WEBVTT - Interview With Saadia Madsbjerg: Masters in Business (Audio) 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.840 This is Masters in Business with Barry Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio. 0:00:08.080 --> 0:00:11.160 This week on the podcast, we have an extra special guest, 0:00:12.039 --> 0:00:17.239 Sadia Modsburg, director of Innovation and managing partner at the 0:00:17.360 --> 0:00:23.680 Rockefeller Foundation, a small, four billion dollar outfit dedicating itself 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:30.320 to the betterment of mankind. How's that for a broad subject? Anyway, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:35.440 If you're at all interested in philanthropy or how foundations operate, 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.800 and what it's like to have to think about giving 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:43.479 away hundreds of millions of dollars a year, I expect 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:48.400 you will find this conversation to be quite fascinating. The 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:54.280 Rockefeller Foundation takes a decidedly off center approach. As the 0:00:54.320 --> 0:00:56.840 expression goes, they are not looking to give a man 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.360 of fish as much as they are looking to find 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:05.679 the economic choke point that is leading to whatever distress 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:10.479 any given region is suffering and find ways to fix 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:14.000 that on a permanent basis. Two so called teach the 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:16.880 person to fish. Uh. They've spent a lot of time 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:22.199 thinking about things like resilience and how cities and regions 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:29.560 can develop resiliency. Two ongoing threats, be they economic, terrorist, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:33.319 or even just threats um caused by the weather like 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:38.200 Super so Sandy or Katrina all told, I found this 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.600 to be quite a fascinating conversation, and if you are 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.199 at all interested in all things philanthropy, I think you'll 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.160 similarly find it interesting. With no further ado, here is 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:56.160 my conversation with Saudia Madsburg. This is Masters in Business 0:01:56.400 --> 0:02:01.040 with very Ridholts on Bloomberg Radio Mice. Special guest today 0:02:01.080 --> 0:02:04.880 is Sadia Mottsburg. She is the managing director at the 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:10.320 Rockefeller Foundation, which has about four billion dollars in assets. 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:14.400 She joined the foundation in and leads the foundation work 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:19.280 on innovation. Previously, she was senior vice president for strategic 0:02:19.360 --> 0:02:22.800 Planning at the New York City Economic Development Corp. She 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:26.480 spent six years at Mackenzie and four years at Cisco. 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.519 Has a Masters in Science in Applied Economics from Copenhagen 0:02:31.600 --> 0:02:34.800 Business School, as well as an undergraduate degree in international business. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.799 Saudia Madsburg, Welcome to Bloomberg. Thank you, briam delighted to 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:40.720 be here. Uh and it's a pleasure to have you. 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:43.720 So let's spend a little bit of time on your 0:02:43.720 --> 0:02:47.160 background before we delve into the details of what the 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.800 foundation does. How do you go from being a consultant 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:56.359 at mackenzie and working on telecom technology at Cisco, to 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.919 too of working in a foundation. How does that trend 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:03.280 position take place? So if you had asked me, you know, 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.960 twenty odd years ago, whether I think I would be 0:03:05.960 --> 0:03:08.760 sitting in the position I'm in now, the answer would 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.960 probably be no, because it hasn't been an intentional career 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.560 choice that I made from the very beginning. UM, I've 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:20.160 always followed my intuition and my feeling in terms of 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.480 what I need to be doing and where I need 0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:25.080 to be doing that. So that is what took me 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.200 from consulting to the world of tech, to public um 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:32.320 sector in terms of New York City and now here 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:35.760 at philanthropy. But as I do reflect back at all 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:38.880 of this, I do think that the experiences I've gathered 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.360 along the way put me in a better position to 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:44.480 be doing the job I'm doing today. So so obviously 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.920 with an entity like McKenzie, which is known as a 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:51.760 consultant to all different manners of organizations and businesses, UM, 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.760 there's clearly and overlap. But technology telecom, how does that 0:03:55.800 --> 0:04:02.280 translate into heading up the innovation project Rockefeller? So technology, 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.400 I would say I mean always but a lot recently 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:08.240 as well, is playing a critical role in terms of 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:13.640 how society is developing, how the basic fundamentals of you know, 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:17.159 the job market are being shaped, what has happened, where 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.080 growth is coming from, how we interact with each other, 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:22.479 how we work with each other. Uh, the work that 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.000 I did at Cisco was very much about that. It 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:28.840 was about understanding what is the fundamental role that technology 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.720 plays in our lives at work and outside of work, 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:34.800 and how can we use technology to address some of 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:37.760 the fundamental challenges and opportunities. Because it's not all about 0:04:37.839 --> 0:04:40.800 challenges as we go along, So let's talk about some 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:44.800 of those challenges and some of those opportunities. I want 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:49.040 to reference something you had blocked about for the Foundation, 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.800 the Innovative Finance Revolution. What is that and what does 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:57.080 the Foundation do with that? So before I get to 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.440 describing the revolution, maybe I can dis where have the 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:05.320 challenge that that revolution attempts to address. So twenty fifteen 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.680 I think was a landmark year and in many different ways, 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.320 but there are two particular things that we saw happened 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:14.479 that year. One was that the world came together to 0:05:15.360 --> 0:05:18.719 um agree on what we call the Sustainable Development goals, 0:05:18.839 --> 0:05:22.360 which are seventeen very lofty goals about how we want 0:05:22.440 --> 0:05:24.080 the world, what we want the world to look like. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:27.800 At the same time, we also had the Paris Climate 0:05:27.839 --> 0:05:30.440 Agreement that you know, most countries around the world came 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:33.080 together and agreed on and has been ratified by you know, 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:35.799 a significant number of them. I think there's one large 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:38.920 country that hasn't gotten around to signing offer right, and 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:41.360 we can we can get to what that actually means 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:45.280 in practical attempts. But both of those agreements kind of 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:49.080 brought to the forefront the big question of how are 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:50.840 we going to pay for all of this? How are 0:05:50.839 --> 0:05:53.039 we going to pay for these sustainable development goals? And 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.719 this isn't just about developing countries, it's about us, Europe, 0:05:56.760 --> 0:05:59.280 you know, the entire world. And how are we going 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:01.839 to pay for are all the climate related efforts that 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:05.160 we want to do, And that is where innovative finance 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.479 comes in. And just to put a few numbers on 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:11.400 the table as well, it's estimated that for the sustainable 0:06:11.440 --> 0:06:14.720 development goals, they're going to cost around fifty to seventy 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:19.280 trillion over the next decade. Trillion trillion with a capital 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.760 T that's a lot of zeros, and there are also 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.039 some you know, and and these are high level estimates, 0:06:25.040 --> 0:06:27.080 so when you dig down, I'm sure you can refine 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.520 it along the way, but they're also estimate stent that 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:32.000 there's a massive funding gap in terms of how we're 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.640 going to get there, and that takes into account the 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.480 money philanthropy has, the money the private sector has. So 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.880 if we're talking about and there's just another number for 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:44.680 to put it in context, a gap of roughly two 0:06:44.680 --> 0:06:49.400 point five trillion per year in developing countries alone. So 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:52.320 that doesn't even include where we are sitting right now. 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.960 So we have to think innovatively. We have to think 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:01.680 about alternative solutions, and we at the Rockefeller Foundation think 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.520 that innovative finance is a big part of the answer. 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.800 So how does that manifest itself? What does innovative finance 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:15.800 do to help funds projects like smart power for rural development. 0:07:16.400 --> 0:07:21.560 So innovative finance represents a pretty expansive set of financing 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:26.000 mechanisms that, in one way another are designed to either 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:30.480 attract more money to development goals and and different programs 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:34.400 and initiatives, or to take the money that's already in 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.440 place and the new money that's coming in and make 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.640 sure that it's more effectively deployed. Because I talked about 0:07:40.720 --> 0:07:43.200 the massive funding gap. That gap is there and we 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.360 need to focus on it. At the same time, we 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.880 also need to make sure that the way money is 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.720 delivered is done in a more predictable way, in a 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.040 more sustainable way, because if people you know, are working 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:56.000 in this space, you have to know what's going to 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:57.720 happen next year in terms of whether you're going to 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.920 have the money or not. So you're really referring to 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:05.040 of philanthropic efficiency, making sure that the money that is 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:09.320 allocated is used appropriately and effectively for whatever the I 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:13.160 will say, not just philanthropic funding, also what comes from 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.400 the private sector, also what comes from the public sector. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.360 So pretty pretty broad and and you know, just to 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:23.120 put context to what kind of financing mechanisms we're talking about, 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:27.840 it's everything from insurance links, securities, to pay for performance 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:33.280 debt structures to even micro texas. I'm Barry Ridholts. You're 0:08:33.360 --> 0:08:37.360 listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. My special 0:08:37.360 --> 0:08:41.520 guest today is Sadia Modsburg. She is the director of 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.439 Innovation at the Rockefeller Foundation, and and let's talk a 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:50.120 little bit about the foundation's mission. I'm gonna quote right 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:53.160 off of the website to improve the well being of 0:08:53.240 --> 0:08:57.520 humanity around the world. That's a little broad. What what 0:08:57.559 --> 0:09:00.400 does it really mean in actuality, improve in the well 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:04.480 being of humanity? It is indeed quite broad, and every 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.320 time I say it, I almost kind of need to stop, 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.120 take a breath, let it sink in, and then, you know, 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:13.920 talk about what that actually means. So, the Rockefellow Foundation 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:17.040 has been around for roughly a hundred and four years. 0:09:17.120 --> 0:09:20.120 The year I joined, we were celebrating our centennials, So 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:22.839 the fact that we had been around for a hundred 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:25.600 years and were reflected back on what we had achieved 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.560 in those hundred years and what it had meant. We 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.600 have always stayed true to the mission, which is to 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.120 promote the well being of humanity. But what that means 0:09:35.160 --> 0:09:38.599 at any given point in time, of course, has shifted 0:09:38.720 --> 0:09:41.680 over the years, and it's shifted based on what we 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:45.000 think the big challenges of our times have been and 0:09:45.000 --> 0:09:48.320 where we think that philanthropy has an important role to 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:52.160 play in terms of stepping in, trying out new solutions, 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:56.040 proving how they work, and then letting others step in 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:59.080 and drive those forward. I would say, though, the three 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.920 things that have remain the same over the hundred and 0:10:01.960 --> 0:10:05.320 four years. One is our focus on innovation, so really 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.520 driving towards new thinking and new solutions. The second is 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:12.120 more you know and and it's something if you read 0:10:12.120 --> 0:10:14.320 some of the letters written by John D. Rockefell in 0:10:14.320 --> 0:10:16.800 the early days that it comes out is this idea 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:21.880 of scientific philanthropy, meaning what what's about trying to really 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:26.040 understand what the core underlying drivers behind the challenge are. 0:10:26.320 --> 0:10:28.520 So instead of just throwing money at something and so 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:31.240 here's money, you know, let's go alleviate the pain and 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.000 suffering here, it's about really understanding what the fundamental issue is. 0:10:35.200 --> 0:10:38.760 So when they say when you say scientific philanthropy, you 0:10:38.800 --> 0:10:43.960 mean sort of a scientific methodology using an evidence based approach. Yes, 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:47.240 to say, hey, these dollars are actually having resonance and 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.960 having an effect, these not so much less focus on 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.000 what's working. Both that, but also to use the data 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.240 and to use the research to understand what the problem 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:59.920 really is, where the problem really comes from. So when 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:01.920 you're trying to figure out what the answer to that 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.319 problem is, you're actually addressing the root causes of it. 0:11:05.400 --> 0:11:08.320 As opposed to just you know what comes to this effect. 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.360 So it sounds like it's somewhat process oriented. Don't just 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.240 identify a problem, find that fulk rum point that's the 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.000 key to the problem. Right. That sounds quite fascinating. I 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:23.000 assume you're a five percent foundation, meaning each year you 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:27.800 give away five of of the four billion or so 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:33.400 UM and your your portfolio offsets those that that donation. 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.679 How do you prioritize where to focus your efforts again, 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:43.360 improving humanity, improving the well being humanity a giant charge 0:11:43.559 --> 0:11:46.120 trying mission. How do you drill down and say, we 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.400 want to focus on these areas and within these areas, 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:53.480 this is the specific um issue we want to attack. So, 0:11:53.640 --> 0:11:56.800 as I mentioned, we try to you know, really understand 0:11:56.840 --> 0:11:59.440 what we think the big challenges of our times aren't 0:11:59.440 --> 0:12:01.880 based in at set our strategy at any given point 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:05.760 in time. That's the responsibility that the senior leadership team carries, 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.600 as the responsibilities that our trustees carry as well. If 0:12:09.640 --> 0:12:11.720 we look at where we are at this point in 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.880 time and where we have focused, we have two overarching 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.360 goals as we call them. One is around resilience building, 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:24.200 the other one is advancing inclusive economies and within that therefore, 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:28.320 what we call issue areas um that we focus on. 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:34.040 There's advanced health, revalue ecosystems, transform cities, and secure livelihoods. Now, now, 0:12:34.120 --> 0:12:38.760 having just said what these issue areas still brought issues, 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.599 So that brings us back to how do you operationalize 0:12:42.600 --> 0:12:44.320 it on a day to day basis? How do you 0:12:44.360 --> 0:12:47.760 actually try to understand what's happening in those spaces. We 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:52.760 have a strategic insights team that continuously monitors what's happening 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:57.000 in those spaces and shapes different suggestions for areas where 0:12:57.040 --> 0:13:00.280 we could engage, and then we take those are years 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.480 and have a conversation around you know, how pressing is 0:13:04.520 --> 0:13:07.520 the problem. And I'll be honest, in most cases when 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:09.440 you look at it, nobody can come and argue the 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:13.120 problem isn't pressing. They're they're terrible things happening around the world, 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.160 you know, in our backyard and across the ocean as well. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.800 So it's about that, But then it's also about what 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:24.319 we like to call looking at dynamism and potential for innovation. 0:13:24.440 --> 0:13:27.640 So with dynamism, what I mean is is there something 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.200 happening at this point in time that makes it the 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.400 right time for us as a foundation to go in 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.240 and engage. Is it on the policy side, is their 0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.400 developments in the private sector that what we should be 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.839 looking at and focused on. Is it something in civic society, 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.360 some thing that gives an indication there's a momentum that 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.720 we can build on and accelerate. And then of course 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:53.720 there's the impact at scale. We're here, I mean, philanthropy 0:13:53.800 --> 0:13:56.680 is here to serve poor and vulnerable people around the world. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:13:59.840 That is our role, that is what we're focused on. 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.000 So at the end of it, it comes down to 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:05.040 our ability to have impact. So we're gonna talk more 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:09.160 about resilience in a few minutes. Let's talk a little 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:13.800 bit about um, the day to day and the prioritization. 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:18.120 Do you look for low hanging fruit as the expression 0:14:18.840 --> 0:14:22.200 uh suggest, where where there's an immediate impact or are 0:14:22.240 --> 0:14:26.040 there occasional moonshots that hey, we don't know if this 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.400 is going to be successful, but if it works, the 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:33.400 impact is tremendous. So it's a both, it's it's that's 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:35.320 what I was going to say. It's a fine balance, 0:14:35.520 --> 0:14:40.400 and it's both. And again, when our mission is so broad, 0:14:40.480 --> 0:14:43.840 our areas are so broad, if we're really doing our 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.840 job well, we can't be going to the obvious solutions 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:50.800 and funding the obvious things. But sometimes you need to 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.840 do that too. Um. I mean, we think of our 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.520 money as America's risk capital, where we can deploy it 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.560 in ways where the private sector wouldn't be will too, 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:03.000 because they maybe don't want to take on the risk. 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.640 The public sector again may not be able to because 0:15:06.680 --> 0:15:09.440 either they don't have the resources available or they don't 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.520 have the ability to take that risk. So we have 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:14.760 a big responsibility in terms of what we do with 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.240 that really precious privileged capital in terms of driving towards 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.600 new solutions. I mean, and you talk about moonshots that 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:24.640 you can look at it in many different ways. We 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:27.880 talked about in a bit of finance earlier and one 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:31.360 of the portfolios that that I oversee the Foundation is 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.200 called zero Gap, and it is focused on the financing 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.880 mechanisms and closing the funding gap within that. Right now, 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:43.480 we're funding something called outbreaking epidemic insurance. Now, ten years ago, 0:15:43.600 --> 0:15:45.920 if you weren't to anybody in the insurance industry and said, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.280 you know, public health, you know there's a massive lack 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.120 of funding. They are all these public health emergencies that 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:54.880 come up time and time again, we don't have a 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.600 good system in place to fund out how about insurance. 0:15:58.080 --> 0:16:00.480 Many of them would probably you know, have roll their 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:05.040 eyes and say, yes, that's great. We run this business, 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.760 you know, based on these things, and you know, good 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.360 luck fiddling with that. Over in the philanthropic sector. I'm 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:15.560 Barry Ridholts. You're listening to Masters in Business on Bloomberg Radio. 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.760 My special guest today is Sadia Madsburg. She is the 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:23.400 managing director of the Rockefeller Foundation, focusing on the Foundation's 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:26.640 work on innovation. So let's talk a little bit about 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.040 resilience as a public policy here in here in New 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:36.160 York City and the surrounding region. Uh, the Superstorm Sandy 0:16:36.440 --> 0:16:40.160 was a giant mess that caused all sorts of problems 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.880 in some ways outside of Katrina. It was the most 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:48.680 expensive um storm, certainly on the East Coast. What can 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.160 we as a city and a region do to become 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.600 more resilient. So I was working for New York City 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.440 at the time super Storm Sandy hit, and you're right, 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.359 it was a massive disaster. It was a mess. It 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:08.399 costs the local economies of the states that were hit 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.480 by it a lot. The small and medium sized businesses 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.760 were shut down for a while. The public infrastructure broke down, 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:22.800 whether you're talking about subways or telecommunications infrastructure, um, electrical electrical. 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:24.879 I live in the suburbs. We had no electricity for 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.600 twelve days. If you would have asked me beforehand, yeah, hey, 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:29.080 what are the odds that a storm is going to 0:17:29.160 --> 0:17:31.840 knock out electricity for two weeks? I would say, this 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:34.440 is America. That shouldn't happen. Yeah, exactly. I mean I 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:37.240 was living downtown Manhattan and you know I had to 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:39.760 relocate to Midtown. That was the extent of you know, 0:17:39.800 --> 0:17:43.199 the suffering I I went through. But but no, it 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.879 was a big shock to the system. And that really 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:51.240 does bring forward this whole concept of resilience and what 0:17:51.320 --> 0:17:53.359 should we do, not just at a city level and 0:17:53.440 --> 0:17:56.240 a state level, but for countries and regions as well. 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.640 At the Rockefeller Foundation, we talked about resil alliance as 0:18:00.680 --> 0:18:07.080 the capacity of individuals, communities, societies to withstand shocks when 0:18:07.080 --> 0:18:10.360 they happen and then bounce back from them faster as well. 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.480 So it's not about trying to stop the disasters from 0:18:13.480 --> 0:18:16.720 happening and saying how do you put in place the systems, 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.200 the solutions, the policies that will allow you to bounce 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:23.080 back faster? Now have we done that? Because I know 0:18:23.160 --> 0:18:27.040 in the world of finance, we are notorious for experiencing 0:18:27.080 --> 0:18:30.600 something terrible and then forgetting about it as soon as possible. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.879 Have we forgotten about Superstorm Sandy or Katrina? Or have 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:38.480 we taken steps to become more resilient as a as 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:43.520 a geography. So I think in in the public realm um, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.800 there's this very broad understanding that you cannot just forget 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:49.600 and pretend that it didn't happen. It's happening time and 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:52.639 time again in different parts of this country and different 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.679 parts of the world. So there is a very strong 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:59.520 momentum and focus on saying, you know, let's let's get 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:03.439 to this oceans. Part of it is also breaking away 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:06.280 from the silos that we operate in. Don't think about 0:19:06.440 --> 0:19:09.359 you know this is this has to do about education, 0:19:09.400 --> 0:19:11.600 This has to do with infrastructure, this has to do 0:19:11.760 --> 0:19:14.720 with you know something else. You have to sometimes cut 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.440 across the silos and say what are the right solutions 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:19.840 you put in place? And I mean, I'd like to 0:19:19.840 --> 0:19:22.879 give an example again from our innovative finance portfolio of 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.840 something we're funding currently which people would not normally associate 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:33.280 with resilience effort, and it has to do with natural infrastructure. 0:19:33.520 --> 0:19:37.240 So by natural infrastructure, I mean oyster reefs, I mean 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:41.159 coral reefs and you know marsh lands and coastal wetlands. 0:19:41.840 --> 0:19:46.080 They protect a natural barrier when it comes to storms. 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.080 You know, they have done it time and time again. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:50.600 Their science out there that shows that, you know, a 0:19:50.600 --> 0:19:55.080 healthy coral leaf can absorb around of the energy of 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.880 a wave that is massive. So you don't even have 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:01.360 to go think, you know, let's build a massive sea 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:04.960 wall or any you know, thing equivalent to that. How 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:07.800 do you put in place mechanisms that can allow you 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:12.320 to protect the natural environment we have today that is 0:20:12.400 --> 0:20:15.240 protecting us. So so what we're funding and we're working 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:18.119 currently with the Nature Conservancy and they're partnering with Swiss 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:20.800 re on it is to say, um, there's the meso 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.439 American reef. It's the second largest reef in the world. 0:20:24.119 --> 0:20:27.480 It protects a lot of the local economy. When it 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:32.080 comes to the Mexican Mexican tourism system, can you gather 0:20:32.240 --> 0:20:36.040 the hotel association and the local businesses that benefit from 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:39.919 having a healthy reef get them to pay into a 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:44.159 fund that invests in the maintenance of the reef but 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:48.720 also bios catastrophe insurance on it, so when something terrible happens, 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.000 one insurance pays out immediately, so you have the money 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.000 in hand, build right away because you have to. And 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.520 I didn't understand you know, the complexity of it, but 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:59.399 a lot of it is picking it up at the 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:02.480 right time, reattaching it so it can continue to go. 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:04.960 It's you know, you can't come back in a month, 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:07.280 two month, three months into it because then you're vulnerable 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:10.879 to the you know, there are some little things I 0:21:11.000 --> 0:21:12.960 was I think a lot of people were shocked about 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.320 with Sandy, and we haven't even gotten to Katrina shocked 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:19.520 to learn that emergency generators are located in the basements 0:21:19.520 --> 0:21:23.600 of buildings, which assumes there's no flooding right stop and 0:21:23.640 --> 0:21:26.679 thinking about this was done twenty thirty years ago. People 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:31.119 weren't really conceptualizing a wave coming over Manhattan, going down 0:21:31.160 --> 0:21:34.320 into the subway, going down into the basements of buildings, 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:39.480 and basically rendering those emergency generators um unusable. But what 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:43.760 you're talking about with reef building and oyster bed promotion. 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:49.360 These are giant macro projects that are far beyond anyone business, 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:54.919 probably anyone UM city or or municipality. It has to 0:21:54.960 --> 0:21:58.560 be part of a broader effort. I'm Barry Ridhults. You're 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.320 listening to Masters and Business on Bloomberg Radio. My special 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:05.720 guest today is Sadia Madsburg. She is the Director of 0:22:05.760 --> 0:22:10.440 Innovation at the Rockefeller Foundation, whose mission is to improve 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:14.440 the well being of humanity around the world. So let's 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:18.880 get into the nitty gritty of that. Uh, I'm ballparked. 0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:23.720 The foundations about four billion dollars? Is that slightly more 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:26.600 than that? Slightly more than that? Um? How does the 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:30.320 Foundation manage its money? Do they use in house managers? 0:22:30.320 --> 0:22:34.000 They use out outside managers? They use both. So we 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:37.359 have our investment office that is led by our Chief 0:22:37.400 --> 0:22:41.159 Investment Officer, Donna Dean. She's a brilliant, very very smart 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:44.760 woman who's been taking care of the money for us 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:47.000 so that the rest of us on the program side 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:51.439 have money to spend on unfulfilling our mission. Uh. It 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.879 is managed externally. We have our team internally that sets 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.359 you know, goals and along with the with our board 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:01.520 and and us on which direction we want to be 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.679 going in, and then they look for the right opportunities externally. 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.880 So you target five percent a year to give out. 0:23:08.960 --> 0:23:14.560 That's everybody that's a tax exempt foundation uses uses that money. 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:19.080 How our priorities set? Is it long term thinking and 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.840 it's mapped out over years, or do you have the 0:23:22.880 --> 0:23:25.919 ability we reference the bowler earlier, do you have the 0:23:25.960 --> 0:23:30.200 ability to pivot when an emergency such as that pops up. 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:34.320 So we try to do boats because we have to 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:39.040 be invested in areas for the long term. You can't 0:23:39.080 --> 0:23:42.320 come up with solutions, you know, in the short term 0:23:42.320 --> 0:23:43.919 and say, you know, we saw for it, let's go 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:47.159 on the next, onto the next one. So we have 0:23:47.240 --> 0:23:50.960 some of it dedicated towards our longer term initiatives and programs. 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:53.720 One example of that is what we call yield wise. 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.720 It's focused on reducing post harfice lass in agricultural food 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.520 chain in Africa. It's something we yield loss yield wise. 0:24:01.800 --> 0:24:05.320