CEO Takeaways from Holly MacDonald

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DEIRDRE BOLTON:

I'm here with Holly MacDonald, the CEO of Bessemer Trust, a family office that was established in 1907 before the term "family office" was even coined. Holly, it's great to see you.

HOLLY MACDONALD:

Great to see.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

You are fresh off the stage at Milken. How did your panel go?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

It was fantastic. We had the opportunity to discuss trust, leadership, and long-term financial security, three very important topics for us at Bessemer. And I was accompanied by some fellow CEOs, so it was really, really engaging conversation.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

That sounds like a great panel. So Holly, bigger picture, what are the themes that you're gleaning from the conference this year?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

So Deirdre, I actually just finished a session with business leaders talking about some of our takeaways from the last few days. I think for me, I would boil it down to three main things. First, alignment, and determining alignment, and how important that is, whether that's at the country level, was actually part of some off-the-record conversations where I was really surprised by the amount of bipartisan agreement on some key elements to keep the American dream moving forward, which is one of the themes of the conference. Or whether it's an investor with their GPs, or if it's a corporation with their customer.

So that was a big theme coming through. I would say there's also a real focus on purpose. So there's so much going on in the world, but what is all of this for? So some deep topics.

Health, wellness, longevity, happiness, really wonderful to dig into some of those more profound topics. And then finally, craving clarity. Again, so much change in the world, it can feel overwhelming. And I'd say when a leader can really provide clear direction and a path forward, that's really resonates with whether it's an audience at Milken or, I think, a corporation.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

So in these conversations, ones that you're having on-stage, ones that you're having off-stage, how is this informing you about how business leaders are seeing the world right now?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

So I'd say overall, there's a pretty good optimism, especially about the US. I would say one of my takeaways is, and not new information, but just the emphasis on the uncertainty outside of the US, especially with the geopolitical situation, was really coming through. I think for the US itself, just the possibilities with AI and broader innovation are really the dominant theme, really outweighing geopolitical concerns.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

So speaking of AI, how do you distinguish, in your role, between what is worth paying attention to and what is noise?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

So it was great over the last few days to be talking about AI, almost in every single session, it would come up. I think where what I found most useful were conversations that were neither fully focused on boom and nor those fully focused on doom. This interesting nuance in between, it's clearly a transformational technology. A lot of discussion how this might be more powerful than the Industrial Revolution.

What does that mean for every sector? I think also an awareness, though, that AI is not going to change everything we do overnight. It actually takes time to incorporate it into workflows. The accuracy rate on a number of initiatives in AI is still well below what is acceptable.

And I think what's really powerful, though, is that AI can automate tasks. And then we all have time, we as humans have time to focus on areas of judgment. And that, I think, when you combine the two together, can be extremely powerful. It both allows our human characteristics to come out more, and to be more useful, and then meanwhile, those human characteristics can draw the most important elements out of the technology.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

AI Holly, where are you seeing the biggest opportunities for Bessemer's people and Bessemer's clients?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

So we're very proud, probably the statistic that we're most proud about is our industry-leading retention rate of our clients of 99.5%. I'm also very proud of our employee retention rate, which is a full 10 percentage points above the industry average. I think those really go hand in hand. When we have a strong culture, good communication among our employees, good collaboration, and we're really all striving for excellence together, that leads to better outcomes for clients and reinforces our client retention rate.

So while we're starting from a very strong point, I'd say, on both of those, there's no time to rest on our laurels. It's something the executive team is focused on every day.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

How has this experience at Milken, if at all, changed your view towards leadership?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

I had the opportunity to write an essay before coming to the conference on leadership for Milken, and I talked a lot about this pairing of authentic human traits with technology, and how if you excel at both, you're really limitless in terms of your potential. I think what has been reinforced to me in the last few days is the importance of a feedback loop. Because of all of the communication that is out there, because things are changing so quickly, it's even more important to be hearing from our clients, to be hearing from our employees in the same time that we are also communicating leadership messages out to various groups.

So to be very nimble in terms of our approach, and I'd say at the same time, anchored in our longer-term purpose.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

If I have to ask you for one word to describe Milken this year, what is it?

HOLLY MACDONALD:

Dynamic. A lot of unexpected gains. Just interesting conversations that you happen to have. Very productive as a result.

It's always hard to leave the office, but being here, I can't imagine that I would have been more productive anywhere else in the world, to be honest.

DEIRDRE BOLTON:

The magic of entropy. Thank you very much. Holly MacDonald, CEO of Bessemer.

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