Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: Well, he's a fifteen time NBA All Star, a philanthropist,
Speaker 2: and now Shaquille O'Neil is stepping into the infrastructure space.
Speaker 2: The NBA legend is joining Jackmail Infrastructure as a founding partner.
Speaker 2: Earlier today, Romaine spoke with Jorge Mora, co managing partner
Speaker 2: at Jackmail Partners and Shack about why this new venture
Speaker 2: is personal.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, there's a tremendous need in the US
Speaker 3: for better infrastructure.
Speaker 4: You know, you see it in your roads.
Speaker 3: You're seeing your airports, your train stations, and I want
Speaker 3: to help make that change, and you know, Jack mel
Speaker 3: is the partner that can help me do that. You know,
Speaker 3: when I'm at Jorge and Nick, you know they approached me,
Speaker 3: and you know we kind of have the same values.
Speaker 3: I like to invest my time and money where it
Speaker 3: can make a difference in people's lives and have a positive,
Speaker 3: positive impact on the community. So I thought it was
Speaker 3: the right thing to do because I live in a
Speaker 3: town where we need, definitely need better infrastructure. So I could,
Speaker 3: you know, partner with a company like Jack Mail. I'll
Speaker 3: do it every time.
Speaker 1: And a lot of cities of course across the US.
Speaker 1: Shaquille are in that same position. I mean, one of
Speaker 1: the deals that the infrastructure project had been involved in was,
Speaker 1: of course, the redesign and redevelopment, if you will, of
Speaker 1: LaGuardia Airport in New York and check. I mean, as
Speaker 1: somebody who spent you know, nineteen twenty years in the NBA,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've been to pretty much every airport in
Speaker 1: the United States and beyond. When you look at the
Speaker 1: infrastructure in the transportation space, what does it say to you?
Speaker 3: But it says that, you know, whoever has the contract
Speaker 3: is doing a great job. And I know the work
Speaker 3: that Jack Mail doesn't. My hometown is nort and part
Speaker 3: of the airport has already been redone. You know, I
Speaker 3: would definitely love to be involved in, you know, the
Speaker 3: expansion of that one. But you know, as long as
Speaker 3: we have companies like Jack Mail doing that thing and
Speaker 3: you know, bring in bringing what they bring to the table,
Speaker 3: it's beautiful. So what they did with with with thought,
Speaker 3: you know, LaGuardia is definitely why I wanted to be
Speaker 3: their teammates. You know, every time I win a championship
Speaker 3: is because I have great teammates, you know, going with Kobe.
Speaker 3: I'm winning in a broadcast with your best friend Charles Barkley,
Speaker 3: So I want to also win a championship in the
Speaker 3: infrastructure space.
Speaker 1: So Ari, I am curious that with regards to the
Speaker 1: projects going on through the Investment Infrastructure Fund I mentioned,
Speaker 1: of course, so what went on in LaGuardia also a
Speaker 1: big project at JFK Heartsfield down in Atlanta. Is your
Speaker 1: focus going to primarily be in I guess the aviation
Speaker 1: space or are you looking to do something more broadly?
Speaker 5: We're gonna be looking at other spaces.
Speaker 6: I mean the transportation space in particular is one of
Speaker 6: our core focuses. And we also recently did an investment
Speaker 6: into the energy space. Unfortunately we can't disclose it, but
Speaker 6: it was a large, almost one hundred million dollar investment.
Speaker 5: And then we're also going to look at digital.
Speaker 6: What we try to do is we try to pair
Speaker 6: the competency that we have in house with the different
Speaker 6: sectors we're investing in.
Speaker 5: In the digital space.
Speaker 6: We happen to have a senior advisor who has done
Speaker 6: an enormous amount of investing in digital for the last
Speaker 6: twenty five years. In transportation We happen to own a
Speaker 6: design engineering firm that has worked in close to one
Speaker 6: hundred airports in the US, and so we're trying to
Speaker 6: stick to what we know what we can bring some
Speaker 6: added value, and then by having Shaquille as one of
Speaker 6: our founding partners, we can really focus on the community
Speaker 6: engagement into those big projects.
Speaker 5: We mentioned a couple of times. If you've flown in.
Speaker 6: Or at a LaGuardia, you can see that there's all
Speaker 6: these local businesses that are in the terminal, restaurants, et cetera.
Speaker 6: And it also has the impact on the employment in
Speaker 6: the community. So our value add is that we're going
Speaker 6: to try to bring that organic and more natural connectivity
Speaker 6: that a group like Chuck Malcolm bring to a project
Speaker 6: like that when partnering with large infrastructure investors is either
Speaker 6: strategic or financial.
Speaker 1: Well, we'll expand on that a little bit because I mean,
Speaker 1: as someone who goes through LaGuardia almost every other week,
Speaker 1: it's very obvious that there is an intent with that
Speaker 1: redesign to highlight local businesses and I am curious as
Speaker 1: to what that conversation looks like. Orgey, are you you're
Speaker 1: talking with the airport authority or are you talking with
Speaker 1: just the local government leaders. What is that conversation.
Speaker 6: It's a combination of all of that, right, It's understanding
Speaker 6: which businesses in the local community.
Speaker 5: We will on bring in. What also, what investors.
Speaker 6: From the local community we would like to group into
Speaker 6: our investment group to just tie to the community, to
Speaker 6: make sure that their needs are being listened to. So
Speaker 6: in any new project, for example, Newark has been talked about,
Speaker 6: it hasn't been announced yet, hopefully it will be in
Speaker 6: the next few months or year when that happens. Having
Speaker 6: Shaquille as our partner, having the fact that he grew
Speaker 6: up there, I think we'll give an edge to any
Speaker 6: group that we work with in UH in delivering that
Speaker 6: community and engaging with him properly.
Speaker 1: Maybe Schulle, you can talk just a little bit about
Speaker 1: Newark and your connections there. Obviously you were raised there
Speaker 1: and you've been a big investor there a long prior
Speaker 1: to this deal with Jack mol Yeah.
Speaker 3: When I met with Jorge, I think I told him
Speaker 3: I wanted the business that's going to have positive impact
Speaker 3: on local community. Born and raised in the North through
Speaker 3: in and out of the Nork Airport UH many times,
Speaker 3: and you know would love to be a part of
Speaker 3: you know project, you know that just you know those
Speaker 3: with the legacy. You have a kid who was a
Speaker 3: meeting with juvenile delinquent. Now he's partnering with the company
Speaker 3: like Jack mel and we're redoing the airport. You know,
Speaker 3: we're making the airport better. So you know, this would
Speaker 3: be big if we could out land that deal. But again,
Speaker 3: when when I met with nickod Hore, I told him myself,
Speaker 3: I want to positive impact on local community.
Speaker 4: That's all we want to do.
Speaker 3: We want to you know, help create jobs, you know,
Speaker 3: just with whatever it does make the community better.
Speaker 4: That's definitely that I want to be a part of.
Speaker 1: Do you have any ambitions for having more deeper ownership
Speaker 1: in the sports world in terms of sports franchises?
Speaker 3: Actually no, I've always been the I can remember when
Speaker 3: I was taking my business marketing class, professor gave me
Speaker 3: a book on the side. He said it was the
Speaker 3: Dummiest Guy of Starting your Own Business, And.
Speaker 4: My favorite chapter was joint Ventureship.
Speaker 3: Because I realized that in order to be a great leader,
Speaker 3: you have to have people that are smarter than you
Speaker 3: as teammates. So I applied basketball to business and I
Speaker 3: was like, you know what, I need to get guys
Speaker 3: that are better in whatever space I'm trying to invest
Speaker 3: in than I am. Imagine me trying to run a
Speaker 3: five guys by myself. Imagine me, you know, trying to
Speaker 3: run Rebunk by myself. Imagine me trying to do this
Speaker 3: infrastructure by myself. So you have to get great teammates.
Speaker 3: I mentioned this earlier. I won championships with Kobe, Bryant
Speaker 3: d Wade. I'm winning with Ernie, Kenny and Chuck, So
Speaker 3: you know, when it comes to, you know, finding great partners,
Speaker 3: Jorge and Nick are the best in this business and
Speaker 3: we will definitely win