Shundrawn Thomas
Founder & Managing Partner, The Copia Group · 2 appearances on the record.
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Shundrawn Thomas is the founder and managing partner of The Copia Group and the former president of Northern Trust Asset Management. He also serves on the board of Reinsurance Group of America and has authored multiple books, including Discover Joy in Work.
29statements → 14claims → 9claims resolved → 67%fully supported → 3.97/5average certainty → 2/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 2said about them ↓
6 supported 1 partly supported 2 contradicted 2 not yet assessed 3 not checkable as stated how the 14 claims stand · each chip opens the sources
14 assertions · 13 insights · 2 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 14 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 9 are resolved, 2 are not yet assessed, and 3 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.
The record, in short
What the tape says about how Shundrawn argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.
Their most notable supported claim
Thomas: Emerging private market managers outperform on average despite fewer assets
“One of the counterintuitive things in private markets is I have invested a fair amount with emerging managers. Now, the irony is empirically, it says it makes sense. Like on average, even though they have a lot less in the way of assets, they outperform, but i…”
How they sound: not measured why? →
We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Shundrawn Thomas on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.
Everything Shundrawn Thomas said on Capital Allocators that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →
Thomas: Business equity ownership is the single biggest driver to solve wealth inequality
“Let's be clear. The single biggest way that you change the differential of the wealth equation in this country or any developed nation is ownership, equity, ownership in scalable, saleable businesses.”
Thomas: Black business owners average one-seventh the equity of white peers
“African American business owners have on average about one seventh of the equity in their businesses of their white male counterparts.”
Thomas: Internship diversity programs fail without diverse representation at executive levels
“I just don't fundamentally believe it's enough for firms to say, we really want to change our diversity, so our starting point and our focus is going to be the establishment or expansion of our internship programs. Now, let me be clear. I'm big on internship p…”
Thomas: Emerging private market managers outperform on average despite fewer assets
“One of the counterintuitive things in private markets is I have invested a fair amount with emerging managers. Now, the irony is empirically, it says it makes sense. Like on average, even though they have a lot less in the way of assets, they outperform, but i…”
Thomas: Leaders must be color aware rather than colorblind
“I know that people of good intent and goodwill will say things like I'm colorblind. And I know what they mean by that, but the reality is we're not really colorblind. At our best, we actually, if we want to use the term color, we need to be color aware, becaus…”
Thomas: Leaders must intervene directly when hiring processes fail to yield diversity
“If you're in a culture, and despite the best efforts to expand opportunity, and despite changing the processes, you're not getting better outcomes. It ultimately then falls on the leader to make some decisions, to, from time to time, actually put the thumb on …”
Thomas: Corporate Charity Cannot Remotely Solve Systemic Inequity
“Charitable intent is a good thing. But charity will not remotely solve the issue we have. And the issue that we have is not that we have not been charitable enough. The issue that we have is we have not taken accountability for the inequities that our consciou…”
Thomas: Under 2% of VC goes to women and diverse-owned firms
“When we look at markets like venture capital, and you say less than two percent of that capital is allocated to women in diverse-owned firms, but women and ethnically diverse people make up 70% of the population in expanding, that's a huge disconnect.”
Thomas: Most global impact capital focuses on environmental rather than social issues
“Because even if you think about impact investing, a lot of the emphasis in dollars globally Have really focused on the environmental side of the equation and not as much on the social impact side.”
Thomas: Lower middle market is the fastest-growing middle market segment but lacks capital
“If you look at the private markets, most of that focus is on the upper end of the middle market. And so you have these incredible businesses, Ted, I mean, 3040, fifty million dollars in revenue, great business plans, great growth potential who have trouble get…”
Thomas: Lower middle market has higher proportion of diverse-led companies
“And by the way, if you also have an interest in focusing on economic inclusion, You're going to have a higher percentage of those firms be actually diverse, owned, or led on a relative basis.”
Thomas: Debt investors need company growth to offset natural business contractions
“Whether you're looking for an equity return or even a debt return, you need the company to grow. And sometimes people say with debt, well, you don't really need the company to grow because they just have to pay back. And I challenge that a little bit because w…”
Thomas: Most professional services firms fail to provide pre-management training
“Maybe it's one of the dirty secrets about, like, most professional services firms is that more than not, you actually don't, prior to going into some sort of management capacity, get formal management training.”
Thomas: Black professionals navigate subtle workplace bias and preceding stereotypes
“If you're an African American, if you're a person from a racial standpoint that's characterized as black, there are so many things that you deal with in a sense, in a direct sense, but a lot of them are subtle, particularly in the workplace, because there are …”
Thomas: Corporate cultures operate on performance capital and relational capital
“All cultures have two forms of capital, performance capital and relational capital, but Northern Trust as an organization is a highly relational culture.”
Thomas: Northern Trust set minimum diversity requirements on interview panels
“So one of the things that we did is both in terms of gender diversity and ethnic diversity, we set explicit expectations in terms of minimum representation on our interview panels. We also set new processes in place for the HR teams or the recruiting teams tha…”
Thomas: Northern Trust had female candidates interviewed without female panelists
“I found two instances where we had extraordinarily talented Female candidates come in interviewing our firm, and we have a reasonable amount of gender diversity. Not one single person on their interview schedule was a woman.”
Thomas: Diverse Teams Solve Complex Problems Better via Varied Cognitive Toolsets
“Diverse teams are particularly well adept at solving more complex problems, and it's kind of a simple reason. It actually makes sense intuitive. Like, if you and I, like, once you get a certain level of IQ, everything above that is just limited incremental ben…”
Thomas: Client Retention in Asset Management Depends on More Than Investment Returns
“We talk about investment performance and it is important, but investment performance is mean reverting. Which means that even when you're a great investor, you're not gonna have the top, in a sense, performing funds or products or however you measure it all th…”
Thomas: Discrimination Stifles Economic Growth for Entire Countries
“Why discrimination is not a problem just for people of color, But it actually retards the growth and economic vitality of our entire country and countries around the world.”
Thomas: Black Americans Face 46% of US Drug Convictions Despite 13% Usage
“If I look at Blacks, we make up 13% or so, depending on when the last time you did the census of the population, 13, 14%, that make up the same percentage of drug users. But we make up 36% of arrest for drug conviction and 46% of drug convictions.”
Thomas: Executive career cycles operate on a natural five-year clock
“You know, as you move through about five years or so, you're usually looking at directionally some sort of change, whether it's an evolution of your role and things like that. So I think for all of us, there's sort of a natural clock where you're thinking abou…”
The other half of the tape: Shundrawn Thomas's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 2 times in 2 episodes on Capital Allocators. every mention, with the transcript →
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Appearances (2)
| Episode | Date | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|
| Shundrawn Thomas - From Large Money Manager CEO to Social Impact Entrepreneur (Capital All | Jan 23, 2023 | 39m |
| Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 3: Shundrawn Thomas – Leading the Way (Capital Allocators, E | Aug 24, 2020 | 48m |