When Chijioke Asomugha '09 attended Columbia Business School, he thought deeply about the question, “What legacy will you leave behind?” Years later, he co-founded FVLCRUM Funds, a private equity firm that invests in lower middle market businesses in underserved communities. With FVLCRUM, Asomugha pioneered what he believes is still the only public welfare designated private equity fund, prioritizing job creation and impact in the communities of its portfolio companies, while generating non-concessionary returns for investors. The firm's ethos is built around reducing the racial wealth gap in America. “A key question FVLCRUM seeks to answer for our portfolio companies is how we can bring more diverse perspectives to the table,” Asomugha says. “How do we grow this company in scale, not only in revenue but also in impact?”
By prioritizing job creation and purpose-driven investing, Asomugha challenged traditional finance norms. FVLCRUM's fund received approval from the OCC and Federal Reserve Board to raise equity financing from big banks, as well as other institutions. This approach was innovative. Large institutions such as banks are normally blocked by the Volcker Rule but, in this case, were allowed to invest in FVLCRUM because of the fund's forward-looking focus. Most of the $302 million the fund raised came from institutional investors, further distinguishing FVLCRUM among the many emerging private equity funds typically reliant on private individual investors.
Today, Asomugha is not only reshaping finance but also creating opportunities for fellow CBS alumni, including FVLCRUM investment associates Rebecca Bendetson '21 and Azul Modak '20. Asomugha's story is just one example of CBS alumni leading the charge in reinventing finance, reflecting the School's legacy of producing groundbreaking thinkers and innovators in the field. Here's a look at the cutting-edge developments and transformative initiatives emerging from the heart of CBS.
Value Investing
Glenn Greenberg '73
Glenn Greenberg '73 didn't intend to pursue a career in finance. “I was an English major in college,” he said during a talk at CBS last year. “After college, I got a master's in English, and somebody suggested I go to business school. I had nothing better to do and went to business school at Columbia.”
While at CBS, he discovered he loved investigating companies to find potential investments, a passion that put him on the path to a job at what became JPMorgan Chase and a celebrated career as a value investor. He now manages nearly $3 billion in assets at his firm, Brave Warrior Advisors.
Greenberg is among a number of celebrated value investors who got their start at CBS—and have returned to share their wisdom with the next generation of financial professionals. Currently, 47 fund managers teach at CBS's Heilbrunn Center for Graham & Dodd Investing, created to impart the principles that Benjamin Graham and David Dodd detailed in their 1934 book, Security Analysis. “We're at the center of bridging theory and practice,” says Meredith Trivedi, managing director of the center. “It's really an apprenticeship model—learning by doing.”
Popular courses include Applied Credit Investing, taught by value investing legends Sheldon Stone '78 and Bill Casperson of Oaktree Capital, and Modern Value, led by Professor Tano Santos, the faculty director. In addition, CBS has rolled out two new courses: Shareholder Activism as a Value Strategy, in the spring of 2024, and Activist Investing for Small Cap Companies, to be taught in the fall 2024 term.
The value investing program, built around a suite of seven classes, admits 40 students every year, connecting each with an industry mentor. However, all MBA students can get a taste of value investing: For the 2023-24 academic year, CBS offered 38 classes with 1,320 course seats for the MBA and Executive MBA population.
Much of the learning takes place outside the classroom. The annual From Graham to Buffett and Beyond Omaha dinner, for example, regularly draws as many as 450 members of the CBS community to soak up the annual message of Warren Buffett '51 at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting, held at the Hilton across the street. This year's lineup of speakers included well-known CBS alumni such as Mario Gabelli '67, chairman and CEO of GAMCO Investors, and David Samra '93, managing director of Artisan Partners.
On April 30, CBS held the 17th Annual Pershing Square Challenge, the culmination of a three-month competition of about 40 teams of students from CBS and the Heilbrunn Center's Applied Security Analysis course. Prior to that, in January, CBS hosted the first-ever Chazen and Heilbrunn Center United Arab Emirates Study Tour, in which 18 students met with executives from hedge funds, banks, and sovereign wealth funds in the region.
To spread the value investing gospel even further, CBS hosts the Value Investing with Legends podcast, which has had more than 1.2 million downloads. Guests have included investment gurus Charley Ellis, Ray Dalio, who recently spoke at the School, and Stone.
More than ever, it's important for investors to think deeply about what drives value—and whether new shocks and disruptions are affecting a firm's assets, earnings, and sustainability, said Santos in a recent video interview, noting that an understanding of these factors can help them find opportunity. Value investors are like firefighters, he said, because they “run to the fire when everyone else is running from it.”
Private Equity
Chijioke Asomugha '09
FVLCRUM's Asomugha was inspired to go into business by his mother, a pharmacist, and late father, a petroleum engineer, both Nigerian immigrants who started a successful independent pharmacy chain and home health agency in Los Angeles. “Before I could spell entrepreneurship, I said, 'I want to do that someday,'” he says.
Early in his career, Asomugha joined Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. After completing his MBA at CBS, he joined private equity firm Cyprium Partners and later attained his operational experience from industrial technology firm ERICO, before co-founding a private equity firm in 2016. “I had realized throughout my entire journey that there are very few opportunities where the person on the other side of the business table looked like me. I wanted to create opportunities for diverse business owners and executives to benefit from exposure to equity capital,” he recalls.
Asomugha and his three co-founders now invest in companies like Burrell Communications, an iconic 50-year-old minority-owned marketing and communications firm in Chicago. Asomugha notes the fund routinely invests in minority-owned government contracting, healthcare and tech-enabled service businesses of scale that may have been untapped or overlooked by the capital markets. These companies can drive value and impact to underserved communities.
Asomugha believes the coursework he took at CBS in private equity and family business management gave him a strong foundation for his career. “The Private Equity and Family Business Management Programs provided me the opportunity to take a number of elective courses and really be around those who were shaping the industry,” he says. The Private Equity Program, run by administrative director Greta Larson and co-directors Michael Ewens and Donna Hitscherich, includes courses such as Professor Ewens' Research in Entrepreneurial Finance.
CBS has taken the lead in fostering the connections that have allowed for networking and collaboration with industry professionals through a variety of extracurricular activities. For instance, since 2018, CBS has teamed up with private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. on the KKR Diversity, Inclusion, and Innovation Competition, in which teams pitch a company as a leveraged buyout candidate and present to KKR executives acting as an investment committee.
To help students keep their finger on the pulse of what is happening in the industry, Columbia faculty moderate discussions among private equity professionals, and about 10 times a year, the program hosts breakfasts with industry alumni. Approximately 200 alumni have signed up to mentor CBS students interested in the field.
Venture Capital
Claire Biernacki '20
Claire Biernacki '20 is a principal with BBG Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm investing in companies with female and diverse founders at the early stage. After learning about venture capital on the LP side at Pomona Capital, she went to business school to explore a potential career at the early stage—across startups and venture capital and as a founder.
At CBS, Biernacki took advantage of the opportunity to intern at a different startup each semester; did startup consulting through InSite; and through the Lean Launchpad class, taught by Columbia University's Senior Fellow for Entrepreneurship Steve Blank, she worked on an at-home-testing startup for several semesters. In addition, she took Professor Ed Zimmerman's Foundations of Venture Capital class and served as co-president of the Venture Capital Club. After graduation, she joined BBG as the first non-partner and now often leverages her CBS network for sourcing and diligence.
She believes her experiences at CBS prepared her to navigate the current downturn in tech. “Companies will need to be disciplined in their approach to capital management,” she says. “I think my background in finance has always helped me to think about business fundamentals when investing, even at the pre-seed and seed stages, when you're mostly betting on the team and market. I think CBS prepares students well for this given our historically strong finance reputation and curriculum as well as the more recent development in the tech ecosystem.”
Biernacki is not alone in her passion for the venture capital world. Nearly 500 students signed up for the Foundations of Venture Capital Course taught by Angela Lee, faculty director at the Eugene M. Lang Entrepreneurship Center, reflecting growing interest in the field. Known for its emphasis on experiential learning, the program offers a variety of practitioner-taught courses. In Foundations of VC, students are tasked with writing investment memos on actual startups, and in Building a VC Investment Thesis, they get feedback on their work from a panel of VC judges. It also offers a variety of specialized courses, such as Investing in Digital Health Startups, Impact Investing, and PropTech and Real Estate Disruption.
The Lang Center has prioritized efforts to bring diversity to the entrepreneurial ecosystem, with 45 percent of the roughly 90 grants awarded to CBS companies in the past three years made to female founders and 19 percent to underrepresented minority founders. And because many startups will need to turn to the venture capital world outside of CBS for funding to scale up, the School is working to create a more inclusive environment there as well.
CBS Professor Emmanuel Yimfor has devoted much of his recent research to closing the racial funding gap in private markets. He currently is investigating how many Black, Hispanic, and female founders are raising venture capital funds, raising funds to start new private capital investment firms, or sitting on the boards of directors for startups. Some of his work involves reexamining the ways in which diverse founders are identified in academic research.
“Once you start measuring these things more precisely, then you can start examining new issues,” he says.
Technology Investing
Alex Zhou ' 11
When Alex Zhou '11 arrived at CBS, he spent much of his time in guest lectures, such as one with Twitter and Block co-founder Jack Dorsey and “The Coach” Bill Campbell, and engaging in events such as the Venture Capital Club's VC 101 and the Silicon Valley Trip during winter break his first year. Now, looking back, he finds those experiences shaped the future direction of his career.
“ During my tenure at Kleiner Perkins, I made it a point to annually host CBS student tours. My intention was to give back to the community by offering current students a tangible glimpse into the authentic world of venture capital.” - Alex Zhou '11
“It was [the Silicon Valley] trip that paved the way for a summer internship at Kleiner Perkins, which in turn, set the stage for my subsequent role as a tech investor with the firm after graduation,” Zhou recalls. “During my tenure at Kleiner Perkins, I made it a point to annually host CBS student tours. My intention was to give back to the community by offering current students a tangible glimpse into the authentic world of venture capital.”
It's all part of being an active member of the CBS community, he adds.
Today, building on his previous experience at Kleiner Perkins in China and Silicon Valley, Zhou is a partner at Qiming Venture Partners, a venture capital firm managing $9.5 billion in assets. As an investor, he has backed a dozen companies that reached a $1 billion valuation, including UBTECH Robotics, Zhipu AI, and Roborock. Along the way, he has invested in several startups launched by CBS alumni, including an AI chip company in Asia started by Michael Zhang '07 and an enterprise specializing in AI synthetic data platforms led by Steve Xie MPhil '15 PhD '16. During his 12 years as co-chair of the Columbia Business School China Alumni Club, “alumni have regularly referred deals to me or discussed their entrepreneurial concepts with me,” he says.
Zhou is among many CBS students and alums with a passion for investing in tech. CBS has embraced the trend with a wide range of offerings, such as Advanced Projects and Applied Research in Fintech, an interdisciplinary program that brings together theory and practice to unearth pioneering opportunities. The executive education program is rolling out new classes such as Value Investing in Technology and Future of Finance: Leveraging Fintech Innovation.
Real Estate Investing
Scott Meyer '14
Scott Meyer '14, CFO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based developer PTM Partners, came to CBS after getting a taste of the real estate field as a property and asset manager for Hines in Washington, DC. “Although I was progressing in my career, I realized I had reached an inflection point where an MBA would be critical for further advancement,” says Meyer.
He was immediately drawn in by the Paul Milstein Center for Real Estate's MBA Real Estate Program, which makes the most of CBS's location at the heart of global capital markets to provide an industry-led curriculum and research program. Admitting 40 full-time students each year, the program offers 14 courses on real estate, with three full-time faculty, more than a dozen long standing adjunct faculty, and more than 250 lecturers who work in global real estate.
“I have found my ongoing involvement with and support of the Paul Milstein Center tremendously valuable in both the founding and continued growth of PTM Partners,” says Meyer, whose firm's 12-person team now includes three other CBS alumni: Michael Tillman '11, CEO and chief investment officer; Alex Cemaj '17; and Thomas Strand '17. “The CBS community has been an important component for our business' success, and being able to connect with former classmates, who are now spread out all over the country, has allowed PTM and myself to gain hyper-local market expertise and real-time data points,” he says.
Even after years in the field, Meyer says he still finds CBS's offerings to be cutting edge. “Real estate is a cyclical business, which unfortunately poses a challenge for students looking for jobs today. But it's also a great opportunity to learn more about what causes distress and how to capitalize on a moment when prices are low,” says Meyer. [CBS Professors] Ron Kravit and David Sherman both have tremendous industry experience across many cycles and are currently teaching Real Estate Distressed Investing, which brings in other industry professionals to teach a case about a real deal,” he says. “That is a class I would love to take right now to learn from their perspectives and real-world experiences.”
According to Meyer, PTM Partners will soon deliver the Edge Collective, a mixed-use development anchored by a 163-key Moxy by Marriott hotel in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, and 2000 Biscayne, a 420-unit apartment community in the Edgewater neighborhood of Miami.
If there's one sector where the future of finance is evolving in real time, it's real estate finance. CBS is the academic home of thought leaders who are helping to forecast how trends such as remote and hybrid work and a high-interest-rate environment will impact both real estate markets and communities.
Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, the Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate, has done groundbreaking research into the impact of remote work on the commercial office sector. His recent investigations look at how the work-from-anywhere trend contributes to what he calls the “urban doom loop,” whereby less demand for office space leads to lower tax revenue and either tax increases or spending cuts, leading to a “vicious spiral, where the city's fiscal health spirals down,” as he explained in a recent video interview.
Students also have many opportunities to learn from real estate professionals active in the field, such as Mark Peter Davis '08, founder and managing partner of Interplay, and Marc Holliday '90 GSAPP and trustee emeritus, who attended the most recent annual CBS Real Estate Symposium, which brings together hundreds of executives. In addition, the CBS Real Estate Association, an active student club, has more than 200 members.
The center is also home to the Real Estate Circle, an alumni networking group, and CBS RE, a platform for CBS alumni in the real estate industry to share employment opportunities, research, events, and other resources.
Climate Finance
Lisa Strickler '86, Mark Gallogly '86
Lise Strickler '86 and Mark Gallogly '86 met while studying at CBS and, now married, co-founded Three Cairns Group, a mission-driven philanthropic firm focused on supporting scalable solutions to the climate crisis. Three Cairns recently launched Allied Climate Partners, a platform that aggregates capital to invest in early-stage climate projects and businesses in emerging markets.
During an appearance on CBS's Capital for Good podcast, Gallogly pointed to the university's unique ability to make a difference on climate. “I think Columbia is uniquely positioned because of the quality of the science and the history of the school, from the Lamont-Doherty [Earth Observatory] to the Earth Institute to the Climate School,” he said. “It's just a terrific cadre of people who are dedicated both to working on this crisis and to working together.”
“Columbia is uniquely positioned because of the quality of the science and the history of the school, from the Lamont Doherty [Earth Observatory] to the Earth Institute to the Climate School. It's just a terrific cadre of people who are dedicated both to working on [the climate] crisis and to working together.”- Mark Gallogly '86
Climate is an important and growing area of interest at CBS as well: The School is incorporating climate change cases, lessons, or exercises into all its core courses, according to Professor Bruce Usher, who teaches at both CBS and the Climate School. Among them is the core Corporate Finance course, through which students learn about valuation through a new case written on a solar project.
During the current academic year, CBS also reorganized its climate curriculum, offering students its new Business and Climate Change course to teach the basics. Several hundred MBA and Executive MBA students participate in seven sections of the course, which is a prerequisite for three electives: Climate Finance, Climate Policy, and Climate Tech. The course includes a lecture and discussion on the topic of climate justice, while the Climate Finance course includes a case, lecture, and discussion on financing renewable energy projects in developing countries. Impact/ESG courses at CBS include Investing in Social Ventures, Impact Investing, and ESG Equity Investing. Other climate-related investing electives include Measuring and Managing Climate Risk, and Challenges in Measurement & Disclosure of ESG Data.
“I believe that our course offerings are probably among the most robust of any business school,” says Usher.
Meanwhile, the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change's new Climate Knowledge Initiative is becoming a clearinghouse of best practices on decarbonization. To help alumni build their careers in climate, the Tamer Institute created the Climate Practitioner's Network, which helps alumni leaders in the field stay connected to one another and on-campus talent. It focuses on knowledge sharing and best practices, relationships, and network and talent development. It also informs CBS's climate-focused community about events such as the annual Climate Business & Investment Conference, which took place in April; networking gatherings for practitioners, which debuted this past fall; and the student-run CBS Green Business Club.
As Strickler and Gallogly's experience illustrates, the climate-focused academic and professional field is evolving in real time, and the on-the-ground learning that's taking place at CBS is only the beginning.