PURPOSE

A Business of People

An Interview with Donald B. Marron, Chairman and Founder, Lightyear Capital

EDITORS’ NOTE Donald Marron When you evaluate investment In all the things we do, we look to fi nd founded Lightyear Capital in 2000 opportunities, how critical is the really special people we can work with and and serves as Chairman and a mem- strength of the management team? invest in. ber of the Investment Committee. The absolute key is management; For example, for our cities program at Prior to this, he served as Chairman this is a business of people. As we NYU, we work with Paul Romer, who left to and CEO of PaineWebber Group Inc. look at the evolution of Wall Street, go to the World Bank and is back. Paul won for 20 years. In 2000, PaineWebber and particularly of money manage- the Nobel Prize in economics earlier this year. merged with UBS AG, creating a top ment, we fi nd an increasing separation He is an important thinker and has been a very wealth and asset management fi rm. between those that have been able to serious contributor to the building of NYU’s Following the merger, Marron served navigate the big change in regulation Institute and a lot more can be done there. as Chairman of UBS Americas until and technology and markets and those Notwithstanding AI and automation and September 2003. Prior to his tenure that have not. technology, it’s still about people. at PaineWebber and UBS, Marron Donald B. Marron Whatever opportunity we fi nd, it On the philanthropic side, is it impor- served as President and Chief has to have good management or we tant that the organizations you support Executive Offi cer of Mitchell Hutchins. He began have to be able to put good management into it. have metrics in place to track impact and his career at the New York Trust Company and, You have a long history of philan- is it diffi cult to develop metrics in some of in 1969, co-founded Data Resources Inc. (DRI) thropy. What are the keys to effective these areas? with Harvard economist, Dr. Otto Eckstein. philanthropy and how do you focus I think it’s very diffi cult, and I don’t think Marron served as DRI’s Chairman until your efforts? we can use the same approach as we use in McGraw-Hill Inc. purchased the fi rm in 1979. The big issue for anyone that wants to business. Marron attended The City University of New effectively use the money they direct to charity Here, we’re dealing mostly with people, York. In February 2013, New York University is whether they do it with big established orga- many of them hands-on people, particularly with announced the launch of the Marron Institute nizations or with smaller and more specialized issues such as working with the homeless. on Cities and the Urban Environment, an inter- organizations. We tend to do both. We have to fi rst get to know the manage- disciplinary and international effort to advance We support Memorial Sloan Kettering ment and be convinced that it’s the kind of vital new research and teaching on cities and Cancer Center just because of the basic management that is needed and then we have the urban environment. research it does in cancer and because of to track the impact it makes on people – some- the great clinical care that it offers to a times those are metrics, and sometimes it’s more COMPANY BRIEF Based in New York, growing number of people. That is a major about meeting with people and getting a sense Lightyear Capital (lycap.com) is a leading issue for all Americans – it’s amazing that of what is being accomplished. fi rm making primarily control cancer permeates so many families in so Education is a passion for you. Is investments in North America-based, mid- many ways. enough being done to address education dle-market companies. I’m also involved with MOMA and that reform and preparing the next generation Through its affiliated funds, Lightyear has continues to be important. for the jobs of the future? raised over $3.5 billion of capital and has We have started the Marron Institute of We have to realize that we now have a completed investments across the financial Urban Management at NYU. A few years ago, society where everybody feels they have to go services spectrum, including asset manage- the world reached the point where, for the fi rst to college, but they generally do so without ment, banking, brokerage, financial tech- time, more people were living in cities than having a very good sense of what that educa- nology, and specialty finance. were not. It highlighted the need to be think- tion is going to do for their careers. The senior team of professionals averages ing about how to build and manage cities, and We have to fi gure out what to teach young over 25 years of financial services-related how to deal with many of the big problems people that will allow them to become construc- experience. they have. tive citizens for the country. Coding is an obvi- Finally, the area that is so important to ous area – the demand for that skill is growing Will you discuss Lightyear Capital’s focus me is the homeless. The Coalition for the rapidly and it’s a language that can be learned on the fi nancial sector? Homeless in New York is doing an extraor- by young people. It has turned out that the fi nancial sector dinary job, both as an advocate and in taking There must also be other specialty areas has been the focus of substantial change and care of the homeless, but much more needs to where that should be the case. regulation and has clearly been in the middle of be done. Are you able to take moments to the questions about the economy, be it interest Are the skills needed to be successful reflect and celebrate all that you have rates or markets or volatility or liquidity, which in business transferable to being effective accomplished? are all big issues. in philanthropy? For me, and for most people who are for- This gave us an opportunity to fi nd invest- In the case of a business, it’s about business; tunate, it’s a function of building. I like to build ments in companies that focused on those in the case of a not-for-profi t, it’s about the focus, things or be part of something being built in a issues and were able to take advantage of them. and combining it with effective leadership. constructive way. That is the heart of it.• 42 LEADERS POSTED WITH PERMISSION. COPYRIGHT © 2019 LEADERS MAGAZINE, INC. VOLUME 42, NUMBER 2