40 – Chris’s core investing beliefs and how much he can influence these boards with them 35:31 – Are there places where the governance of Taft-Hartley plans could be improved 39:31 – Switching to OCIOs 41:32 – Would they ever go back to a regular consultant from an OCIO 42:59 – Other areas that have similar governance struggles 45:06 – What happens when Chris comes up with an investment idea 46:30 – Any concern that Chris’s team is working with only average OCIO’s or consultants as they look to scale up and attract larger funds   48:59 – Closing Questions

Last fall, I sat down with a fellow former hedge fund of funds professional Khe Hy, who left the business a few years ago and has developed a fascinating media platform around introspection, self-awareness, and self-development. Certainly a set of characteristics we don’t normally associate with folks in the asset management business. Khe interviewed me about my career path and some lessons I’ve learned about people, business, and life. With his permission, I am sharing the conversation to allow you to learn more about the perspective that I bring to the conversations on Capital Allocators. If you like the subject matter, I’d encourage you to check out Khe’s podcast, entitled Rad Awakenings, available on iTunes or his website, radreads.co. Learn More Join Ted's mailing list at CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com Write a review on iTunes Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides For more episodes go to CapitalAllocatorsPodcast.com/Podcast   Show Notes 1:53 – Ted’s time with Dave Swensen 2:40 – How did Ted get the job not knowing about stocks 3:56 – The start of Ted’s time at Protégé 5:27 – How did Ted view the world as someone picking managers vs someone picking stocks 9:01 – Early days at Protégé 10:36 – Attributes that Ted tried to unpack about individuals 13:18 – Understanding a team’s intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations 15:03 – How much of investing is about true skill vs being on the right side of a market trend 17:06 – What did Ted learn about greed during the bull market run of the early 2000’s 20:00 – The ego, envy and entitlement of financial professionals 22:36 – The potential to hit a high-water mark and never feeling satisfied 28:20 – Loving what you do despite the financial windfall 32:50 – Would Ted have the same passion for the markets if he hit the proverbial lottery 34:36 – The feeling of financial survival and what would happen if Ted didn’t have it             37:24 – Citizen Schools 38:41 – How to stop caring about other people’s perception of you 40:46 – Most underrated attribute of Ted that he has discovered in his reinvention 41:53 – Times Ted’s resilience was tested             43:08 – Ted on Invest Like the Best Podcast             43:10 – Hero's Journey Foundation 45:02 – What does higher education and first jobs look like for the next generation given the digital changes in society 49:20 – Do millennials have less upward mobility then past generations             49:43 – The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial 52:09 – Follow and learn more about Ted at capitalallocatorspodcast.com 57:41 – Closing questions with special guest interviewers