Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s Post

UCF is deeply committed to a platform of investment funds that values, prioritizes and benefits from diverse-owned asset managers. To that end, UCF has set industry-leading benchmarks for hiring diverse managers and holding all managers accountable for their own commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion across their firms. Currently, over 60% of UCF’s domestic equities are managed by diverse asset managers, and we are continuing our efforts to achieve at least 60% diverse management across our entire domestic portfolio, with an emphasis on Black-owned and/or Black-managed firms. As part of our celebration of Black History Month, we are pleased to feature Auldbrass Partners of New-York, a Black-owned private equity manager in our Alternatives and Alternatives Balanced Funds. Watch here https://bit.ly/3SvMZOQ #blackhistorymonth #blackhistorymonth2024

On the final day of Black History Month, we are proud to welcome the inaugural class of Venture Scouts for Barclays Black Formation Investments (BBFI), managed by Zeal Capital Partners! 🎉 Through BBFI, our mission is twofold: to generate standout investment returns by backing exceptional diverse teams, and to impact Black entrepreneurial and investing talent at the cap table level by widening access to opportunities for wealth creation. To this end, BBFI not only invests capital directly in early-stage companies, but also activates a network of elite operators (“Venture Scouts”) to source opportunities for investment. By directly addressing deeply entrenched issues on both the demand and supply sides of the venture capital asset class, we are committed to creating a more equitable startup ecosystem. Please join us in welcoming the first cohort of BBFI Venture Scouts! Learn more about the venture scout program at: https://lnkd.in/ed5NvFd8 (see FAQs). Also, if you are a founder who is looking to raise capital, please reach out by completing our form: https://lnkd.in/e78eCVWC #BBFI #VentureScouts #inclusiveinvesting Damola Ogundipe DeVaris Brown Domonique Fines Esosa Johnson George Okpamen, PharmD, MBA Jeanine Suah Jerrod Hill Jodine Gordon Jourdan Sutton Kimberly N. Marshall Michael Berhane Nathalie Walton Oji Udezue Phil G. Joseph Randall Clark Shani C. Taylor

This is solid.

Check out this Q&A with Word in Black, where Wells Fargo's Wealth & Investment Management's Clarence Nunn shares career advice, his thoughts on diversity and inclusion, what it means to have an authentic voice, and more.

The reason Black founders are underfunded is because Black capital allocators are underfunded, because Black institutions and individuals with capital are either underfunded or mismanaged. The reason for all this is because we lack any meaningful productive capacity, which means we do not contribute to the economy except as labor and consumers, neither of which have power in Western capitalism. There's no incentive for any other group to solve this problem for us. Civil Rights Era strategies do not work. Black businesses contribute less than 1% to national GDP. Until we address this, everything we do will amount to treating stage 4 cancer with advil. Non-exhaustive list of solutions: 1) Better management of existing resources, such as: a) using political pressure to 10X the number of municipal, state, and federal contracts going to Black-owned businesses, b) demanding that Black institutions move all deposits to Black-owned banks, and increase their private market allocations to Black fund managers (especially VC, PE, and hedge funds), and c) Asset managers coordinating across asset classes (i.e. hedge funds create platforms and aggregate large sources of demand, which are supplied by VC and PE portfolio companies) 2) Every Black accredited investor should have at least 30%-40% of their portfolios in private markets (not including real estate) in order to move the needle. There's another strategy for retail. 3) Picking 1 or 2 HBCUs to focus on and upgrade to R1 research institutions (this feeds more talent & deal flow into the system at early stages and increases the opportunity for massive asymmetric returns) 4) Concentrate the majority of investment activity in bottom-of-pyramid industries, and dominate at least one of them in key markets 5) Coordinate to keep deal flow internal as much as possible. We need to collaborate on pipelines all the way from friends and family through IPO and back into LBO using both private and public equity and debt. 6) Coordinate with African governments and sovereign wealth funds to contribute to their economic development goals and help increase African productive capacity 7) Engage and activate Black employees at every fortune 500 to use their positions to benefit Black-owned businesses (purchasing, distribution, talent, etc.) Finally, we don't need yet another organization or conference or summit to do this. We have plenty if we can get buy-in and effective leadership/management. Unfortunately most legacy organizations are grossly mismanaged and leadership will most likely need to be replaced, governance structures reimagined, and management systems upgraded in most of them. The level of ignorance about basic economic development among the leadership of most Black organizations I've interacted with is truly maddening, but explains why many are focused on the wrong things. Therefore, members of these organizations must stand up and make demands or withdraw support. See comments for how to support.

Had an awesome time watching the Fordham University Rams totally crush it Monday night with Trevor Freeman and Pat Quinn. The team was really on fire and had a massive lead, totally the type of game you want to watch when you are at your first home game for any team. Despite this massive win, the team brought their record to 3-3 for the season. A mix of wins and losses. It is still early in the season and, watching them, I think there is reason to be optimistic about the season. Sitting there, watching the team play with amazing teamwork and rhythm, I couldn’t help reflect on the parallels between what I was watching on the court and the #fundfinance industry in 2023. First, much like the superb passing game that the Rams put on display, I have watched levels of team work this year that are unmet by anything I have seen before. Did you know that for every timeout or other occasion for the team to gather on the court, the Fordham team links arms around one another creating an unbroken circle of teammates and coaches? It is truly striking and that physical gesture speaks to the glue that binds that team. Likewise, in the wake of the March receiverships, I watched colleagues at banks link arms and truly care for one another. I watched people help their contacts, clients, and colleagues find new opportunities and I watched new teams being born. I watched people celebrate for one another. All totally awesome. And closer to home, I am so proud of the teamwork on the Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP fund finance team. From the way the #cwt #fundfinance partners linked arms and collaborated, as we always do. Then, the tide turned and we got BUSY with deals that were new, big, fresh, fast-paced, and complicated. I had the opportunity to assemble deal teams to get these deals done and these teams completely crushed it. The collaboration, teaching, and mentoring that goes on in the name of getting deals done for our clients is second to none. There were so many times where what we were doing in a deal felt exactly like a team passing the ball around, everyone leveraging what they worked on in practice, looking for the smartest and best opportunity to get an open shot before the clock runs out. There were definitely some three pointers. And, finally, as for the industry as a whole, just like a team that has found its rhythm, there is lots of reason to be optimistic. New players have come into the space. New teams are here. And players old and new are doing deals. And they are just getting started.

The Impact of Black Ownership on Investment: Insights from the Head of the National Black Bank Foundation Discover how black ownership and sovereignty in banking are interconnected with access to venture capital and support from larger institutions. The head of the National Black Bank Foundation explains the challenges faced by black banks and the importance of projects like Greenwood. #BlackOwnership #InvestmentOpportunities #VentureCapital #GreenwoodProject #NationalBlackBankFoundation #FinancialEmpowerment #BankingIndustry #BusinessSuccess #SovereigntyInBanking #FinancialInclusion

Set-back or step Forward? On Saturday, I was fortunate enough to be selected out of 50 shortlisted companies for a chance to win £10,000 for my company. Firstly, I want to Thank Black Seed, NatWest and anyone else involved in putting on this event. Secondly, I'd like congratulate bubble on their deserved win. The raw emotion they showed emphasised why they were the correct choice. Lastly, shout out to the other finalists, you were amazing too! I won't lie, I'm super competitive and wanted to win. The £10,000 would have helped to roll out the next part of my plan. But it wasn't to be. Over the past couple of weeks I've been getting feedback on my pitch deck and I know where I need it to improve to be investor ready. So Saturday was definitely a step forward, I got to practice my pitch in a room full of people (public speaking makes my skin crawl), I connected with at least 30 amazing people and got some really good advice. Even for the super competitive like myself, it's not always about winning. It sounds so cheesy but learning is just as good. I could have chosen not to pitch, I could have chosen not to attend. The aim is and always will be to push forward. Next stop is to refine the pitch, complete my SEIS and get in touch with some angel investors. I'm also not a boot guy, but I think I'm pulling them off (I take all the small wins hahaha).

One “ask” I get more than almost any other is to tap into Blackstone’s know-how and provide education around private investments and alternatives more generally. Well, we hear you. For advisors in the US (with hopes to have this more broadly accessible), we’re excited to offer continuing education courses, accessible through this link: https://bit.ly/3RhNn4m #BuildWithBlackstone #AltsMoveToCore #BlackstonePrivateWealthSolutions #Blackstone 

When I started my first investment in 2011, I started it at the back of the Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Act, I ticked all the boxes 1. Young ✅ 2. Black ✅ 3. Woman ✅ that white owned entities needed to earn BEE points on. I focused on 2 key elements, Enterprise development and Owners Equity. Enterprise development 1. I approached white owned law firms to draft all our agreements for FREE, in exchange they got BEE points 2. So, YWBN had access to free legal services Ownership 1. YWBN together with other partners own 26% shareholding in Namlog as a BEE partner When the time came for the YWBN Mutual Bank license application my mind had already shifted to “black people should not invest in white owned entities that we know nothing about but create their own companies”, so the strategy was totally different. At that time when you sent an email to the South African Reserve Bank to enquire about the process of starting a Bank, they had a generic response that referred you to the big 4 audit firms, to me this approach didn’t make sense at all, why the bid 4 audit firms whilst you’re just on information seeking exercise 🤷🏽♀️ I refused, then the idea was to ensemble our own YWBN team but the problem is we didn’t have money to pay them. This Team had to be majority black people, this was extremely important to us. As the vision carrier my role was to sell the vision to each one of them that I met, when I say God didn’t play here, I mean He totally showed up. My story was simple, we don’t have money to pay you now for the work you’ll be putting in, we are asking you to work on risk (meaning if the license is declined we don’t pay you but if the license is approved, we will offer you shares and pay you). Many agreed others left along the way because reality is, bills have to be paid, people can’t work for FREE, they have families to support. Well, I personally don’t live by this reality, especially when you do have the time to spare. Whilst other bank license applications are costing over R100 million the YWBN Mutual Bank license cost sweat and tears with zero budget, we call it a Miracle project. All the YWBN CFI shareholders had to do was to operate the CFI profitably and compliant with all laws and regulations. When there were tactics to delay our application in the hopes that we financially run dry, they didn’t understand that we started the bank on zero budget, our pockets were already dry, our vision to see a Black Owned Bank in our lifetime was overflowing, they couldn’t suck it all out even when they tried, we had nothing to lose. This was our only plan, NO PLAN B! So, the YWBN team worked for 9 years without getting paid for a dream bigger than themselves, a dream that will see Afrika’s economic reawakening, no amount of money can buy this kinda sacrifice. I cannot wait for the world to meet them 💜💜💜