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00:00:01
I now introduce myself as a farmer when people ask what I do and nobody takes me seriously
153 Plays1 year ago
If you invested all of your tuition in Apple stock, last time I checked, it was about $22 million.
20 YEARS IN PERSPECTIVE:
Just over ten years ago I set up my own business with a partner from INSEAD and another friend to build, own and operate renewable energy power stations in the UK.
We invested about a half a billion dollars at that time, had some great successes. I moved then to the States in 2017 to set up our US business and that business has become a solar developer.
Hardest for me has been navigating macroeconomic trends and changes.
Mostly we wanted to have healthy and happy families. And so that was always the first priority.
When we started the business I always wanted to protect myself from failure, so I spent a lot of time thinking about downside solutions and managing through crisis and having backup plans, which has served me very well. I didn't plan for success in the same way. And it's just now that I'm starting to realize that thinking about what you're going to do when things go well is just as important, as thinking about how to manage when things go badly.
ON TOPIC: Renewable energy, sustainability, regenerative agriculture
When I started in renewables, I was slightly kidding that nobody knew what they were doing, but only slightly.
It was a time when renewable energy was an exciting place to be, there weren't a lot of very capable professionals in it, which is why I could fit in so well and there was a huge amount of profit to be made from doing it and so we set up a renewable energy investment business.
Now energy isn't renewable energy, renewable is just part of the mix, in fact it's the cheapest part of the mix, it's the most economically obvious part for everyone to build and it's where the investment capital is going in.
There is clearly still economic opportunity left in renewable energy and because of inflation reduction act and similar policies around the world and a need for battery storage and potentially a new hydrogen economy and grid upgrades requirements, there's still a lot of work to do.
We used to look at curves for solar and wind deployment globally and in the UK when we were starting the business. And every time you looked at a forecast curve for deployment, it was significantly understated.
And so the drive now, which is an economic drive as opposed to just an ethical drive, is creating big change in the sector and I see a path towards significant change in the grid structure to a much, much higher use of renewable energy. And then the same thing on the automotive side and transport side.
That transfer from people feeling obliged to change to things becoming mass market, I can feel that change happening. I know it's not going to happen as quickly as we need it to happen and I would like it to be quicker, but I think good people are working on these problems and consumers want change and so I'm hopeful.
In renewables that was driven by subsidy; in regenerative organic farming that's driven by consumers’ willingness to pay. And so the fact that organic produce in the US costs significantly more than non-organic is because consumers see value in that.
Soil is a natural sink of carbon, there are lots and lots of studies that suggest that it could be the solution, the silver bullet to stopping climate change by effectively putting carbon back into the soil and so that's a core tenet of regenerative farming.
All THINGS INSEAD AND GIVING BACK
INSEAD has been a huge part of my work life since I started and it’s been fundamental to what's happened over the last 20 years. And so I had a great time there, I continue to have a great time with other people all the time and I know how unbelievably lucky I was to be able to go and be able to afford it
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Republic of INSEAD' Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Republic of Insead, the 20 years later O3D podcast edition. I am Milena Ivanova and will be your host in this limited series. So, here we are, 20 years later, hopefully all the wiser, naturally smarter and as charming as ever. There were 432 of us in the O3D vintage.
00:00:25
Speaker
And certainly there are 432 unique and very interesting personal and professional stories to tell.
Reunion Excitement & Event Logistics
00:00:33
Speaker
While I cannot physically cover all, I have tried to make a selection of stories that will keep you interested and curious and will hopefully convince you to join us on campus for reunion. Welcome to the Republic of Insead Podcast Edition and enjoy the show.
00:00:50
Speaker
Well, 18 days to reunion, if you can believe that. Before we get into a conversation with my guest today, a few announcements to get the level of anticipation up, up and away. First things first, as of 18 September, 149 of us have signed up for reunion, 199 including partners. That is 36% of the class, just awesome and makes us the org committee super happy.
00:01:19
Speaker
Secondly, you should have received an email in your inbox with regards to a private dinner and a party on October 6th. Do check your emails and sign up as soon as possible if you'd like more time with fellow souls.
Podcasting Journey & School Memories
00:01:32
Speaker
The Org Committee and Sophia Marimba in particular have spent a lot of time chasing after venues and other suppliers, which, as you may imagine, is not a simple matter in France.
00:01:43
Speaker
Lastly, I hope you are enjoying the podcast. This latest episode has been edited and put together on flights between Sofia and Belisi. Talk about dedication. Not an easy thing to run with during a summer break. A bunch more episodes coming out pre-reunion, so stay tuned and be ready for a deluge. And now on to guest number 18. Let's see how quickly you figure this one out. Enjoy and see you soon.
00:02:12
Speaker
All right, so how many candidates for president did we have during our school year? Well, I remember two. So, let's see whether this candidate's Republic of India yearbook entry would help you figure out quickly who I'm speaking with today. So let's start. GMAT, to his rugby brethren, he has almost learned the basics of the game.
00:02:37
Speaker
and has better memories of his careers since regaining consciousness. He excelled at class participation through a repertoire of hand movements and continual interjection, no matter how hungover. I couldn't keep my face straight, people. As an E9 academic rep, he was challenged by high student expectations and the manner in which the school sought to meet this.
00:03:04
Speaker
Floridian attorneys being one example. His track record and support base made him an obvious presidential candidate, yet despite visible campaign wins, Rasmus chanting USA, and pledges to bringing McDonald's into both the canteen and CMS, the electorate were just not ready to move campus to Arkansas. He lives with his wife Denise and their humongous cat vodka.
00:03:33
Speaker
They love cooking, and their dinners are renowned for more than just post-meal guitar singing.
Career Journey: Consulting to Renewables
00:03:39
Speaker
We hope that wherever they end up, they continue this great in-siat tradition." End of quotation. So, well, nice choice of name for the cat. Welcome to the podcast, and good morning to you, East Coast Wrestling Days, right? Good morning, yeah, exactly right. That's really funny hearing that stuff again.
00:04:03
Speaker
Yeah, all very accurate as well. So, well, I did tell you, but let me repeat it again. You were a perfectly fine candidate, but as I told you, the problem you had was you didn't have E6 and the Bulgarian mafia behind you. That was the real problem.
00:04:22
Speaker
And that fills your faith. So keep that in mind for next time. Always a good idea to have a few Bulgarians. Yes, yes, yes, there you go. Well, I'm referring... A good lesson in politics already that the Bulgarian mafia are key to success is that where we're starting.
00:04:41
Speaker
Well, and then there was DNC at Dean, right? That's true. There you go. But you would have made an amazing president, and in hindsight, I would have supported you. That's touching. In fact, now I realize not winning that is maybe my biggest regret. Oh, there you go. Well, don't start from the end of the show. No, I hadn't really thought that through until just now.
00:05:13
Speaker
achievement and biggest figure. I love it. There you go. So you are an academic rep. So you are very active, very active there. Are you still doing dinner parties with Denise or? You know, we, not consciously, but COVID sort of killed it for us. Not that we, you know, won't have people over, but somehow we just got out of practice. Sorry, moving countries and then COVID.
00:05:42
Speaker
the two things together. All through London we were, we still had big thanksgivings all the way through to the point to be left, which was definitely a tradition started at INSEAD and remained the sort of best holiday we have for ages. There you go. So let's rewind and start from the beginning, 20 years in five minutes. Can you do that?
00:06:08
Speaker
20 years. Sure. I don't think it's going to take five minutes, but I'll fill up as much time as I can. All right. So after INSEAL moved to London, Denise had a job at the Royal Opera House, which was the reason we moved. I didn't have a job at all. So got there, tried to figure it out, did a bit of consulting, and then quickly joined BCG. Worked at BCG for a few years, three years,
00:06:34
Speaker
had a great experience in general across a bunch of industries, met a bunch of people, moved to a company called Albion Ventures, which was originally part of Close Brothers Bank, did venture investment first in tech and growth, and then realized I was at best very mediocre at that and started focusing on more asset-based investment and in particular renewable energy. And it was a time when renewable energy was an exciting place to be
00:07:05
Speaker
There weren't a lot of very capable professionals in it, which is why I could fit in so well. And there is a huge amount of profit to be made from doing it. And so we set up a renewable energy investment business within Albion, did that for a few years. And then in 2013, just over 10 years ago, left and set up.
00:07:27
Speaker
my own business with a partner from INSEAD and another friend to build, own and operate renewable energy power stations in the UK. So we did about 25 solar wind and some hydro projects. We invested about a half a billion dollars at that time, had some great successes. I moved then to the States in 2017 to set up our US business.
00:07:53
Speaker
And that business has become a solar developer, partnered with Jeff Clay in Texas, partnered with another friend who's married to an insulator in New York and set up two solar development businesses, which have since developed and sold around 10 gigawatts of solar assets. And then in 2000,
00:08:15
Speaker
I step back from the day to day running that business and focus on a new business line within the same group, which is regenerative farming. And so now I run a business that buys
00:08:30
Speaker
large-scale grain farms in the Midwest of the U.S., converts those farms to organic, and then operates the farms in line with regenerative farming principles. And that's more or less it for the career. On the personal side, Denise and I had our first kid in 2005, Casey, who's now 18, and she has one year left in high school. Dylan was born two years later.
00:08:59
Speaker
He's 16, he's two years left of high school. Vodka, obviously died of morbid obesity. And since then we have now a dog and multiple cats and just lots of animals running around the house. None with quite the weight problem that our original cat had.
00:09:22
Speaker
He was a big, he was such a big, such a big cat. Very sweet. Couldn't move very fast or very far. Nice. So that's about it. Live in Philadelphia now. After 15 years, so 14 years in London, had never lived in Philadelphia before. It's a great city. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. How did you choose Philadelphia? Or it was for the business? Practical considerations.
00:09:52
Speaker
When I moved here, I was still working in the UK. We were still doing UK business. And so I had to be five hour time difference. I couldn't go to the West coast. Um, I had to have a direct flight because I was going back a week every month or, or more. So it had to be easy back and forth. The kids were 10 and 12 and didn't really want to live in New York. I didn't feel like the right thing to jump from London to New York with kids that age.
00:10:21
Speaker
in basically in the suburbs, living in Westchester or upstate New York. And we came and did a family road trip up the east coast. My brother's in Baltimore, went to DC, and I had a meeting in Philadelphia at the time. So we stopped in Philly for one night. When I went to the meeting, I thought it was great. Went to the meeting, Denise checked it out, went
00:10:46
Speaker
incredible. Found a neighborhood we liked and then just moved. It's been great. It's a livable, affordable city. You can hire people, pay them a living wage, and it's super close to New York. It's an hour and a half from the city.
00:11:01
Speaker
So yeah, we've had a great time. So I was speaking with Foucault earlier
Balancing Life & Macroeconomic Challenges
00:11:06
Speaker
and he was saying they had a bunch of different postings around the world and then they had a bit of a readjustment shock coming back to the Netherlands. Did you have any readjustment? Did you need to get used back to the ways of America?
00:11:30
Speaker
Yes. We came back very shortly after the Trump presidency began. Um, so it was an exciting time. I would describe it as a little bit challenging. Yeah. I mean, generally the geopolitical environment that we came back into was a little bit scary and not necessarily one that I would have chosen if I had to do it again.
00:11:55
Speaker
And the US is a crazy polarized place. And as someone who now works a lot in rural Nebraska and rural Illinois and rural Michigan and Texas, I think I have more visibility to the divide and what's going on than certainly I used to. But actually just the American culture has taken some getting used to again.
00:12:21
Speaker
So this whole thing, actually, Rasmus chanting USA, that's where it all started from. Rasmus is your fault. I'm just kidding. All right. Deep patriotism from that. No, I mean, Rasmus chanting USA. Yeah, that's actually burned in my, in my memory now.
00:12:43
Speaker
standing at the front of that lecture hall. I think he understood that it was all meant to be ironic. And I wasn't being serious. I'm pretty sure he did. Right. So what did you say were the biggest challenges of these 20 years for you? I think hardest for me is
00:13:08
Speaker
getting macroeconomic trends and changes. I felt like I started my career in the tech industry in Seattle right before the dot-com bust and the tech implosion and it was a pretty severe grounding in
00:13:29
Speaker
when times are good and times are bad and how quickly things change. And then I moved to a bank-owned venture capital fund in 2007 in London, right before the financial economic crisis. I'm not saying these are my fault or anything, you know, directly related, but it seems like I had some very bad timing and again had to sort of weather the storm. And that's been, I think that's been thematic for me as
00:14:00
Speaker
and macroeconomic changes and working and building my career and managing my way through both the good times and taking advantage of opportunity when it's there and the bad times in making sure that things are in good shape when I'm there.
00:14:19
Speaker
And then the other, sorry, the other challenge is the same thing I think everybody's face, which is just balancing personal needs, the need to, you know, support a family and pay the mortgage and pay school fees with job opportunity and desires and the things you want to do in your career.
00:14:42
Speaker
I'm super lucky and Denise has been unbelievably supportive the whole time. And so when we decide to move to Philadelphia, she's all in.
00:14:52
Speaker
But that's always a consideration. That remains the first priority. And so how do you balance things? I mean, one observation or comment is despite your poor timing with macro trends, you have come out on the right side of things. So I guess it's all right. But how do you balance?
00:15:19
Speaker
It's a lot easier now than it used to be, that's for sure. For me, it was priority setting. My partner, when we set up Beltan and I had the same priorities. We all wanted to do well. We wanted our business to do well, but mostly we wanted to have healthy and happy families. And so that was always the first priority. And given that was the first priority,
00:15:47
Speaker
It made the second priority, which was making the business successful much clearer and easier to manage there. So this is along the lines of being your own boss or being an entrepreneur, which is a double-edged sword, right? Because you're your own boss, but then it's very easy to forget to switch off. So yeah, I, I, I probably work less hours now than certainly than I did at BCG or places like that.
00:16:17
Speaker
But the hours are spread out over much longer periods in that I'm always just doing a little bit of work all the time. But I like that. I mean, I love my job. I love what I do. I find it academically interesting. I find it people interesting. You know, all of the things that I work on are things that I want to be moving forward. And so I don't mind. I don't mind dipping in and out of things.
00:16:49
Speaker
Alright, so let's, let's unpack the energy, the renewables, and then the agriculture, two businesses that or two sectors that you've been invested in. So you want to start with energy and what you hear and where things are headed, because there was a big change on top of everything now in the US with the
00:17:22
Speaker
It's um, so when I started in renewables, I was slightly kidding that it was that nobody knew what they were doing, but only slightly. I mean, sort of 10, 15 years ago, 15, 20 years ago, really renewable energy was dominated by super passionate evangelical, uh, uh, you know, leaders who
00:17:46
Speaker
desired nothing more than change to the global climate problem, global energy problem, and didn't necessarily know how to run businesses or manage
Renewable Energy Sector Insights
00:17:58
Speaker
finances. And that was amazing and led to a huge amount of subsidies and opportunities to create value.
00:18:11
Speaker
my business partner and other professional investors who were interested in having an impact and interested in making change and applied it to an industry where there was economic opportunity. And then over the last 10 years, that's shifted from essentially transitional businesses to now just
00:18:30
Speaker
big businesses. And so the buyers and operators of renewable energy today are mega utilities. And so instead of it being small entrepreneurial or private equity led or fund led economy, it's the mega utilities that are driving the energy change. And that, I mean, that's the most exciting part, right? Because now energy isn't renewable energy. Energy is just, renewable is just part of the mix. In fact, it's the cheapest part of the mix.
00:18:59
Speaker
It's the most economically obvious part for everyone to build. And so it's where the investment capital is going in. So it's become in some ways super warm, which is the best thing that could have happened to it. And so that by itself has been a fantastic transition to watch. And we've changed our role over time from raising funds,
00:19:22
Speaker
you know, developing, building, buying, owning, operating all the way through the supply chain to being energy, essentially an energy company, to earlier and earlier stage, early stage development, all of which is sort of matching where the economic opportunity has shifted. There is clearly still economic opportunity left in renewable energy.
00:19:45
Speaker
And because of inflation reduction act and similar policies around the world and shift a need for battery storage and potentially new hydrogen economy and, and great upgrades require, I mean, there's still a lot of work to do, but I think those key things, like how do you manage the grid? How do you transport energy in an effective way? How do you load balance?
00:20:11
Speaker
in ways that don't match a historic grid, but now match a new dynamic generation grid that are the problems that we want to solve in the future. And the ones that certainly get me excited in terms of renewable energy.
00:20:26
Speaker
So I was telling you last weekend, I was back on campus and there was a scientist talking to us about climate change and well, the whole, not just climate, but the whole, all the breaking points, which we are hitting as a planet, thanks to us. So, and then you said you are not as pessimistic. And so give me again, or give the listeners that heard it. What was your premise there for your opportunity?
00:20:56
Speaker
I mean, we used to look at curves for
00:21:01
Speaker
for solar and wind deployment globally and in the UK when we were starting the business. And every time you looked at a forecast curve for deployment, it was significantly understated. And it was this gap between, well, this is how much manufacturing, this is what we expect, this is the pace, this is a reasonable growth rate that someone academic would be doing, and just the economic driver and profitability of the sector and where it had moved.
00:21:29
Speaker
The drive now, which is an economic drive as opposed to just an ethical drive, is creating big change in the sector. And I see a path towards significant change in the grid structure to a much, much higher use of renewable energy. And then the same thing on the automotive side and transport side.
00:21:57
Speaker
Five years ago, electric cars were a complete novelty. A handful of people had them. People who could afford Teslas or people who were vying them again because they were feeling really strongly about the need for change. And now people buy a
00:22:21
Speaker
And they're the most fun to drive and they're the most usable and most obvious thing to do. And so that transfer from people feeling obliged to change to things becoming mass market. I can, I can feel that change happening. I don't know that it's going to happen as quickly as effect. I know it's not going to happen as quickly as we need it to happen. And, and I would like it to be quicker.
00:22:46
Speaker
And all of the drive that people feel and concern that they have when they listen to people talk about climate change will only help make that quicker and drive the government policies and the things we need to make that change happen. But I think good people are working on these problems and consumers won't change and so I'm hopeful. And the biggest driver in the drop of the cost
00:23:13
Speaker
producing renewable was what? So originally, let's talk about solar power first, it was just panel manufacturing. And as panels became more and more efficient, that's still the largest single component of an installation. But now it's not the majority of the cost, it's just the largest minority. Now the whole installation, the
00:23:40
Speaker
the racking, the groundwork, the electricity grid. But it's no longer, it really is much less of a cost issue that's an impediment to growth of the sector. It is the ability to connect.
00:23:56
Speaker
solar to the grid or wind to the grid. And so it's the grid infrastructure and upgrades that need essentially the work to match the deployment scale. And what percentage of energy in the US is produced from renewables at the moment? And where is
Transition to Regenerative Farming
00:24:19
Speaker
it going? I couldn't give you the total generation. It's less than 20.
00:24:25
Speaker
probably last year was more than 15. There's a good base of hydro that exists, but it's deploying rapidly. And for the last number of years, by far the largest global investment category within energy has been renewables. Great. And then how do you link this up with agriculture and your new baby?
00:24:54
Speaker
Seems obvious, right? I now introduce myself as a farmer when people ask what I do and nobody takes me seriously. I don't know why. How do I link it up?
00:25:15
Speaker
It was the same drivers that brought us to renewable energy, brought us to farming, regenerative farming. There was a historic industry operating in an environmentally friendly, unsustainable way that had grown up that way for lots of historic reasons that had built efficiency and
00:25:39
Speaker
rather than being able to be dynamic and being able to react to consumer and change. And so there was a large incumbent industry that was acting in a way that we weren't excited about. There was an economic driver for sustainability. So in renewables, that was driven by subsidy. In regenerative organic farming, that's driven by consumers' willingness to pay.
00:26:04
Speaker
And so the fact that organic produce in the US costs significantly more than non-organic is because consumers see value in that. And then the third bit is more personal. It was the way to access that opportunity required active operational control. So it wasn't just an investment thesis. It was a business opportunity, so to speak.
00:26:30
Speaker
One that that required management and time and people and as well as assets and investment I think all of those things led to what we saw was a similar opportunity where there is economic growth And a chance to make outsized profits by for behaving in a more sustainable way and so regenerative farming Unpack this term sure I so
00:26:59
Speaker
Regenerative farming can mean just soil carbon matter and sometimes it's used in that way and people are talking about essentially how much carbon you can capture in the soil as a great place to affect or balance against
00:27:19
Speaker
Soil is a natural sink of carbon. There are lots and lots of studies that suggest that it could be the solution, the silver bullet to stopping climate change by effectively putting carbon back into the soil.
00:27:32
Speaker
And so that's a core tenet of regenerative farming. But for most people, including us, it has a broader definition. And so we think about it not just in terms of the soil, but the overall environmental impact. So waterways, leaking nutrients into rivers and seas. We think about it in terms of the food systems that we support. So the food that lands on people's tables and how
00:28:00
Speaker
how we choose seeds and how we choose cycles and what we grow. And then we also think about it as the communities we operate in. So being a thought leader for farming and supporting individuals and communities that we work in. And then we measure ourselves against all of those metrics. We have an outside firm that comes and audits all of our farms and tells us how we're doing. Okay, so two things I picked up.
00:28:27
Speaker
here. One is sustainability, and this can bring us onto another topic in a second, but on the communities. And when we spoke in our briefing, you mentioned NBOs. And this is not quite the community, but it is part of the community, and it is part of sustainable and better way of running business than just milking it for the profit. So what did you do? And
00:28:55
Speaker
Yeah. We, I mean, as much out of necessity as altruism, we, when we started the farming business, we found ourselves ripped across, or our time torn across two different young growing businesses that had lots of opportunity. And on a personal basis, I felt myself as a bottleneck.
00:29:21
Speaker
I felt like I was the reason that that business wasn't doing as well as it could have done. Because too much was trying to go through me. And that seemed like a waste of an opportunity. And we had lots of super capable senior managers in that business, both in the UK and in the US. And so we partnered with them to do a partial MBO where we
00:29:50
Speaker
We essentially lent them the money to buy the business back from us or at least a big portion of the business back from us. And it was the greatest thing we could have done. I mean, really giving that ownership over to the people who were running the business has made those businesses wildly successful and frankly, much more successful than they ever would have been with me running them or Tom running them or really any of us. And so it's been a great solution.
00:30:20
Speaker
And you can't substitute for ownership among management. That level of ownership that you need to make decisions comes directly from share ownership, it turns out, or at least it did for us. So basically, you've expended the pie, therefore, a small percentage out of a bigger pie is still better. We're so much better off for it, almost.
00:30:51
Speaker
I'm mostly just thankful to continue to be a part of these things. Sustainability in the topic there, when I was speaking, you said that
00:31:07
Speaker
You don't do sustainability for a business, but you build the business from when you think about the business, it's built in from the beginning. So, you know, we, I mean, we come across a lot of competitors and investors and
00:31:25
Speaker
people in our field, particularly in agriculture, who are impact investors or are doing this for impact reason or even charity operators. And I think we have a core tenant that impact comes from sustainable activity and sustainable business. And part of being sustainable is being profitable. Charity will only go as far as
00:31:53
Speaker
as the original source of capital for that charity.
00:31:56
Speaker
And if you invest in infrastructure or make investments in non-sustainable activity, you're fundamentally depleting the resources that are making you profitable today. And so core to what we do in core to the way we think about investment is that sustainability has to be a part of
Giving Back & INSEAD's Role
00:32:13
Speaker
the mix. You have to be doing things that are adding to the overall picture, not just extracting from it. And in doing so, you have to be making profits.
00:32:24
Speaker
because those profits allow you to continue the business and if you don't find in the short term you might make extraordinary profits or find in the short term you might be able to give away money but neither of those leads to long-term change and so you mentioned give away money and you've been giving away some money Mike is one of our well
00:32:52
Speaker
at the moment, the only gold salamander, although soon I hope that changes. And you've established a scholarship and you've had three or four recipients, something like that. Or two or three. I do apologize. The plan is four. Yes.
00:33:10
Speaker
But so can you talk about giving back and what made you establish this and how you think about giving back and the whole inside connection? In fact, because now you've mentioned a few times your partner, who is from inside, not from our promotion. And then you have Jeff play and then you have other inset connection. I wanted to Yes, okay. Can you expand on this whole thing?
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. So first of all, the team, I hope we made a clear, this is not just me. This is lots of other super capable people. My, the partner I founded this with was one non-N.C.I. guy who's an engineer and the, and then an N.C.I. class colleague from the promotion after us, Tom Hill Norton. When we moved to the States, we
00:34:04
Speaker
knew that there was an opportunity in Texas. Texas was a hugely exciting solar market. I was convinced that a non-Texan trying to develop assets in Texas was going to be a recipe for failure. So I called the one Texan I knew and said, hey, what do you think? And so Jeff set up the Texas business, and so we effectively did it in partnership.
00:34:28
Speaker
when we were running the farming business and struggling with operations and struggling with the number of people we were hiring and the growth and all of the things that make the business turn, I called Isabel. And somehow she decided to join, which has been just the best thing we've done. And then my, you know,
00:34:52
Speaker
A couple of our senior leaders in the US who did the MBO are both married to NCL people, which is how I met both of them through NCL people. And so it's been a huge part of my work life since I started. It's been fundamental to what's happened over the last 20 years. And so I had a great time there. I continue to have a great time with NCL people all the time. And I know how unbelievably lucky I was
00:35:21
Speaker
to be able to go and be able to afford it, borrow money, whatever I did to make it happen. And so that's the thought behind wanting to give in general to INSEAD as I just want to make it possible for other people to be that lucky and go to INSEAD. The Belltown Scholarship, it's not just me, just to be clear, it's the Belltown which has set it up, was set up as a sustainability scholarship.
00:35:48
Speaker
really thinking that if we could impact our influence, in a better way as a student today, to think about sustainability in their career, we could have a huge impact on future generations by helping to create essentially new business leaders that are focused on sustainability. So we look for people who have made a commitment to sustainability in their previous career running at Densea and are interested in having a career that has an impact or has a sustainable element going forward.
00:36:18
Speaker
And that was the idea behind the scholarship.
Life Reflections & Rapid-Fire Questions
00:36:21
Speaker
Super. Thanks so much. Keep doing it. All right. So with that, we can turn to the quick round of questions. I don't know if you had time to think about it or if I'm going to surprise you now. Are you ready? I'm ready. Yeah. All right. So your proudest achievement. Happy family. Successful you is.
00:36:46
Speaker
My kids being proud of what I do. Happiness is? Having low expectations. Nice. Let me think. Biggest regret other than not becoming president? Obviously second biggest regret because that's the biggest one. I feel like I'm losing touch with people.
00:37:08
Speaker
Particularly the last few years, as COVID set in and I moved to the States, I would like to be keeping better touch with old friends. Well, I suppose if the kids are almost off to college. Kids are almost off. I have no excuse. What keeps you awake at night? Or you sleep well? Red wine. Red wine. Well, yes. Not so much wakes me up in the middle of the night.
00:37:38
Speaker
Wish you had known or someone had told you? I think because of that economic cycle, going through bad times, when we started the business, I always wanted to protect myself from failure. So I spent a lot of time thinking about downside solutions and managing through crisis and having backup plans, which has served me very well.
00:38:07
Speaker
I think I didn't plan for success in the same way. And it's just now that I'm starting to realize that thinking about what you're going to do when things go well is just as important as thinking about how to manage when things go badly. I can resonate with that.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, because bankers are always on the downside. So I've been trained in that. So if you had to do it all over again, what would you change? I would take my tuition money and buy Apple stock instead of... I have so many people say this. Other than that. I used to look at every once in a while update how much you would have now if you invested all of your tuition in Apple stock.
Conclusion & Reunion Invitation
00:38:57
Speaker
Last time I checked it was about $22 million.
00:39:05
Speaker
Sorry about that. Get this people. Well, the trick is let's find out now which one is the next step. That's true. You need some of your other people focused on AI to tell us. So retirement, ever, never. How do you think about that? No, never. I can't really see it. If you had to pick one book, everyone should read, which one would that be?
00:39:31
Speaker
I'm going to do two just because I've been doing renewable energy and agriculture. I would say Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, which is an unbelievable near future book on climate change and the effects of climate change.
00:39:51
Speaker
which will keep you up at night, but at the same time is quite exciting and inspiring. And then the other one is the third plate by Dan Barber, which is about how food and our diets and cuisine needs to change to a more sustainable future. Most of my person
00:40:16
Speaker
Arturo Cuell, just the best paddle player in the world right now and I'm recently obsessed with paddle and I can't get enough and so I would really like to be able to play like him. Most despised public person? It's a tough one, there's so many good choices. Somewhere between
00:40:39
Speaker
It would have been David Cameron and Boris Johnson for a long time, but I think Putin's really taken that award.
00:40:48
Speaker
All right. And the last one on a happy note, are you coming to Reunion? Of course. All right. Super. So October 6 in Fontainebleau, France, and the Gala de Chateau is scheduled for October 7th, Saturday. And this, in case anyone still doesn't know, was a conversation with Mike Kaplan, founder, CEO at Belltown Power in Philadelphia, PA these days.
00:41:16
Speaker
Thank you very much for your time, Mike. And I'm very much looking forward to seeing you in Fontaine. And I can show you where your name is because you didn't know there is a wall there, the wall of fame, the wall of pride, whatever. So I'll show you personally. Thank you so much for learning. It's great to talk to you again. Can't wait to see you personally. Yeah.
00:41:41
Speaker
You were listening to the Republic of INSEAD 20 years later or 3D podcast edition. It is my hope to remind everyone what an interesting and dare I say colorful bunch of people we are and how much we can contribute to each other be it through ideas, knowledge or mere inspiration. The podcast is inspired by the original Republic of INSEAD yearbook produced on paper 20 years ago by Oliver Bradley and team.
00:42:08
Speaker
Thank you Ollie and team for this contribution to our class's memory and for letting me continue in the tradition, title and inspiration included. Creator and author of the Republic of Incia 20 Years Later O3D Podcast Edition, MI Milena Ivanova. Original music by Peter Dondakov with help from their film's productions. Stay tuned for more and remember to book your tickets for the 20 year reunion in Fontainebleau October 6th, 8th, 2023. Thank you for listening.