Deepwell

Aiden Parker

Conversations with the world’s leading capital allocators.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    The $1.2 Trillion CLO Market | Shiloh Bates, Flat Rock Global

    Shiloh Bates is the Chief Investment Officer of Flat Rock Global, an alternative credit manager with about $1.6 billion in assets under management across three interval funds. Previously, he was a Managing Director at Benefit Street Partners and Head of Structured Products at BDCA Adviser. He is the author of CLO Investing and host of The CLO Investor Podcast. We discuss how CLOs work, why CLO equity has disappointed over the last two years, how to compare CLO managers, why captive equity funds have hurt the market, what private credit CLOs do differently, and why he sees value in CLO equity and BB notes today. Learn more about Shiloh and Flat Rock Global: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shiloh-bates-186ab28/https://flatrockglobal.com Read Shiloh's book, CLO Investing: With an Emphasis on CLO Equity & BB Notes: https://www.amazon.com/CLO-Investing-Emphasis-Equity-Notes/dp/1642376566 Listen to The CLO Investor Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-clo-investor-podcast/id1738052032 Subscribe to Deepwell: https://deepwellco.substack.com (00:00) Intro (01:21) From political science to finance (04:10) Learning CLOs on day one at First Union (05:00) How a CLO works like a simplified bank (07:43) When CLOs were a backwater (09:11) Equity returns through leverage (11:38) Why CLO equity has disappointed (18:32) Six-month call protection, locked financing (21:29) How to compare CLO managers (29:02) How CLO equity gets marked daily (33:00) The problem with captive equity funds (38:11) What CLO ETFs mean for AAAs (41:05) Why BDC and interval fund redemptions are rising (45:32) Private credit CLOs vs broadly syndicated (49:56) What he's watching into 2027

  2. Jul 28

    Harbor Capital’s $70B Multi-Manager Platform | Kristof Gleich

    Kristof Gleich is the President and CIO of Harbor Capital Advisors, a $70B multi-manager platform headquartered in Chicago that partners exclusively with external fund managers to build and distribute actively managed strategies – a model the firm has operated since 1986. Gleich joined Harbor in 2018 after nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, where he ran a 60-person global manager research team overseeing $500B in assets. His focus has been bringing the firm's active management expertise from mutual funds into ETFs – translating what he describes as "potential energy into kinetic energy." Since 2021, Harbor has launched 30+ active ETFs and grown ETF AUM from zero to $5B, anchored by long-standing partnerships like Jennison Associates (52-year relationship) alongside emerging managers like BlueCove (systematic fixed income out of London) and Quantix (commodities, founded by a former Goldman partner). The commodities ETF, HGER, surpassed $1B by rethinking index construction from first principles – building inflation sensitivity, backwardation capture, and debasement hedging into the methodology rather than tracking legacy benchmarks like BCOM. Gleich is bullish on gold and commodities as structural portfolio holdings, arguing that record global debt, fiscal deficits in expanding economies, deglobalization, and central bank reserve diversification make the standard 60/40 allocation obsolete – advocating 10–20% alternatives exposure with commodities playing a central role. 2024 marked an inflection year with $4B in net inflows, and Gleich sees Harbor approaching the "superscaling" phase while emphasizing the cultural imperative to keep disrupting before competitors do it for you. Learn more about Kristof and Harbor Capital below: linkedin.com/in/kristof-gleich/ harborcapital.com

  3. Jul 20

    Managing $18B as Co-CIO at RockCreek | Alifia Doriwala

    Alifia Doriwala is the Co-Chief Investment Officer at The Rock Creek Group, a $18B+ outsourced CIO platform in Washington, DC that serves as the full investment team for endowments, foundations, pensions, and family offices without internal portfolio management capabilities. Doriwala joined Rock Creek when it was a 15-person, $2B multi-asset shop and helped build the OCIO business from inception roughly 15 years ago – a practice that now houses the majority of the firm's capital. She previously worked in investment banking at Merrill Lynch and equity arbitrage at Wolverine Trading. Rock Creek constructs bespoke total-portfolio allocations for each client, calibrating alternatives exposure around spending objectives, drawdown tolerance, and organizational mission. Up to 10% of private equity exposure goes to co-investments and directs, selected thematically to align with client mandates – education foundations get education-adjacent deal flow, healthcare organizations get life sciences exposure. Commitment pacing is treated as "more art than science," with annual budgets flexed around distribution assumptions and opportunity quality rather than rigid targets. Current deployment priorities span biotech venture (including oncology-specific funds), fintech focused on financial inclusion, AI infrastructure and applications, and middle-market buyout where AI tools drive efficiency across traditional industries. The firm runs longstanding emerging manager programs – including a 15+ year partnership with Connecticut's pension system – and has co-authored research with IFC on gender balance in private equity. Underpinning the platform is a proprietary technology stack built from day one, now on its tenth major iteration, housing 25 years of investment data. Learn more about Alifia and Rock Creek below: linkedin.com/in/alifia-doriwala therockcreekgroup.com

About

Conversations with the world’s leading capital allocators.