Scott Malpass – The Fighting Irish's Twelfth Man

**Ted Seides** (0:01)
Capital Allocators is brought to you by Janus Henderson Investors. In an environment where allocators face more questions than answers, having a trusted partner is critical. Janus Henderson Investors is committed to building partnerships with institutional investors based on collaboration, insights, and transparency, with the goal of helping clients generate desired investment outcomes. With 24 offices and 340 investment professionals worldwide, Janus Henderson has the scale to offer a global perspective across equities fixed income and alternatives, and the depth to offer local expertise and support for clients. Visit janushenderson.com to learn more. Janus Henderson. Investing in a brighter future together.
An important disclaimer from Janus Henderson Group PLC. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principle and fluctuation of value.
Capital Allocators is brought to you by NetSuite by Oracle. Helping businesses accelerate growth and run better with a suite of ERP, financial, CRM and e-commerce products. Here are three numbers for you to remember. Thirty-six thousand, twenty-five and one. Thirty-six thousand is the number of businesses that have been upgraded to NetSuite by Oracle. NetSuite turns twenty-five years old this year. That's twenty-five years helping businesses do more with less, close their books in days and drive down costs. And one, because your business is one of a kind. Get a customized solution for all your KPIs in one efficient system with one source of truth. Manage risk, get reliable forecasts and improve margins. Everything you need, all in one place. Right now, download NetSuite's popular KPI checklist, designed to give you consistently excellent performance. Absolutely free at netsuite.com/allocators. That's netsuite.com/allocators to get your own KPI checklist. netsuite.com/allocators. Cheers.
Hello, I'm Ted Seides, and this is Capital Allocators. This show is an open exploration of the people and process behind capital allocation. Through conversations with leaders in the money game, we learn how these holders of the keys to the kingdom allocate their time and their capital. You can keep up to date by visiting capitalallocatorspodcast.com.
My guest on today's show is Scott Malpass. The esteemed Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Notre Dame, where he oversees the university's $12 billion endowment. Scott earned his BA and MBA degrees at Notre Dame and returned to South Bend at the ripe age of 26 following a brief stint on Wall Street. His track record for almost 30 years, as defined by both performance and impact, place him indisputably in rare company at the very top of the field.
Among his many accolades, Scott received Institutional Investor's Endowment Manager of the Year Award, Nacubo's Rodney H. Adams Award, and CIO Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award. He has taught students at Notre Dame since 1995, and among other directorships and advisory councils, he serves on the boards of the Vatican Bank, Vanguard, and TIFF, and previously served on the Investment Advisory Committee for Major League Baseball. In 2014, Scott became part of the founding group for Catholic Investment Services, Inc., a non-profit that offers top-tier investment solutions to Catholic organizations nationally. Our conversation is a full-blown masterclass on endowment management, including the benefits of a long-tenured team, asset allocation frameworks, passive management, preparing for dislocations, the state of venture capital, sourcing, monitoring, and exiting managers, incremental process improvements, professional and personal development, and education and alignment across constituencies. It's hard not to be in awe of Scott's combination of humility, experience, and success.
I'm quite sure you'll enjoy this show. If you do, this week, in honor of Scott's terrific work, take a break during your day and sing your alma mater's fight song at the top of your lungs. If anyone around you asks what you're doing, tell them you're following the instructions you heard for health and happiness on the Capital Allocators podcast. Thanks for spreading the word.
Before we get going, I'd like to invite you to join the Capital Allocators podcast.

**Scott Malpass** (4:59)
Scott. Good morning.

**Ted Seides** (5:00)
Good morning. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. I'm really excited.
Why don't we start with you just talking about how you got here in the first place as a 26-year-old?

**Scott Malpass** (5:12)
No, well, first of all, thanks for coming to Notre Dame.
I'm glad you got in. Had a tour last night. I see our beautiful campus.

**Ted Seides** (5:18)
Yeah, first day classes, too.

**Scott Malpass** (5:19)
First day classes.
Very, very exciting. And it's part of the reason you come work at the university, you know, is because of the students and the energy, and in our case, the Catholic mission is certainly a big draw. But I'm a Notre Dame graduate, undergrad. I was actually a science major. Thought I wanted to be a doctor, so I started out pre-med. I love science. I think the patterns and frameworks and kind of analytical aspect of that I was always attracted to. But as I got toward my senior year, I really wasn't sure I was going to do with that.