Sep 25, 2017 · 44m · capital-allocators
David Barrett – Searching for Leaders (Capital Allocators, EP.26)
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In this episode of Capital Allocators, host Ted Seides interviews executive recruiter David Barrett to explore the business models, sourcing methodologies, governance dynamics, and vetting strategies essential for placing chief investment officers across premier asset management institutions.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Ted holds 34.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Ted as informed peer 4.1 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 0.8 Ted pushing back 1.6
speaking balance: gold is Ted, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 28:01 Barrett on Walking Away from Toxic Clients
David bluntly describes returning a fee in the alternative space after cycling through thirty candidates and an immediate firing, emphatically stating he had to cry uncle.
Hardest push from Ted ▶ 36:40 Seides on Search Committee ConformityTed challenges the narrative of open searches, arguing that heightened fiduciary fears cause committees to default narrowly to safe, identical candidate profiles.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 33:19 Barrett on Technology's Inability to Shorten SearchDavid educates the audience on why databases and LinkedIn have not compressed search timelines, explaining that relationship building and trust in life-changing career moves cannot be accelerated.
Ted holds their own ▶ 15:43 Seides Dissecting Track Record FlawsTed demonstrates deep allocator expertise by explaining why unadjusted CIO track records are flawed metrics due to institutional variances in asset allocation and risk tolerance.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Ted as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Ted pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office Atmosphere and Passion for New York Yankees Memorabilia | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Ted and David open with lighthearted banter regarding David's extensive New York Yankees memorabilia collection before David recounts his transition from equity research to executive search. | |
| The Business Model and Dynamics of Executive Search | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Ted asks sharp questions about economics and incentive alignment in executive search. David explains why capped and flat fees better align boutique search firms with client interests than percentage-of-comp pricing. | |
| The Art and Science of Sourcing Chief Investment Officers | 6 | 4 | 1 | 3 | David details the three candidate pools for CIO searches. Ted challenges him on how recruiters isolate true talent from disparate institutional asset allocations and risk appetites, which David acknowledges as the trickiest variable. | |
| Confidential Due Diligence, Referencing, and Qualitative Interviewing | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | David explains his qualitative, rapport-building interviewing technique and how his firm maintains strict confidentiality while conducting back-channel referencing. | |
| Sponsor Message: Ridgeline AI-Native Investment Technology Platform | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Following an ad break, Ted asks how search committees manage complex institutional stakeholders. David describes the governance structure needed to guide universities and foundations to a hiring decision. | |
| Evaluating Placement Success and Value of Leadership Continuity | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Ted draws parallels between vetting investment managers and hiring CIOs. David highlights that true placement success takes five years to demonstrate and that leadership continuity is the primary hallmark of elite endowments. | |
| Search War Stories, Difficult Engagements, and Key Lessons | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | David shares search war stories, including the only time in 25 years he returned a client retainer due to toxic hedge fund dynamics, and discusses lessons learned around firm capacity limits. | |
| Asset Management Trends, Fee Pressure, and Technology Impact | 5 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Ted probes whether fee pressure across active management affects executive search pricing. David explains that while technology increases candidate visibility, senior recruitment timelines remain unchanged because trust building cannot be automated. | |
| Talent Scarcity and Fiduciary Pressures on Search Committees | 6 | 5 | 1 | 3 | David discusses talent scarcity and heightened board fiduciary scrutiny. Ted points out that increased scrutiny often pushes risk-averse committees to default to conventional candidates, which David affirms happens in 80% of searches. | |
| Closing Reflections on Sports, Values, and Entrepreneurial Lessons | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Ted asks his signature closing questions touching on baseball debates, personal ethics, building a global search boutique, and life advice. | |
| Episode Conclusion and Call for Listener Reviews | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Standard host outro thanking listeners and requesting podcast reviews. |
Statements from this episode (12)
Sophisticated clients select executive search firms before negotiating fees, Barrett notes
“The clients that we like to work with, and it's, I'd say it's 90% of the time, it's not price at all. I'd say that, you know, the sophisticated and appropriate users of search, they will pick a firm, and then they'll negotiate the price.”
Cultural fit accounts for 75% of a CIO search's success
“Well, I think the first thing is, because 75% of this is cultural fit.”
The most successful CIOs actively leverage their investment committees
“The most successful CIOs are leveraging their investment committees.”
Calibrating how a candidate thinks as an investor is uniquely difficult
“They know as much about the, in many cases, they'll, they'll have, especially in terms of unique insights, potentially into the, how that person thinks as an investor, which is the hardest thing for us to really calibrate.”
Successful institutional searches require a tight committee of three or four
“Well, a successful search, you get all those other constituencies, you get all their input up front, so they feel included. And then you have a really tight search committee of three, maybe four people, and they tightly control the process.”
Evaluating true endowment CIO investment performance requires at least five years
“So, I think you take your, really your first breath on the, and the calibration point, maybe at three years, but it's, I think, five years for me is the proof of the pudding.”
Stanford's outperforming peer endowments all had CIOs with ten-year tenures
“When we were doing the Stanford CEO search, Seven or eight institutions that they compared themselves to that were ahead of them on a ten-year basis, on their, in terms of their ten-year number, all those CIOs had been in place for 10 years.”
Harvard Management Company's 2.5-month CIO search was Barrett's shortest ever
“Harvard was the shortest search we ever did. It was two and a half months. I mean, and typically these take four or five, six months.”
Technology will never compress senior executive search into a six-week process
“The length of time to complete searches has not shortened. Because it is a people business, it is, it's based on personal relationships, meeting people in person, building trust, establishing credibility, both with the search firm and the candidate, and then t…”
Performance transparency and media narratives created an unfortunate CIO arms race
“The reason you've seen so much So many changing seats over the last several years is that because of the increased transparency around performance, and then the, so then they get the relative comparisons where, you know, through, you know, the press has turned…”
Committees wanting broad pools hire proven sitting CIOs 80% of the time
“80% of the time, the search committee will say, we want to, like, broad brush. We want to see everybody in all the different buckets. You get down to the finish line, oh, we got a sitting CIO who's going to, done this for five years, proven track record, and I…”
Executive search's commission structure encourages selfish recruiters over client focus
“In the search business, it's really hard to live by it, which is, don't hire assholes, because there's a lot of people in search that are, it's all about them, you know, there's, it's, you know, it's a professional services, and it's a revenue business. So to …”