Centerview Co-Founder Blair Effron: The Art of Financial Advisory, Dealmaking, and American Politics

Blair Effron is one of the most successful American financiers today, having co-founded elite boutique investment bank Centerview Partners and prominently involved in Democratic politics. In this episode, Mr. Effron tells us about his journey as an investment banker, the importance and intellectual excitement of advising companies through their lifecycles, his take on the socio-political gridlock in America, as well as his optimism for humanity’s progress going forward. Centerview provides advice on mergers and acquisitions, capital restructurings, and other financial matters to 20% of the 50 largest companies in the world by market capitalization. With 50 partners including former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, as well as some of the most successful investment bankers in the world, Centerview has risen to become one of the most active and leading institutions shortly after its inception in 2006 with over $3 trillion in advised transactions. “Our relationship has always been more with Blair Effron than with any one bank,” said Indra Nooyi, the chief executive of PepsiCo. Indeed as those words have shown, Mr. Effron has built relationships with and advised Fortune 500 and multinational corporations across a wide range of sectors – from 21st Century Fox’s $6 billion acquisition of Dow Jones to GE’s $200 billion spin-off of GE Capital... Mr. Effron is also active in Democratic Party politics and was a prominent supporter of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign. He has also hosted President Obama and Secretary Clinton multiple times for political events, and still acts as an important voice bridging the political and financial sectors. Mr. Effron currently sits on the boards of trustees of The Council on Foreign Relations (Vice Chairman), Lincoln Center (Treasurer), the Metropolitan Museum, New Visions for Public Schools (Co-Chair), Partnership for New York City and Princeton University. He also sits on the advisory board of the Hamilton Project, an economic policy initiative affiliated with the Brookings Institution. He holds a BA from Princeton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.