Les Brun, co-founder of Ariel Alternatives, shares his vision for "Project Black," the firm's initiative to invest in middle-market companies to scale the number of minority-owned businesses. InvestmentNews' own Emile Hallez joins to discuss HSAs, their potential benefits for clients and how advisers can work with them.
Interview with Les Brun — 1:00-20:45
Interview with Emile Hallez — 20:55-32:30
Related Article: Ariel Investments launches firm to build minority businesses
Related Article: HSAs, an adviser favorite, just don’t get much love
Ariel Alternatives Press Release
Guest Bio: Les Brun is chairman and CEO of Sarr Group. Previously, he was a managing director and head of investor relations at CCMP Capital Advisors. Les also founded Hamilton Lane, the world’s leading private equity advisory and management firm. He is currently chairman of Broadridge Financial Solutions Inc. and CDK Global Inc., and lead director of Merck & Co. Inc. He serves on the Board of Corning Inc. and NXT Capital, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Formerly, he was chair of Automatic Data Processing Inc. and chair and board member of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
The InvestmentNews editorial team recaps the twists and turns of the first half of 2025.
Bruce chats with reporter Andrew Cohen, who has covered the RIA industry for InvestmentNews since late March, while crossing over with his old beat covering sports business as the trendy asset class just hit a record-breaking $10 billion team sale.
Bruce speaks to Osaic CEO Jamie Price about the long-term outlook driving M&A activity and why financial advisors, it turns out, are the most important part of the equation.
Bruce sits down with InvestmentNews colleague James Burton to dig into the post-acquisition stories of anger, surprise, and recruitment pitches..