Ross Israel is the Head of Global Infrastructure Investments for QIC, Queensland, Australia’s 82B AUZ ($62B USD) investment fund. The Queensland government formed QIC in 1991 to oversee its Superannuation Fund, and the business has since evolved into a Global Diversified Alternative Asset Manager. Ross joined QIC in 2006 to create the Global Infrastructure effort and also serves as a member of QIC’s Executive Committee.  He has a quarter century’s worth of experience in corporate finance and infrastructure funds management.  Our conversation covers QIC’s structure, examples of long duration assets in ports and waterways, crossing knowledge between private and public markets, managing external assets alongside a substantial internal pool, governance structure, compensation and incentives, navigating stakeholders, and opportunities and risks in the space. The subtle differences in constituents and objectives of sovereign wealth funds from other institutional pools come out in the implementation of QIC’s investing. It’s a topic we’ll continue to explore on future shows.  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 3:10 – A look at Ross’s background 5:58 – QIC and how is it structured 7:32 – Portfolio composition when Ross arrived 9:08 – What was his strategy for putting money to work 10:03 – What was the thinking behind such a concentrated portfolio 11:28 – Port of Brisbane 15:38 – Local vs. global focus 16:58 – Most challenging deal he’s done 18:28 – Lessons learned from their investing strategies 20:01 – Structure of their investment decision meetings 22:43 – Why does QIC take on outside capital? 25:27 – How does being part of a government entity play out in the deal dynamics 27:43 – How does decision making work on the fund? 29:06 – What happens if an internally run fund falters? 30:40 – QIC’s approach to incentives and compensation 37:13 – What influence do the large pool of funds have on the way they pursue investments 39:06 – How do they think about their objectives 41:30 – What is the competitive landscape for infrastructure investments 44:38 – What are the concerns as they look out on the horizon 47:32 – How do they view public debt 48:54 – Closing Questions

Paul Black is Co-CEO and portfolio manager at WCM Investment Management, a $26 billion manager of global equities that he joined when it was a $200 million boutique in 1989.  With so much of the institutional world, including my own training, focused on value investing, I was pleasantly surprised to learn about a large, high performing growth stock manager located in a non-descript building in Laguna Beach, California. Our conversation starts with Paul’s trial-by-fire entry into the business and turns to growth stock investing, including defining a great growth company, searching for widening moats, assessing a culture tied to competitive advantage, creating a positive culture, learning from mistakes, identifying tailwinds, and protecting the downside. Paul embodies the principals he preaches and offers some tasty food for thought.   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 2:54 – How Paul got started in the business 4:52 – Lessons learned in the early years of his career             5:56 – Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings             6:01 – Margin of Safety: Risk-Averse Value Investing Strategies for the Thoughtful Investor             6:05 – The Intelligent Investor: The Definitive Book on Value Investing. A Book of Practical Counsel 7:49 – What works about growth stock investing 9:01 – What constitutes a great growth company 13:47 – Defining and measuring a company’s competitive advantage 17:50 – How does he assess a company’s culture             19:41 – The Culture Cycle: How to Shape the Unseen Force that Transforms Performance 20:26 – Questions that help assess company culture 21:57 – Any data to back up claims that companies with good cultures perform better over time 22:46 – Culture aligning with competitive advantage 24:30 – Looking at WCM’s moat and culture 31:23 – The landscape for active management 33:53 – Weathering tough periods for the firm 37:02 – How do they think about culture in other countries 39:01 – Why does growth stock investing work when the data shows otherwise 40:47 – What is he excited about in growth stocks 43:45 – Tailwinds at the sector level 45:10 – Downside protection in the portfolio 46:38 – Patterns of positive and negative allocator behavior 48:35 – How do they manage the change in the portfolio going from 200 million to 26 billion 49:53 – Closing questions