Marc Rowan on Leadership, Culture, and the Future of Private Markets | The 19th Hole

**Lawrence Calcano** (0:02)
I've been really looking forward to this interview of Marc. You know, we've been fortunate enough to have some great people on the show, but Marc's background is so interesting. He's been in the middle of some of the most important innovations in financial services. Going back to his time at Drexel, in the advent of the high-yield market, which has been so important in finance, and then to co-founding Apollo, and creating, you know, a trillion dollar private markets firm. If you think about the importance of the private markets, you know, that makes Apollo one of the most important financial institutions in the world. Having gotten to know Marc a little bit over the years, he's also just an incredibly thoughtful person. So I think our wealth managers and our asset managers will really enjoy hearing his thoughts on leadership, culture, etc. So looking forward to the conversation.
Hey, Marc.

**Marc Rowan** (1:20)
Welcome to Apollo.

**Lawrence Calcano** (1:21)
Thank you, it's great to be here.

**Marc Rowan** (1:23)
Come. Yeah. My home away from home, I start each day perched right there.
What can I get you?

**Lawrence Calcano** (1:31)
I'll have a tea, be great.

**Marc Rowan** (1:33)
Two teas, a peppermint tea for me.

**Lawrence Calcano** (1:35)
Camomile for me.
Thank you. Do you get a lot of traffic here every day?

**Marc Rowan** (1:40)
This is an unbelievable thing. So we feed everyone two meals a day, and whatever it costs, it doesn't matter.

**Lawrence Calcano** (1:47)
Yeah.

**Marc Rowan** (1:48)
The collaboration, the casual collisions, the commonality that people feel, energy is just awesome. People come here from our competitors and they have lunch here. They can't believe it.

**Lawrence Calcano** (1:59)
Our whole experience with you guys is that as soon as you tell one person, the entire team seems to know what's going on. The communication loop seems really tight.

**Marc Rowan** (2:08)
It's hard. Look, as you know this, people join firms, but they stay for cultures.
Most talented people can work anywhere they want. And when you were a little company, you knew everyone at the company. When we were a little company, I knew everyone. Now we have to be really intentional about who we are and what we want to be.

**Lawrence Calcano** (2:27)
Yeah, that's for sure. Marc, thank you so much for doing this today. I really, really appreciate it.

**Marc Rowan** (2:40)
Always a pleasure.

**Lawrence Calcano** (2:41)
So maybe let's start with the early days, growing up. Tell us about that. Did you have any early sort of influences or mentors in your life?

**Marc Rowan** (2:49)
I won't say early in that way. I grew up going back and forth between New York and Florida. Ultimately, I went to high school in Hollywood, Florida.
Most people in my family are adults or public interest lawyers. So for one reason or another, I assumed that I would be a lawyer and go to law school. I actually was accepted to a pre-law program. At a great school. And then the coursework arrived, and I looked at it and said, this is terrible. So I called Penn and the Wharton School, where I was also accepted, sight on the scene, and said, can I still go?
And somehow I ended up there. And when I arrived, it just made sense.

**Lawrence Calcano** (3:27)
Yeah.

**Marc Rowan** (3:28)
And I got to Drexel, and it just made sense.

**Lawrence Calcano** (3:31)
Well, before Drexel, what was your first job? Did you have any early career? Because I don't think you had a traditional path into finance.

**Marc Rowan** (3:39)
Oh, no. I've had a lot of different jobs. I was a valet parker at the Diplomat Hotel, now the Shelby Golf Club. I would drive cars between New York and Florida for snowbirds transporting their cars for the winter.
I worked in a party goods store, and I worked for the best kosher caterer in South Florida. Every one of those jobs, you have to take something away from.

**Lawrence Calcano** (4:03)
Yeah. No kidding.

**Marc Rowan** (4:04)
And then when I started getting a little bit of education, I worked at Booz Allen for a summer in financial consulting. I worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and was then the blue room as a runner.

**Lawrence Calcano** (4:16)
Yep.

**Marc Rowan** (4:17)
And I managed to keep busy, but my first real job was coming out of school for Drexel Myrtle.

**Lawrence Calcano** (4:23)
So let's talk about Drexel. So I think mid-80s, you joined Drexel.

**Marc Rowan** (4:26)
Joined Drexel at the end of 1984

**Lawrence Calcano** (4:28)
Okay. So one of the most exciting times in the history of finance, the high-yield market was being invented, and you sat at the intersection between M&A Advice and the high-yield finance buyouts. I remember I was an analyst at Morgan Stanley at the time.